Kurt Weill: Die Dreigroschenoper

Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), opera
Composed by Kurt Weill
Performed by Konig Ensemble
with Rolf Wollrad, Walter Raffeiner, Peter Nikolaus Kante, Jane Henschel, Ulrike Steinsky, Gabriele Ramm, Jolanta Teresa Kuznik, Reinhard Firchow
Conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig

Kurt Weill: Die Dreigroschenoper,Kurt Weill,Jan Latham-Koenig,Konig Ensemble,Gabriele Ramm,Jane Henschel,Jolanta Teresa Kuznik,Peter Nikolaus Kante,Reinhard Firchow,Rolf Wollrad,Ulrike Steinsky,Walter Raffeiner,Capriccio,German/Austrian 20th/21st Century Opera,Opera

Average customer rating:

FANTASTIC

Woody Allen Classics

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Woody's Winners: 20 Classic Tracks from the Films
Match Point
Woody Allen music from his movies
Film Music
Woody Allen's Movie Music

ASIN: B000002923
Release Date: 1993-08-24

Amazon.com

The first classical music I remember hearing was on movie soundtracks--the animated cartoons of my childhood in which the characters would chase, trick, and bash each other to the tunes of Liszt's Hungarian rhapsodies and overtures by Rossini and Suppe. This music was used not because it was great, but because it was full of action and out of copyright--a lot cheaper (and probably better) than hiring a living composer. Woody Allen may have a nobler motivation in his decision to use classics on his soundtracks, and his selection of music, from Bach to Prokofiev, is more sophisticated. This superbly miscellaneous collection will be full of happy discoveries for many listeners. It may also help you to identify tunes that you hear in a movie and can't get out of your mind. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews:

FANTASTIC.......2000-02-26

ALL THE SONGS ARE GREAT ON THIS ALBUM ! WOODY HAS DONE AN EXCELLENT JOB OF PICKING SOME OF THE BEST CLASSICAL SONGS EVER MADE !

September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill

Average customer rating:

some brilliant renditions, but can't quite all mix together
Cool and Camp
September Song Music of Kurt Weill
It's a long time between January and December
Ain't we Hip?!!?

September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill

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Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill / Levine, Lenya, Armstrong, Gilford, et al
Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theatre Songs
Weird Nightmare - Meditations on Mingus
Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill
Stratas Sings Weill

ASIN: B0000029WM
Release Date: 1997-08-19

Tracks:

Mack The Knife - Nick Cave
Ballad Of The Soldier's Wife - P.J. Harvey
Alabama Song - David Johansen
Youkali Tango - Teresa Stratas
Lost In The Stars - Elvis Costello
Pirate Jenny - Lotte Lenya
Speak Low - Charlie Haden
Oh, Heavenly Salvation - The Persuations
Lonely House - Betty Carter
Surabaya- Johnny - Teresa Stratas
Furchte Dich Nicht - Mary Margaret O'Hara
September Song - Lou Reed
Mack The Knife - Bertolt Brecht
What Keeps Mankind Alive? - William S. Burroughs

Customer Reviews:

some brilliant renditions, but can't quite all mix together.......2006-10-19

I like the spirit of this album, which is to let the music of Kurt Weill attach itself to the many worlds it came from. This was classical music that also used elements of popular music at the time, all with a very dark and almost mechanical tone. So it would seem fitting to have exquisite voices like Teresa Stratas rub elbows with darker elements like Nick Cave in this collection. There are also the jazz influences developed by Charlie Haden and Betty Carter.

In all, there are some brilliant interpretations of Weill here. I am a fan of Cave's "Mack the Knife" and David Johansen's "Alabama Song," and how can someone NOT like Lotte Lenya herself on "Pirate Jenny" and the drolling of the immortal William S. Burroughs talking through "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"

But other tracks feel to be just too short of brilliance. I love that Lou Reed tries to turn "September Song" into a kind of rock ballad, almost a VU "It Was a Pretty Good Year," but the rendition seems a little short of energy and falls flat after a while. Elvis Costello, though magnificent as an overall artist, just doesn't bring new life to "Lost in the Stars."

Perhaps the problem in the end that the choices were a little too much of the Top 40 Weill (if there really can be such a term). These are songs that have for a long time been regarded as the best of Weill, and it might have furthered the purpose of his music to find new gems and bring them into the sunlight.

Cool and Camp.......2006-08-24

This is a very biased review- I originally had much of Weill's work on cassette tape- way back in the olden days- before CD's- so I am already very partial to many of the tracks on this CD- I would recommend it not only to Kurt Weill fans, and the fans of the various artists featured, but I would also strongly recommend this to anyone who likes artsy, camp, fun burlesque, Bohemian European stuff. The record, even though performed by contemporary artists still retains much of it's zeitgeist, it evokes the era in which Weill was writing and it rounds out any great eclectic record collection. It's a great musical discovery for fans of all sorts of genres, and EVERYONE should own at least one recorded arrangement of "Mack The Knife". (You know, for parties and stuff!)

September Song Music of Kurt Weill.......2006-08-22

Songs from the film-documentary done by various artists. Excellent choice if you like Mr Weill's music. I saw the film and always wanted the CD. Now I have and I recommend it highly.

It's a long time between January and December.......2004-06-11

Kurt Weill is one of those composers who juggles Jewish angst with Catholic guilt: and possibly vice versa. As a collection, it is nonpareil. Each interpretation becomes a definitive reading of the "song". Lord, it is one of the best assemblies of contemporary artists going. Lou couldn't be better; Ms O'Hara, in fine form, performs her deranged puppet-dance to the X. OK. An unknown. Roping-in, such a postmodern figure as, well, you-know-who, to orate Weill's lyrics is never less than exceptional. An amazing collection. Is there a DVD?

Paul

Ain't we Hip?!!?.......2003-07-23

This is the avant version of these songs, everything done with that Downtown fingers-across-the-blackboard screech. They even got Johanson doing it, which is no less than amazing. The sole exception is the Persuasions' "O Heavenly Salvation", but one song does not an album make.

