Blitzstein, Marc

(born March 2, 1905, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 22, 1964, Fort-de-France, Martinique) U.S. composer. He studied at the Curtis Institute, then with the conductor Nadia Boulanger in Paris and the composer Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin. His best-known works were for the theatre: (1937), the circumstances of whose production by Orson Welles and John Houseman became legendary; the opera (1949); and his English adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's (1952), which became a Broadway hit. He was working on a Metropolitan Opera commission for an opera about the Sacco-Vanzetti case when he was murdered.

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