Berlioz Damnation of Faust not ENO full download

After the depressingly superficial ENO Gilliam The Damnation of Faust at ENO last night, I need to hear the piece as music again.  First and above all, it's not an opera.  The drama is in the music rather than in the actions, however fantastical they may be. Even the arias are vignette set pieces rather than truly interactive relationships between the singers. Though Berlioz's vivid non verbal exuberance doesn't limit possible stagings, it  doesn't mean that it can be submerged in another story. This music isn't soundtrack. It "is" the drama. I can imagine wondrous film versions of this music which let the imagination do things with Berlioz's music no stage production could possibly manage. But visuals would come from the music rather than impose themselves over the music. Fundamentally Faust is an adventure in metaphysics : narrowing its focus turns it into comic book.

Anyway, HERE is a link to another non commercial recording of Berlioz The Damnation of Faust with Nicolai Gedda, who created the role many times. Marilyn Horne, Roger Soyer, Georges Prêtre conducting. Rome, 1969. COMPLETE download, and links to libretto in French. And if you want more, HERE is a link to a complete download of the original Faust movie from 1926 - F W Murnau's classic.  The more you get into the Faust legend, and its ramifications, the less you can tolerate infantile trivia. Please also see this on Boulezian, wonderful analysis.

Damnation? Monty Python Faust, not Berlioz first thoughts

It's painful for me to write this.  Lord knows my tolerance for unorthodox productions is higher than most. I don't get off on orgies of hate so I don't enjoy panning - damning - a production like this. Much more important to me is trying to get what a director says, like it or not. I even saw the value of Mike Figgis's Lucrezia Borgia at ENO because he was bringing out the inherent difference between stylized period opera and modern film. But Terry Gilliam's The Damnation of Faust at ENO is so far removed from the original work that it is a joke. Maybe his fans will laugh but it's not a joke for those who like the music.

Gilliam's One Big Idea is that since the play is based on Goethe and set in Germany, it's a parable on Nazism. In principle, not a bad idea, but there is so much more to Faust and to 20th century Germany that it would take someone with real psychological and historical insight to develop it. Not Gilliam, though. This is about as perceptive as Basil Fawlty and his caricature Germans (and Spaniards). That was veiled racism and so is this.  It's not updating with a purpose. It's self-indulgent travesty, too clever by half. Maybe Gilliam in his Monty Python incarnation was funny. I'm sorry, but unfortunately for me, Nazism and  the Holocaust are not subjects  for cheap gags. The issues in Faust (and in history) are too important to be trivialized.  But senstivity and perception were hardly Monty Python values. 

Faust (Peter Hoare) appears with a shock of upright orange hair. A jokey reference to Peter Sellars?  When people laugh at Sellars he can claim he's not being serious. Gilliam, however, takes himself very seriously indeed.  So many portentous references to German art and history. Mock Romantic landscape painting, cartoons of the First World War, George Grosz etchings, montages of Leni Reifenstahl movies, churned out as if they come from an illustrated short guide to Germany, written for children.  Instant recognition factors, no mental engagement needed, which is just as well as it fails close analysis.

Maybe the many silly images are supposed to be clever in a vaguely witty way. Marguerite gets up to something on a rock like Brünnhilde and Faust does an impression of Siegfried. Maybe this shows how Gilliam "likes opera" as he said in a recent interview, but the connection between the Ring and Faust is much more complex. In any case here it's done without context, like a silly skit that raises a laugh but it says nothing. Lots of Monty Python in-jokes too, like the "flying white scarf" Faust wears when he and Mephistopheles speed off in their motorcycle and sidecar. Perhaps some will delight in a Jewish Marguerite, lighting a menorah, while stripping, swapping wigs and lusting for a Brownshirt. The limits of taste are pushed back but so are the limits of artistic logic.

Christine Rice sang Marguerite  beautifully. Her voice has developed a distinct personality. She's wasted in this demeaning production and deserves better. Momentary lapses in some other members of the cast, partly because the translation is clumsy and strains the legato. This time, jokes in translation would have helped immensely to lighten the mood. But then the whole production was a joke because it was so self-consciously full of itself.  Christopher Purves's Mephistopheles was impressive - the part is a gift for a singer who can act.  The skits about the Rat and the Flea were succinctly done, Nicholas Folwell's Brander is a delight.. In this scene, Goethe and Berlioz are deliberately subverting the narrative with wit and humour. Ironically this is the one scene where Gilliam lets the action unfold without irony.

Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust is not an opera at all but a series of vignettes for orchestra, chorus and soloists, hence the long orchestral interludes, filled with ballet to please audiences at the Opéra-Comique in 1846. In a modern production they'd be an ideal place to insert truly witty choreography. Not in this production though.  In a concert performance, you luxuriate in the music. The temptation in staged performance is to do too much, which overwhelms rather than enhances. Fortunately, however, Berlioz's faith in the ability of the orchestra to tell the story was well founded.  No need for gimmicks. Wonderfully dramatic passages, full of brio and inherent colour. Edward Gardner and the ENO Orchestra were brilliant. I was surprised how idiomatic the playing was, adding much needed punch to the emotionally flaccid direction. 

