15 Years After'Rent'Reflections on the Jonathan Larson Collection

摘要

The special collections of the Music Division of the Library of Congress include many strengths and areas of focus, but it is quite possible that American musical theater is its strongest subject area. The collections include the papers of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner, Burton Lane, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, and dozens of others.So it is not surprising that the Library of Congress pursued the acquisition of the Jonathan Larson papers beginning a few months after his untimely death on January 25, 1996, at the age of 35. Larson died from an aortic aneurysm (a result of Marfan Syndrome) the day before the off-Broadway opening of his now legendary rock musical "Rent." A musical adaption and update of Puccini's opera "La Boheme," the work became the ninth-longest-running musical on Broadway, earning Larson a posthumous Pulitzer Prize and three Tony awards. Two film versions have been produced and released commercially; the second being a filming of the show's closing performance on Broadway.