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 Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin. His best-known works were for the theatre: The Cradle Will Rock (1937), the circumstances of whose production by Orson Welles and John Houseman became legendary; the opera Regina (1949); and his English adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill 's The Threepenny Opera (1952), which became a Broadway hit. He was working on a Metropolitan Opera commission for an opera about the {{link=Sacco-Vanzetti case">Sacco-Vanzetti case when he was murdered.