Tracks:

Ouvertd Moritat Von Mackie Messer
Seererjenny
Kanonensong [Cannon Song]
Liebeslied
Barbara Song
Erstes Dreigroschen-Finale
Abschied
Zuherbassatle
Ballade Von Angenehmen Leben
Eifersuchtsduett - Lotte Lenya, Theo Mackeben & his Jazz Orchestra
Zweites Dreigroschen-Finale - Lotte Lenya, Theo Mackeben & his Jazz Orchestra
Lied Von Der Unzullichkeit des Menschlichen Strebens
Moritat und Schlusschoral - Marlene Dietrich
Wie Man Sich Bettet - Curt Bois
Alabama Song - Marlene Dietrich
Nachtgespenst
Peter - Lotte Lenya, Theo Mackeben & his Jazz Orchestra
Guck Doch Nicht Immer Nach Dem Tangogeiger Hin
Jonny
Vom Seemann Kuttel Daddeldu
Chant des Canons
Chant d'Amour
Tangoballade
Ballade de la Vie Agrle
Die Seererjenny
Barbara Song
Die Moritat Von Mackie-Messer
Lied Von Der Unzullichkeit des Menschlichen Strebens
Alabama Song [Alternate Take]

Amazon.com

Performed in 1930 by the cast and orchestra of the 1928 Berlin premiere (except for Willi Trenk-Trebitsch, the Mackie of the 1929 Prague premiere), this extraordinary recording must be the last word in genuine, unvarnished "authenticity." Even the remastered sound is amazingly good and life-like. The half-spoken, half-sung delivery captures the biting sarcasm of Brecht's text as well as the abrasive bitterness and sinuous lyricism of Weill's melodies, underlined by the punchy, swinging rhythms and indigenously jazzy sound of the orchestra. The result is an uncanny evocation of a historical period and its atmosphere. One can smell the smoky nightclub air, see the garish colors, and feel the unbridled sensuousness. This "abridged" version offers 13 familiar numbers, with most strophic repeats omitted, but includes alternate versions of several songs--four in French, two sung by Brecht himself. There are also two songs from Mahagonny, a long "scene" by Wilhelm Grosz, and two songs each by Rudolf Nelson and Friedrich Hollaender (who wrote the music for the film "The Blue Angel), two of them sung by Marlene Dietrich with her inimitable lascivious sensuality. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful original recording, plenty extras. .......2006-09-11

In quick summary:
- If you're at all familiar with the Dreigroschenoper and all its incarnations, be sure to buy this album. It's the closest you could get to an 'original'.
- If you're completely new to the Threepenny story, I would recommend starting with the 1999 Nina Hagen concert version instead. It's got all the songs left out here, better recording quality, and a more modern approach to the music.

This is not a complete collection of original cast Dreigroschen songs. Rather, it's a selection of the best tracks from the play, often censored and cut short (in all the usual ways), and filled up with seemingly random extras in the genre.

The performers are all quite brilliant, and it's refreshing to hear a 3P without all the screaming and biting from recent versions. Though the songs are by no means slow, they're much more relaxed, more saccharine I would say, than what they've later evolved into. I love both type interpretations, but I often prefer this one.

One very nice bonus is the inclusion of a handful Threepenny songs in French. Otherwise pretty hard to come by. Also, the famous final lines of the movie version (Moritat reprise) are present, which I've only seen in one other recording (the 1981, also led by Miss Lotte Lenya). All in all, an essential CD for Brecht/Weill fans.

This one is really fine. .......2006-03-03

I've been a three-penny freak ever since I was a hanger-on at a Stanford production 40 years ago directed by a Brecht associate from Berlin. It's wonderful to get the authentic original cast records. I really like the added Berlin Chansons, too. "Don't Goggle at that Tango Dancer, Keep Your Eyes on the Guy You Came with!" Or Marlene Dietrich, with "Jonny, When it's Your Birthday, I'll Be Your Guest for a Night."

The Threepenny Opera (1994 London Donmar Warehouse Cast)

Average customer rating:

Outstanding!
only true version!
The truest Threepenny experience I've ever had
Real Londoners
deliciously brecht

The Threepenny Opera (1994 London Donmar Warehouse Cast)
Kurt Weill , Bertolt Brecht , Tom Hollander , and Sharon Small
Manufacturer: Jay Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

The Threepenny Opera (1954 New York Cast) (Blitzstein Adaptation)
The Threepenny Opera
Weill - The Threepenny Opera / Kollo · Adorf · Dernesch · Lemper · Milva · Reichmann · Tremper · Boysen · RIAS · Mauceri
Die Dreigroschenoper: Berlin 1930
Sweeney Todd (2005 Broadway Revival Cast)

ASIN: B000005BGU
Release Date: 1997-02-18

Tracks:

Overture
Peachum's Morning Song (Morning Chorale)
Kids Today
Gang Song (Wedding Song)
Pirate Jenny
Squaddies Song (Cannon Song)
Love Duet
Barbara Song
Life's A Bitch (Dreigroschenfinale)
Melodrama/Polly's Song
The Ballad Of Sexual Imperative
Knocking Shop Tango
The Flick Knife Song (Moritat)
Easy Life (Ballade)
Jealousy Duet
What Keeps A Man Alive? (II Dreigroschenfinale)
What's The Point? (LIed.17)
The Socrates Song (Solomonsong)
A Call From The Grave
Ballad In Which Macheath Begs All Mens' Forgiveness (Grabschrift)
Act III Finale

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding!.......2003-07-04

I have to confess that The Threepenny Opera is my all-time favorite musical piece. I love the music & I love the message. I just can't hear it enough & I can't listen to enough versions.

This is definitely one of the very best performances I've heard. The acting, the singing, the instrumental performances, the language are all spectacularly perfect. I just wish I'd gone to London in 1994 to see this version. Must have been the experience of a lifetime.

only true version!.......2002-11-07

I worked on this show last year, we used this translation. Imagine my surprise when I tried to download parts of it and found them to be sugarcoated! This is the only version that actually uses rhymes that arent down right silly, and captures the terror and evilness of the German. Compared to this slick, painful adaptation the other versions have no spirit.

