In 1948 – the year of Love Life’s Broadway premiere – husband and wife Sam and Susan Cooper try to recall a time when their marriage was happy.

They reckon it was in 1790… The show then follows the ups and downs of the Coopers’ family life through 150 turbulent years of American history – during which they do not age – to paint the portrait of a marriage and of a nation.

Kurt Weill collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (of My Fair Lady fame) to create a Broadway musical that was way ahead of its time, anticipating the later innovations in form and content of Stephen Sondheim. But Weill also pays loving tribute to the traditions of American popular music – especially vaudeville – in a score full of hummable show tunes and dazzlingly inventive orchestration.

A hit on Broadway when it opened – the New York Daily Mirror called it “superlative entertainment – a song and dance show with great heart” – it has never been given a definitive recording. That will be set right when these special Opera North performances are recorded in collaboration with the Kurt Weill Foundation. Don’t miss a unique opportunity to catch this important, influential, brilliantly entertaining show.