I often think about Kladow in April

An evening about the life and work of Mascha Kaléko with songs by Kurt Weill

Mascha Kaléko was born on June 7, 1907, in Chrzanów, Galicia, to Jewish parents—a Russian father and an Austrian mother. The celebrated young poet found her place in Berlin's literary bohemian circles in the 1920s, particularly at the Romanisches Café. She was friends with Tucholsky, Ringelnatz, Lasker-Schüler, and Kästner, admired by Hesse and Thomas Mann, and became famous for her bittersweet verses. In the 1930s, her ironic, tender, melancholic, and sarcastic poems were widely discussed. After her forced emigration to the USA, she lost not only her homeland and her native language but also her audience. She later lived for several years in Israel and died alone and almost forgotten on January 21, 1975, in Zurich.

This portrait in poems is complemented by the music of her contemporary Kurt Weill, who, like her, came from a Jewish family and shared her experience of emigration. His songs are not mere embellishment, but an essential, structuring element of the evening, which transports the audience to a turbulent era...