The truest Threepenny experience I've ever had.......2000-11-06

The Donmar production is to be congratulated-- their Threepenny is a scream from hell. In setting this production in the present/near future, they have driven home the issues even further than the Foreman version does. Mac is no longer an orientalized rogue from the past; he is a cutting edge serial killer and rapist who works in collusion with the police. Jeremy Sams's lyrics capture the spirit of the piece perfectly-- they are harrowing. If you are looking for Brecht in its rawest, most meaningful form, it's on this cd.

Real Londoners.......2000-10-21

I'm currently in rehearsals for a production of "The Threepenny Opera" based on the Donmar Warehouse production, so I bought this CD to get an idea of the original. I've heard bits and pieces of other productions, and something about this one struck me as distinctive and "right", but I could not pinpoint what. Finally I realized: The Donmar version has a distinct tone of "Englishness" -- or even specifically "London-ness" -- that all others lack. The play is about poverty and gangs in London, and frankly, in the theater world you can't get much closer to that than being an actor in London. The films tend to have a feeling of German-ness, and American productions have a feel of American Musical Theater, but this production seems to be by people who honestly know, and are the real products of, the world and environment depicted in the play. This adds an extra note of authenticity, in addition to the return to Brecht and Weill's original nastiness.

deliciously brecht.......2000-09-04

This is a marvelous recording of threepenny opera, moslty due to the wonderful new lyrics - which manage to capture all the grit and vulgarity of the characters that Brecht was trying to capture in the orignal German-language production.

I've read several customer reviews of this recording, and people seem to be missing the point of the show entirely. People are lamenting the loss of the romance and beauty of the show - unfortunatly this show is about murderers, whores and businessmen and is not meant to be a musicalization of a Bronte novel. Brecht was making strong political points with these characters, so strong a point that the show ran until the Nazi's closed it, and manged to destroy most of the prints of (horrible) film-version.

I'm not too familiar with the Blitzstein translation, but what I have heard of it is flat, colourless and boring - sans all the vulgarity of the characters singing the songs. This version (thank god!) uses the "f-word" (among others) to great affect. I actually happened to see an american company do this version. While the modernazation of the peice was pointless (and moslty unnoticable) the production stands up better when we hear "The Life's a Bitch Song" sound like life's a bitch. (In this particular performance there was an improved reference to Monica Lewensky - which, though completely inapproriate, was deliciously funny.)

Also, the Ballad of Mack the Knife (here, "The Flick-Knife Song") has been reassigned to Jenny Diver (at last we hear her last name pronounced correctly) - and it ended the first half. It was DELICIOUS to hear, and the perfect character in the show to sing it, too, who knows Mackie better than Jenny? (Also, this performers voice is amazing in the role, which is a nice change from the strage gutteral and oddly Scottish performance of Polly.)

The lyrics have bite, now, witch matches the score itself. Bad lyrics always aggravate me - and these work.

If you're looking for romance, stick to Phamtom of the Opera. But if you're looking for a great modern treatment of a strong (and very entertaining) pollitical work - then get this recording. Even if you suspect you'll dislike it, and are familiar with other recordings/traslations of the work, its truly interesting to hear the differences in interpretation from version to version.

All in all this is a great version of the show, and true to the vulgarity and humour of Brect's style. And it also includes the best recording of Mack the Knife/Flick-Knife Song, with some attitude - not the jazzed-up lounge version that was latter adapted into a McDonalds ad.

Tracks:

The Seven Deadly Sins: Prologue: Andante sostenuto
The Seven Deadly Sins: Idleness: Allegro vivace
The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride: Allegretto, quasi andantino - Schneller Walzer
The Seven Deadly Sins: Anger: Molto agitato
The Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony: Largo
The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust: Moderato
The Seven Deadly Sins: Avarice: Allegro giusto
The Seven Deadly Sins: Envy: Allegro non troppo - Alla marcia, un poco tenuto
The Seven Deadly Sins: Epilogue: Andante sostenuto
The Threepenny Opera: 'Moritat vom Mackie Messer'
The Threepenny Opera: 'Barbara-Song'
The Threepenny Opera: 'Seerauberjenny'
Aufstief und Fall der Stadt mahogany: 'Havanna-Lied'
Aufstief und Fall der Stadt mahogany: 'Alabama-Song'
Aufstief und Fall der Stadt mahogany: 'Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet'
Happy End: 'Bilbao-Song'
Happy End: 'Surabaya-Johnny'
Happy End: 'Was die Herren Matrosen sagen'
Das Berliner Requiem: 'Ballade vom ertrunkenen Madchen'
Der Silbersee, Ein Wintermarchen: 'Lied der Fennimore'
Der Silbersee, Ein Wintermarchen: 'Casar Tod'

Amazon.com essential recording

Whether playing Anna in The Seven Deadly Sins or singing "Moritat vom Mackie Messer" ("Mack the Knife"), Lotte Lenya helped define the music of her husband, Kurt Weill. The duo literally created the soundtrack for the prewar Berlin of our fantasies--an exotic land of nicotine and nightlights--where cabaret, jazz, and the odd American instrumental influence all coexist happily. Now remastered, this collection gathers Lenya's legendary 1957 recordings of Sins and her 1955 recording Sings Berlin Theatre Songs. Forget subtlety--Lenya is all about emotion. On cuts like "Pirate Jenny," Lenya's voice sounds fluttery and frantic, and on "Surabaya-Johnny," her German sounds fragile and sweet, but mostly she's just herself--bittersweet, raw, and (most of all) human. In spirit, Marianne Faithfull, PJ Harvey, and a host of others all kept the torch of Lenya's style going. But after listening to these Berlin theater songs in classic form (and in their original tongue), you'll never hear them the same way again. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews:

One of the greats.......2007-04-17

When I was a student in 1965, the turntable in my college apartment was kept busy spinning The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Broadway show cast albums, Nina Simone and Lotte Lenya. Lotte Lenya? Yes, the widow of German composer Kurt Weill and the star of the legendary 1950s off-Broadway revival of THE THREEPENNY OPERA, who also played James Bond's adversary Rosa Kleb in the movie FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. (Rosa Kleb was a martial arts expert with poison knives in the toes of her shoes.) But my theory is that Lotte Lenya enjoyed great cachet with the baby-boomers primarily because of the cover of Bob Dylan's 1965 "Bringing It All Back Home" album. That cover shows Dylan and a brunette woman in a rather elegant setting crammed with books and phonograph records. Prominent among the stack of recordings is Lenya's "Berlin Theatre Songs of Kurt Weill" album. Even though this was the age of "Don't trust anyone over thirty," if Bob Dylan liked Lotte Lenya, then she was okay. I loved everything about her Berlin Theatre Songs album, from the expressionistic cover portrait to all the unfamiliar songs sung in quavery German.

