Brecht and Weill

oh, just FYI, i am really enjoying my Max Raabe Weil compilation.

i gots it with Baby Jesus's birthday money.

ooh, looks good.

Many things we have to read for school improve on revisiting.

Though I shall always hate Jane Eyre.

But in any case (back to Brecht and Weill) I think the songs are another matter entirely. But, I sense this sort of thing has not so much of a following in the USA as in Europe... or at least, not the SAME people who are in to vintage clothes, on the whole.

I adore Brecht and Weill!!! I just downloaded a great recording of The Threepenny Opera from iTunes...auf Deutsch, naturlich.

Miss Sis said:

Fletch, I agree about Brecht. If I ever have to read The Caucasian Chalk Circle again I'm gonna.....!!!!!

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Read Threepenny again!!!!!

We owe a lot to Weill. Without him we wouldn't have Danny Elfman!

Weill

JazzBaby said:

We owe a lot to Weill. Without him we wouldn't have Danny Elfman!

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Weill was a philosopher who composed.

hey, Harp, are you introducing another philosophy topic on the sly?

...who, me?

well, you do err on the side of profundity.

Delightful. I've been a huge fan of the Threepenny Opera for years, and also of the various remakes of its songs by current artists that have appeared latterly. I also have two CDs of recordings from the late 20s and the early 30s of its songs, most in German but some translated songs in English and even French ("l'opera de quatre sous"). As for recent interpretations, Tom Waits' "What keeps mankind alive" was brilliant. I liked the Ute Lemper stuff quite a bit, then made the horrible mistake of buying her "Punishing Kiss" CD which I hated. I have an excellent Lotte Lenya LP of Weill songs, with her face very large on the cover, and an LP of someone named I believe Mary Martin doing all Weill. I have seen the Threepenny Opera performed at City College of San Francisco, a nice amateur performance, and I thought I saw it at the ACT theater on Geary in San Francisco but I might have that mixed up. I don't care much for the message of the opera nor the mock ending, and I find the lyrics to be over-the-top shawking, and the proto-Frankfurt School-influenced (?) socialist message does not do much for me; it's the music that I love. That duet in which Mackie and whatshername sing "in dem Bordel wo unser Haushalt war" still sends thrills up my spine, even though it is also repellent. Same with the Kannonen-lied: "Soldaten wohnen, auf dem Kannonen" is often heard in my house when I am in the shower. Of other Weill or Brecht stuff, I have seen a performance of The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Berkeley. I didn't care for it, but there was one good effect: a doll of a child comes alive and gets played by a live child. Is that traditional for performances of this play? I have certainly never read it (and from some of these posts, I should not). I did not know I'd ever hear from people who liked these artists ... wonderful.

*bump*

YEEEEESSSSSS!!!! Me too, hugely! And Tom Waits. You should check out his songs performed by Ute Lemper if you haven't already...

I've never heard of these guys. Were they in vaudeville or part of a big band?

Mahagonny Bill said:

I've never heard of these guys. Were they in vaudeville or part of a big band?

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They wrote the Threepenny Opera. Ever heard Mack the Knife? That's one of theirs.

I've just found this site explaining the history of the opera - it looks comprehensive.
http://www.threepennyopera.org/

I saw a very creditable production of Threepenny Opera not long ago (creditable since everyone else was terrific, but the guy who played Mack was barely adequate. It's a TOUGH role.)
I saw a wonderful production of Brecht's "Baal" at the Harvard Drama Center in 1970. I'll never forget it.
Of course Brecht's most famous play, and most famousd character was "Mother Courage". People who have no knowledge of the play have a clear image of the character.
Brecht and Weill's relationship was touchy to say the least. Brecht was a very dedicated communist, or at least revolutionary socialist. But that didn't extend to his personal dealings. He did a very "capitalistic" job of screwing Weill out of almost all the royalties he had coming to him for Threepenny Opera. Weill had to fight him in court for years.
Weill also had a success on Broadway in 1938 with "Knickerbocker Holiday", a lighthearted look at Washington Irving's version of the life of Peter Stuyvesant. The most famous song from that was September Song, sung by the great Walter Huston.
I also saw, (also at Harvard) the 1936 musical by Weill "Johnny Johnson", a trenchant anti war statement.
The show I was in last spring here in New York, "The Cradle Will Rock", was by Marc Blitzstein. Blitzstein was associated with Weill, and his music is very reminiscent of Weill's. Blitzstein created a lot of really wonderful music in about the same era.

[video=youtube;wkWn4--RmEk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkWn4--RmEk[/video]

The great Walter Huston! I have semi bootleg (recorded live from the wings) album of the original production of Knickerbocker Holiday from 1938. Very cool. Only one big hit (that one) but still a lot of fine music.

lolly_loisides said:

They wrote the Threepenny Opera. Ever heard Mack the Knife? That's one of theirs.

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I'm sorry, I was making a joke. They also wrote Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny from which I took my screen name.

Anyone interested in Weill's career should definitely check out the Kurt Weill Foundation which is dedicated to studying and preserving his music. They have several free publications that list reviews and news of Weill related performances and recordings.

Also, if you have not seen or heard Mahagonny, I can recommend the DVD of a 2007 Los Angeles Opera production that was produced for PBS a few years ago. It is available on Amazon and Netflix.

Did anyone see Ute Lemper 11/12/10?