club venue precariously located at the end of a pier in Galveston: they played on through a hurricane in order to avoid foregoing their fee. Kurt Weill and Randolph Symonette It was Maurice Abravanel who recommended her to Kurt Weill as a rehearsal pianist for his new 1945 Broadway musical, The Firebrand of Florence. Abravanel was the conductor for the original production. As she would later laconically recall, Abravenal "suspected that [she] might be able to do the job, having been both a voice and piano major at the Curtis ...". After three days of "sight-reading-transposing-improvising" as she provided accompaniment for what felt like a never ending succession of auditioneers, a small man emerged, grinning, from the shadows of the auditorium: "I'd love to have you in the show. I'm Kurt Weill". Until Weill's early death in 1950 she worked closely with him. Using the stage name "Lys Bert" she appeared in the chorus. On the occasion of Lotte Lenya's Broadway debut, the great diva (still relatively unknown outside Germany) was to be preceded by Billy Dee Williams singing "Make Way for the Duchess", but Williams found himself unable to maintain his pitch that night and the song was instead sung offstage by the "boyish-sounding soprano", "Lisa Bert" (as she was listed on that occasion). Despite participating in stage performances, it appears that her more crucial contribution quickly became as a répétiteuse and as a coach for the singers. She evidently had an intense understanding of the singular singing style that Weill's music invited and, she would have insisted, needed. In 1949 she embarked on a parallel role as a translator, applying her skills to the libtretto of Weill's 1927 one-act comic opera, Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (The Czar Has His Photograph Taken) for the Metropolitan Opera studio. The part of the Hangman in the original production of The Firebrand of Florence had been taken by a New York bass-baritone called Randolph Symonette. In October 1949, Lost in the Stars opened on Broadway. Her rehearsal work done, Lys left for an extended visit to Canada where she married "The Hangman". They returned to New York in March 1950: when Lys Symonette tried to telephone him that she was back, the telephone was answered by a maid who told her that "Mr Weill" was in hospital. He died a few days later. This triggered a major turning point. Randolph and