Now that CDs have made phonograph records obsolete, I've wanted to replace my LP version of the Berlin Theatre Songs for some time. Well, I feel that I've hit the jackpot with this Masterworks Heritage CD reissue which is packaged with the Brecht-Weill THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, an experimental dance-drama that Brecht and Weill created in Paris after fleeing Nazi Germany. I had never heard THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS. It is a revelation. It could have been written by no one else. The haunting melodies, the offbeat orchestrations and the unorthodox subject matter combine to form a Brecht-Weill classic. I love this music and have played it repeatedly for weeks. Lenya's voice during this period had not yet become raspy and her saucy personality shines through. My German is much better now than it was as a college student and I can at last appreciate Lenya's perfectly enunciated German. I find this recording mesmerizing. The CD is packaged as a foldout album/book, rather than a jewel box. It includes a brief essay by Teresa Stratas and helpful notes by Mario R. Mercado. Also included are more than a dozen sepia-toned photos of the recording session and four beautiful color photographs of Lenya in Hamburg in 1956. And of course, that wonderful Saul Bolasni portrait that graced the original LP is included on the inside cover of the jacket.

I think this CD is essential. For me, it conjures up a whole era, maybe a whole century. Five stars.

I cannot live without this album. .......2006-06-09

The Weill/Brecht "Seven Sins" may not be as famous as the Threepenny, and it's certainly not as long. The songs aren't "catchy"-- no Doors or Darin or David Bowie or Dresden Dolls are going to cover any of the ballet's nine pieces. But, in all its operatic beauty, it's one of my favourite musical works on this planet.

In short: the Seven Sins is unbelievable. It's Brecht/Weill at their very best. It will latch itself onto your brain, stick its claws into your skull, surpass anything you've ever heard before. From the very start -- just three notes that will, I promise, make you shiver -- to the beautiful, melancholy ending; it's what opera should be like, and it's beyond perfect.

Miss Lotte Lenya, who was the smartest woman in the world for marrying Kurt Weill TWICE, sings what's probably the definitive version of Anna-Anna. Yes, it's two octaves lower than what was intended (but if it's high-pitched warbling you're after, I can highly recommend the lovely Anne Sofie von Otter version), and some people seem to be slightly allergic to Lotte's voice. Which I still fail to understand. She embodies everything Weill writes -- every word out of her mouth feels just right, just exactly the way it was intended.

One other version I'm particularly fond of is the one starring Marianne Faithfull. The differences are easy to spot: Marianne sings in English. Marianne sounds more stoic. Marianne's choir is more overwhelming, but smoother, though the pieces don't fit together quite as well. Marianne is just slightly faster, less emotional, slightly sweeter. Lotte, on the other hand, gives it everything she's got -- never holds back -- and fills the part with emotion. Lotte's choir is tinny, Berlin-y cabaret-y. Lotte's orchestra is much more solid. And Lotte toys more with the lyrics. Both versions are perfect, and I would VERY highly recommend buying both if you can afford it, if just to compare.

Just like Marianne's CD, this album is filled up with as much other Brecht/Weill stuff as would still fit on the disc. The final notes of the Seven Sins epilogue are quickly followed with a gorgeous full Mack The Knife (yes, uncensored), an unbelievable (and definitive) Pirate Jenny, an Alabama Song... pretty much everything these people are famous for, and even some rather obsure songs. The orchestra and background singers mix perfectly with Lotte's vocals on every track. There's not a single flaw -- not in the music, not in the recording quality, nothing -- every bit of it is as perfect as these songs get.

Whether you're just starting out collecting Berlin cabaret, or finally look to complete your collection, this album is simply something you can't NOT buy. So buy it. Buy it. Yes. Excellent. And, if you're searching for more excellent related stuff, here's some other CDs I can recommend:

- Die Dreigroschenoper: 1999 version, starring Nina Hagen, Max Raabe, HK Gruber
- The Threepenny Opera: 1954 Blitzstein adaptation (English softened version)
- Jasperina de Jong - Sieben Rosen hat der Strach (Brecht tribute)
- Cathy Berberian - The Unforgettable
- The Tiger Lillies - Twopenny Opera (It's One Cheaper)

And a final note: avoid the Ute Lemper version at all costs. She's a great singer, absolutely, but will never be Anna-Anna.

Lenya and Weill at their best! Buy It........2005-11-04

'Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins and Berlin Theatre Songs' is a single CD combining two separate 1955 LPs recorded in Germany, five years after the death of husband and composer, Kurt Weill.

As a lifelong Weill fan who has heard many different interpretations of these songs most notably from Ute Lemper and Maria Stratas, I was struck by how dramaticly better was Lenya's performance of the lyrics. I think this goes far beyond the fact that many of these works were written specifically to be performed by Lenya in Berlin between 1927 and 1933. It is obvious to my ear that even though Lemper is a great cabaret singer, Lenya trumps this with years of performing on the live stage without the aid of electronic amplification.

Lenya does 'Die Sieben Todsunden' with the version done for a lower voice (same as Lemper) rewritten for her by Weill. As other reviewers have noted, this was originally a combination ballet / song cycle commissioned in Germany by George Balanchine where the singer and the ballerina perform two sisters, both named Anna.

None of the individual songs are nearly as popular on their own as the following collection of songs from the German works, 'The Threepenny Opera', 'Mahagonny', and 'Happy End'.

My first encounter with Lotty Lenya's singing was on a Columbia collection done on vinyl in the 1960s, done, probably following on her appearance in the second James Bond movie, 'From Russia, With Love' as the Russian Colonel Klebb. I think this recording is far superior to that issue or to any other recent recording where Lenya does songs she never performed on the stage.

"An important landmark in dancing history".......2001-06-16

The seven Deadly Sins was commissioned as a dance piece for Les Ballets 1933 with choreography by George Balanchine, Balanchine re-staged it at the New York City Ballet with Lenya at 1958. Anna Sokolow who has difficulties to work with Bertold Brecht to close (Galileo), gave her own independent interpretation to this play as a director with Netherland Dance Theatre in 1967 and at Detroit in 1967 (Cleo Laine).

"An important landmark in dancing history".......2001-06-16

The seven Deadly Sins was commissioned as a dance piece for Les Ballets in 1933 with choreography by George Balanchine. Balanchine restaged it at the New York City Ballet with Lenya in 1958. Anna Sokolow who had difficulties working with Bertold Brecht closely (Galileo), gave her own interpretation to this play as a director with Netherlands Dance Theatre in 1967 and in Detroit in 1976 (Cleo Laine, Mary Hinkson), and in Boston in 1990.

Average customer rating:

HIDDEN JEWELS
Innovative and dreamlike
This is amazing
magical music

Round About Weill

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Senderos
Suspended Night
Vaghissimo Ritratto
Responsorium
A Year from Easter

ASIN: B0007DHQ34
Release Date: 2005-04-19

Tracks:

Dov'e La Citta
Ach, Bedenken Sie, Herr Jack O'Brien
Tango Ballade
Improvvisamente
Divagazioni Su 'Youlkali'
Mahagonny, Scene 6
Ein Taifun!...Tifone? No, Pioggerella
Lieben
Boxen
Round About Weill I/Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet, So Liegt Man
Mahagonny, Scene 13
Essen
Round About Weill II
Tief In Alaskas Schneeweissen Waldern
Ach, Bedenken Sie, Herr Jack O'Brien, Var
Mahagonny, Scene 4
Aber Dieses Ganze Mahagonny
Alabama Song
Mahagonny, Scene 6, Var.
Alabama Song, Var.
Interludio 'Ma Che Modi Sono?...': Cumparsita Maggiorata
Interludio 'Ma Che Modi Sono?...': Tristezze Di Fra' Martino
Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet, So Liegt Man, Var.

Customer Reviews:

HIDDEN JEWELS.......2006-04-22

Gianluigi Trovesi (clarinets) & Gianni Coscia (accordion), Round About Weill (5*)
Gianluigi Trovesi (clarinets) & Gianni Coscia (accordion), In Cerca di Cibo (5*)

Gianluigi Trovesi is a hidden jewel in today's jazz. Perhaps he's undersung because he's Italian: he performs and records in Italy, not in American jazz clubs or for a central American jazz label. Maybe, on these two albums, it's because some afficionados look down on the "European" clean jazz typical to ECM records. Above all, I suspect it's because the music he plays --though not the way he plays it-- is hard to classify.

Take these two albums. Are they jazz? Italian folk music? Composed or 'classical' music? Trovesi and Coscia mesh as well as any duo in jazz --think of the exquisite music made by duos such as Charlie Haden and Kenny Baron, Jim Hall and Ron Carter, or Gary Burton and Chick Corea on Crystal Silence. But the music Torvesi and Coscia produce on these two albums is devilishly difficult to classify. Sometimes they settle for composed lines, heartbreaking melodies played simply, simply. At other times, they clearly improvise, but seldom on recognmizable jazz lines. They are demons --Trovesi especially-- at quoting wildly from other pieces: they close one piece on the Weill album with "Blue Moon," another time with (almost) "Frere Jacques." But it's jazz nonetheless, played by two hyper-alert and super-intelligent musicians who mine their musical ancestry to consummate effect.

Of the two albums, my wife has a very slight preference for the Weill album, which is made up half of tunes written by Weill and most of the rest of the artists' own tunes that fit the mood of Weill. Both clarinet and acordion capture well the cabaret atmosphere of so many Weill tunes, including different versions of "Alabama Song" and "Tango Ballade."

On the Weill album, Trovesi continues his fascination with John Lewis's "Django," the moving funeral dirge for French gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt first recorded by the Modern Jazz Quartet. (Trovesi plays "Django" on In Cerca di Cibo and quotes it on Around Small Fairy Tales.) This is appropriate because in some respects, Trovesi is like Lewis, though much hotter and more earthy at times. Both composed and have led groups that played music that critics saw as too 'classical.' Both used non-jazz idioms for jazz purposes.

I own five albums by Trovesi now, which is all I've been able to find and buy to date. Around Small Fairy Tales features Trovesi playing his own compositions with a string orchestra. From G to G and Fugace feature his octet, which sounds at times like a slightly woozy stepchild of the great George Russell experimental groups of the very early sixties. In an age that slights the clarinet as a solo instrument, Trovesi is arguably the best clarinetist in jazz, a major soloist and melodist.

I love this man and he's never sounded better than playing with Coscia. Needless to say, these two ECM albums are impeccably engineered for sound.

Dave Keymer

Innovative and dreamlike.......2005-10-24

The two reed instruments complement each other wonderfully in the tonal range of the human voice. They are smoothly blended even in stacatto pieces. Coscia reminds me of Dino Saluzzi, not as expressive, yet more rhythmically emphatic than Saluzzi and with much more variation in style. Trovesi's clarinet has a beautiful, liquid sound. The music varies from oom-pah folk to hypnotic wandering, all of it inventive. There are no cliches here. Reviewed well in Downbeat, but is it jazz? There is a classical foundation, but the rhythms, harmonies and melodies are all over the map. Even so, there is a certain sameness that sets in after a while, due to the limited pallette.

This is amazing.......2005-07-02

First, this CD is impressible-only two instruments but the music they play is incredible.The music in this CD-slow and fast-emotional.Amazing.And again...highly recommended!

magical music.......2005-05-03

Like this duo's ECM release "In cerca di cibo", this disc has a wonderful old world feel. The combination of trovesi's clarinets and Coscia's accordian suite Weil's compostions well. Beatuiful playing and recording quality. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

A guilty pleasure...
Oh so very good
The Best CD of All
SWEET TORCH SONG TORTURE
She Is Never What You Expect

Punishing Kiss

Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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But One Day...
Illusions
All That Jazz: The Best Of Ute Lemper
Blood & Feathers: Live from the Café Carlyle
Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill

ASIN: B00004RC8F
Release Date: 2000-04-04

Tracks:

The Case Continues
Tango Ballad
Passionate Fight
Little Water Song
Purple Avenue
Streets Of Berlin
Split
Couldn't You Keep That To Yourself
Punishing Kiss
You Were Meant For Me
The Part You Throw Away
Scope J

Amazon.com

Despite her roles in mainstream musicals such as Cats and Chicago, Ute Lemper has never been a typical Broadway baby. Her long association with the works of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, as well as her one-woman shows based on the repertoires of Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich, has always marked her as a maverick in a world overpopulated by bland belters and cute ingénues. Lemper's distinctive voice isn't an instrument for easy listening. At full tilt, it's dangerous and edgy. In subdued mode, it's dark, ironic, and despairing. The cruelty that runs through many of her interpretations is taken on the chin. Lemper deals in defiance rather than submission. With just one, edgily updated Weill song ("Tango Ballad") and a host of contributions from Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Philip Glass, and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, Punishing Kiss is a modern, bleak look at love in the 21st century. At times the tone is murderous, even apocalyptic ("The Case Continues"). The duet "Split," sung with Hannon, is a grimly humorous riot of punches and counterpunches in a disintegrating relationship. There's fleeting, poignant beauty too, in tracks like Waits's "Purple Avenue." Essential listening for anyone who likes their torch songs blood-stained, not just dampened by a few tears. --Piers Ford

Customer Reviews:

A guilty pleasure..........2006-09-30

Is this woman awesome, or what?
I have to say, this is probably one of my fav's. A very deeply moving, emotionally intense project. I keep coming back to it. It's just absolutely awesome!

Oh so very good.......2003-03-06

I fell in love with Ute Lemper when I heard a recording of her singing Kurt Weill's "Bilbao Song." I know she has her detractors, all of whom argue that other people are better at performing Kurt Weill. These people are idiots.

This album came as a shock for me, as she truly stretches out farther than I had expected. Yes, there is a Kurt Weill song here, taken from the Threepenny Opera, but it's rearranged like you've never heard before - with a drum and bass loop churning underneath lush strings and keyboards (but not cheesy keyboards, mind you).

The rest of the album follows in a similar style, though the instrumentation does subtly change for different composers' songs - most notably the addition of a bandoneon for the two Tom Waits songs.

What is amazing about the album is the sense of continuity running through it, in spite its being a collection of songs of different people. The gem of the album, however, is Nick Cave's "Little Water Song," in which, over a beautiful string section, Ute Lemper lets her theatre training and singing mix freely - producing a performance that simply floors me.

What else is there to say? She's simply amazing

The Best CD of All.......2001-07-11

Simply stunning performance of unusual new songs written expressly for her, entirely captivating, imaginatively written and performed. May not appear to be a 'hit' first time round but you will play it again and again, hear more, find new meanings and so much depth.

It is performed dramatically (not as a routine studio tune and lyric) a most stimulating performance. In many ways it is a 'dark' album, not something you will be able to whistle in the bathroom, and all the better for that. If you are looking for real entertainment, look no further.

Ute has to be the most under-rated artist of the current era, wildly flexible in how she performs, in many ways outrageously kitsch. She has performed this album in a tour, which I was privileged to attend and this underlined just how good she - and the album - is. A 'must buy'. Just wish she had a video/DVD as well!

SWEET TORCH SONG TORTURE.......2001-06-03

The statuesque Ute is a beauty so monumental, she's almost architectural. And she's got a voice and delivery to match, plus on this album, a taste for superb material.

My favourites are the Nick Cave, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits songs, but what is really impressive is how her voice holds together the Scott Walker song Scope J (If one can call it a song).

Anyone who can sing along to, let alone intelligently interpret, such a bizarre and dark little symphony, deserves 5 stars just for the effort. I like my divas dark and brooding, like Nico of Velvet Underground, so Ute fits the bill. Investigate and enjoy!

She Is Never What You Expect.......2001-02-01

We all know Ute Lemper as the foremost interpreter of Weill and art songs, but who would have guessed that she is adept at popular tunes too? Well, let me re-phrase, these songs are not "standards", however, they are written by contemporaries that more people would have heard of than Weill. Nick Cave and tom Waits, for example, are two the lyricists whose music is given life on this album. Let's start with the voice: it has a timbre totally unlike any other that you would have come across in pedestrian music circles. It can be warm, it can be cool (with ice-cold precision), it can be smooth or rough. She does whatever she wants to with her voice and the listener sits there with open mouth, awed by the sheer sound of this woman. She doesn't treat her voice as if it is some precious antique, she slams it around and all for the sake of song. Which brings us to her interpretive gifts: they are ample. When I read some of the lyrics in the booklet, I asked myself how she was going to pull it off but she always did and in an approach at odds with whatever you were expecting. Her song selection is most interesting, the only one I was familiar with prior to my purchase was "Streets of Berlin" which I had heard in the movie BENT. In her version, she is very intimate and quiet at first in a way that out-shimmies Mick Jagger (who sang the song in the movie) but then she gets loud and audacious in a way that is totally in keeping with the song's intent and works with instead of against the melody. My only complaint is that occasionally Ms. Lemper lets her voice get the better of her and crosses *that* line into melodrama. Other than this one small quibble, I recommend this disc for listeners who want to be throttled rather than soothed, to think rather than be spoon-fed. Enjoy... I know I did!

Average customer rating:

Her voice is every color of dream
Stratas is sublime
It is dangerous to use words like "definative," but....
Amazing
The One

Stratas Sings Weill

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

Teresa Stratas - The Unknown Kurt Weill
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Sings Kurt Weill, Vol. 2

ASIN: B000005IXU
Release Date: 1991-06-25

Tracks:

One Touch of Venus: I'm A Stranger Here Myself
Ausfstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny: Havanna - Lied
Happy End: Surabaya-Johnny
One Touch of Venus: Foolish Heart
Der Silbersee: Ich bin eine arme Verwandre (Fennimore's Song)
Lady In The Dark: One Life To Live
Marie Galante: J'attends un navire
Happy End: Das Lied von der harten Nuss
Street Scene: Lonely House
Marie Galante: Le Roi d'Aquitaine
Ausfstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny: Denn wie man sich bettet
Marie Galante: Le Train du ciel
Die Dreigroschenoper: Das Lied von der Untulanglichkeit menschlichen Strebens
Knickerbocker Holiday: It Never Was You
Happy End: Der kleine Leutnant des lieben Gotten

Amazon.com

Revealing an affinity for Weill, Teresa Stratas fulfills her promise to Lotte Lenya on her deathbed to "carry on the torch for Kurt Weill's music." Stratas's glorious soprano has never sounded better as she applies her operatic expertise to deliciously caress this music without losing any of the underlying subtext. Lacking the grittiness of other interpreters, she captures the emotional angles by letting her beautiful voice express the tortured heart beneath it; where others shout at you, Stratas sings at you. She casually bounces off the cheerier selections from One Touch of Venus and Happy End, letting Gerard Schwarz's brilliantly conducted orchestra display their wit. Program notes include a fascinating interview with Stratas. --Barbara Eisner Bayer

Customer Reviews:

Her voice is every color of dream.......2005-12-03

I don't care who knows it--I've been in love with Teresa Stratas since I was a senior in high school and saw her as Mimi in La Boheme one Friday night in 1961. That obsession preceded and outlasted my marriage:-). I lost a lot of years away from opera, then discovered that Stratas' recorded output is shamefully small. A difficult performer, probably, renowned for some unendearing quirks. But. What's there is gold. I have heard recordings I should not of her as Suor Angelica, Butterfly, and Melisande. I have seen her famous Zefirelli Boheme and Traviata. And Amahl. But the Weill material...it's unbelievable. When Lenya "ordained" her as her successor after seeing a performance of Mahagonny, the old lady knew what she was doing. Stratas has the perfect temperament for Weill's music. The voice coos, snarls, belts, and weeps. My favorite of all Weill songs, "Surabaya Johnny," is a mini-drama of love, hate, rage and despair. The only person who comes close to her in that song is the late Cathy Berberian.

Yes, get this. Get "The Unknown Kurt Weill." Lobby the Met to release her broadcasts, esp. The Bartered Bride. She was absolutely magnetic and the field isn't quite gone yet.

Stratas is sublime.......2005-03-27

Teresa Stratas is one of those singers whose reputation as a temperamental diva precedes her. Well, in my book, if it takes being temperamental to accomplish a collection like this, the end justifies the means. She is a singer of tremendous vocal and emotional range, and Weill's music provides what seems to be a perfect vehicle for both.

I've had this CD for at least 12 or 13 years and, no matter how many times I listen, I still notice new details in her interpretations.

It is dangerous to use words like "definative," but...........2004-04-04

Stratas's interpretations make one rush headlong into that danger.

Many singers have done beautiful Surabaya Johnnys but have any been as shattering as Stratas? Though years later she stumbled with her ill-concieved and eccentric Seven Deadly Sins, this CD is Stratas at in her prime, making bold choices about the material that blows the cobwebs off song we thought we knew. Even 15 years later, this album is fresh, uncliched, deeply affecting, and enthralling.

Stratas proves herself not only a great singer, but a great actress as well.

Amazing.......2000-06-29

Until I heard this and the Unknown Weill, I was a "stranger myself here,' as Stratas sings in the first selection. I simply did not appreciate nor understand the immediacy and importance of Weill to our musical heritage. Stratas simply transcends and reveals this music so intuitively that it is amazing.

The One.......2000-06-01

Stratas is the Weill singer, and everyone else is an also-ran. Ute Lemper is just a poser, and while Lenya was an important figure for Weill and she has her charms, but Weill wanted trained, operatic voices to sing his music, but not in the style of Verdi or Mozart. Here, Stratas delivers the composer's wish. Her voice is beautiful and cultivated in the best way, but it is her manner that is so important; straightforward, sincere, artless. From the opening "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" her affinity for this music is fully apparent. The selections span Weill's career and are delivered in many English, French and German, and regardless of the language, Stratas communicates completely. The orchestra plays the original orchestrations, and the sound is simply wonderful, nostalgic and modern all at once. This is where all Weill listeners and lovers should start.

Average customer rating:

The Collector's The Threepenny Opera

Manufacturer: VAI Audio
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Threepenny Opera (1954 New York Cast) (Blitzstein Adaptation)
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Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Berlin Theatre Songs
The Threepenny Opera (1994 London Donmar Warehouse Cast)

ASIN: B000053W80
Release Date: 2000-01-01

Tracks:

Die Dreigroschenoper: Ov - Lewis Ruth Band/Theo Mackeben
Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat (Mack, The Knife) - Kurt Gerron
Die Dreigroschenoper: Ballad Of The Agreeable Life - Willy Trenk-Trebitsch
Die Dreigroschenoper: Love Duet - Erika Helmke/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch
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Die Dreigroschenoper: Pirate Jenny - Lotte Lenya
Die Dreigroschenoper: Act I Finale - Lotte Lenya/Erika Helmke/Erich Ponto
Die Dreigroschenoper: Barbara Song - Lotte Lenya
Die Dreigroschenoper: Jealousy Song - Lotte Lenya/Erika Helmke
Die Dreigroschenoper: Farewell - Erika Helmke/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch
Die Dreigroschenoper: Act II Finale - Willy Trenk-Trebitsch
Die Dreigroschenoper: Procurer's Ballad - Lotte Lenya/Willy Trenk-Trebitsch
Die Dreigroschenoper: Song Of The Inadequacy Of Life - Erich Ponto
Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat (Reprise) - Lotte Lenya
Die Dreigroschenoper: Final Chor - 1930 German Cast
Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat - Bertolt Brecht
Die Dreigroschenoper: Song Of The Inadequacy Of Life - Bertolt Brecht
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Moritat - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Ballade - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Tango-Ballade - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer
Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Ste): Cannon Song - Berlin State Opr Orch/Otto Klemperer
Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat - Mme. Damia
Mahagonny: Alabama Song - Lotte Lenya/The Three Admirals
Mahagonny: As You Make Your Bed - Lotte Lenya
Mahagonny: Medley - Lotte Lenya/Berlin Cast Of The Kurfurstendamm Theatre, Berlin
Happy End: Bilbao Song - Lotte Lenya

Kurt Weill: Life, Love, & Laughter--Dance Arrangements, 1927-50

Average customer rating:

SAIL ON, KURT!
Not at All Vile Weill
ELEVATOR MUSIC

Kurt Weill: Life, Love, & Laughter--Dance Arrangements, 1927-50
H.K. Gruber , and Palast Orchestra
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Ein Freund ein Guter Freu
Krokodile und Andere Hausfreunde
Wochenend und Sonnenschein
Superhits Präsentiert Vom Palast Orchester
Superhits V.2

ASIN: B000055YBR
Release Date: 2001-02-12

Tracks:

Mile After Mile
Bilbao Song
Stay Well
Life, Love And Laughter
My Ship
Green-up Time
The Little Gray House
Blues Potpourri
September Song
All At Once
Le Roi d'Aquitaine (Waltz)
Foxtrot Potporri
Alabama Song
Lied Der Jenny
Speak Low
It Never Was You
What Good Would the Moon Be
Tango Ballade
Kanonen-Song

Amazon.com

Here's a disc of 19 familiar and unfamiliar Kurt Weill songs arranged for dance band and played by an expert group of specialists in Roaring Twenties band music. They're led by singer-conductor-composer H.K. Gruber, whose previous recordings include Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper. The result is a start-to-finish delight. From the first notes, you're beamed back in time to one of those sleek transatlantic passenger liners, sitting in an art deco ballroom watching elegant couples in tuxedos and ball-gowns swirl by while the band plays hits from Weill's German and Broadway triumphs. Sure, the venom is leached from the originals, but who needs agitprop when you're on a dance floor? The arrangements are by a variety of hands, hired by Weill's European and American publishers with his approval to get more mileage from his musical theater works. They're delightfully square rhythmically and formulaic in transferring Weill's music to conventional dance bands, but the music still holds up and is fun to hear in its new clothes. A special treat is the eight tracks with Max Raabe, whose light tenor and falsetto singing preserve the spirit of Weill's songs, as well as perfectly mimic the boy band singers of times gone by. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

SAIL ON, KURT!.......2006-04-23

I wouldn't take offence here oh, Weill purists! These reconstructions are charming and harmonically reverent to their originals, more than could be said for many versions of the Weill Songbook through the decades, including Lou Reed's friendly `adaptation' of the September Song's chord progression and melodic line!

Shoenberg and Webern expressed their disdain of Weill's music; curiously, Arnold had also disclosed a secret wish of having his own audiences walk back home "whistling his tunes", oh, don't ask why... You can certainly whistle, hum and sway your partner now, as the transatlantic's bouncy dancehall sails on just as Kurt, Lotte and the lot of them did when escaping the lethal hounds of early 30s Berlin.... the-next-little-dollar bound.

Not at All Vile Weill.......2001-08-13

The ever versatile HK Gruber has done it again digging up these gorgeous dance arrangements for Weill's music--proving, if anything, Weill's versatility. Anyone familiar with the Capriccio historical Weill recordings will be aware of the long tradition of dance bands taking Weill's music as the lead for dance music or pop music incarnations (all the way up through the more obvious appropriations familiar to Americans: Mack the Knife and September Song). Hardly MUZAK arrangements (listen to the delicate violin in track 17's "What Good Would the Moon Be" to hear what I mean), this generous helping of 19 songs offers a chance to see Weill through a delightfully different but entirely compatible lens. Max Raabe provides the ideal vocal compliment on 8 of the tracks, his tenor floating effortlessly into his head voice suggesting a "period" sound reminiscent of Bing Crosby. The import title for this disc is "Charming Weill," and that modest adjective expresses the least of its virtues.

ELEVATOR MUSIC.......2001-05-23

This is a very strange CD: why would anyone want to take the quirky rhythms and melodies of the great Kurt Weill and "tame" them into dance arrangements? Certainly one has listened to (& even perhaps admired) dance arrangements of composers from Victor Herbert to Cole Porter to Jerry Herman, but these are all, if you will, main stream composers-- men whose music sounds good in original Broadway or Hollywood arrangements and just as good (or almost as good) as played by a dance band...think "Begin The Beguine" as done by Fred Astaire on film or "Begin The Beguine" done by Jo Stafford with the Paul Weston Orchestra.

But Weill was an innovator: a man who can still be listened to experiencing the thrill of something fresh and new. One immediately thinks of his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht in Germany: "Threepenny Opera" and "The Rise & Fall Of The City of Mahagonny" or "The Seven Deadly Sins", etc. his American opera, "Street Scene" with Langston Hughes or his American musical plays: "One Touch of Venus" with Ogden Nash or "Love Life" with Alan Jay Lerner, etc. The songs on this CD all deserve great recordings from the "Alabama Song" to "September Song" but they turn into a kind of flattened elevator music instead of having fresh interpretations or even more traditional ones. What happens is that the longing in "What Good Would the Moon Be" and the romance of "Speak Low" and the raucousness of "Bilbao Song" are all much too similar and much too easy.

It's a little weird to think of husbands whispering to their wives," Listen, honey, they're playing 'As You Make Your Bed' from "Mahagonny".........let's fox trot!"

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