Because it upsets me to diss a production so many good people have put a lot of work into, i'm going to reflect before writing my final, proper review.  Maybe what I'll do is genuine praise for the good aspects of this production - wonderful orchestra, very good singing (especially Christine Rice). But even faint praise for the production would be unfair to the music. Nonetheless, this production could well be a huge hit because it's so mind-numbingly shallow. Mass appeal for the Monty Python audience who thought a large boot landing from the sky was funny. The real losers are those who like Berlioz (and Goethe). Please see my other related posts - complete download of the full Murnau Faust movie, complete download of a recording with Nicolai Gedda, and a link to the review of the Gilliam "car crash", more analytical and incisive than I could dream of writing.  This production is fine if you like Monty Python but it's the ultimate in so called Regie where a director could not care less what he's saying as long as it looks nice. Please see my numerous connected posts on Berlioz, Weimar. Faust, Goethe and the Holocaust etc.  A more deetailed analysis will follow.

Berliner Blockbuster Straussfest Hampson Fleming

Dream concert - Berliner Philharmoniker, Thomas Hampson, Renée Fleming, lesser known Strauss songs and Strauss orchestral party pieces.  Live online Saturday on the Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall. Might be busy live, but next week it goes into archive for easy access. If this clip is anything to go by, both La Renée and Hampson are in good form. And the Berliners are always something special!

Massenet Werther not Goethe full download

O Weh! O Weh! sighs Werther. If I can't get what I want, I'll kill myself and you'll be sorreeeee! What do you expect from wan young men is canary yellow pants? (grin). Goethe's Werther was the First Teenage Anti Hero in literature.  Werther is the archetype Romantic role model because he can't live embalmed in the social order, like Lotte does. In Goethe's time, suicide was treason in law and Mortal Sin in religion. Werther's way out was shockingly scandalous, and underlined the radical nature of his rebellion. He's spoiled, self-indulgent and can't understand Lotte's different priorities. And yet he's fascinating because he can feel with such extremes. He cares about emotions, and won't take restraint. By killing himself he thinks he'll stay pure to his ideals, uncorrupted by grubby mundane reality. Goethe's Werther and his Sorrows is the figurehead of the Romantic Movement, ushering in the modern age.

Massenet's Werther is Romantic too, though less wild. It starts tonight at the Royal Opera House, London. HERE is a download of the complete opera, from Opera Today. It's a historic performance form the Opéra Comique in Paris, 1931, with Georges Thill, Ninon Vallon and Elie Cohen conducting. FULL libretto too. It was added to the Opera Today database in 2005.

Conductor who hates Bach and Beethoven

What would you say about a conductor who declares "Bach ("too much counterpoint - and what is worse, Protestant counterpoint"), Beethoven ("a tub-thumper") or Brahms ("that old bore"), and prefers Haydn, Berlioz, Schubert, Delius, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Sibelius, and Mozart ? Especially when the comments were made when Richard Strauss was new music and Berlioz not quite in fashion. No chance this conductor would have stood for historically informed performance.  A modern conductor couldn't get away with comments like that. Imagine the screams of derision from some internet discussion groups. But Sir Thomas Beecham could get away with it. That says something about his time and ours. It seems like a different century, (which it was), though he died only 50 years ago. Catch the BBC Radio 3 special HERE online til Monday.

Dysfunctional marriages at Wexford Opera

This year's Wexford Opera Festival brings The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti. It's a scream! A man wants to propose to his girlfriend, but she's so busy talking on the phone he can't get a word in. Finally he phones her but she still doesn't get it.  Though the opera was written in 1947, telephone OCD is probably even more extreme in the Age of Twitter. Sure beats real life communication! When this pair marry will they tweet in bed? The ultimate in safe sex.

The Telephone or "L'amour á trois" is very fast paced and quite a test for the soprano who has to carry the whole one act opera on her own. She has to be a brittle bimbette while conveying the insanity beneath the charm. It's a wonderful short opera but the role is taxing, which is why it's not performed as often as it should be. Wexford is pairing it with Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, another observation on Perfect but Pathological.

The three main operas at Wexford this year are even rarer. La cour de Célimène by Ambroise Thomas, of Mignon and Hamlet fame. "The neglect of La cour de Célimène......is difficult to understand", says the Wexford press office, "for it is generously endowed in every important area: attractive music, interesting orchestration, good ensemble writing, spectacular vocal solos, drama and duels, a clever and witty plot." Sounds like another vehicle for a soprano who can act as well as sing. Célimène is a widow who manipulates men. There is a CD from Opera Rara but the conductor is Andrew Litton and Célimène is Laura Claycomb.  Joan Rodgers, too, though.

Donizetti's Gianni di Parigi predicates on arranged marriage, and Roman Statkowski's Maria (1903-4) adds murder to the mess. It's based on an 1825 epic poem by Antoni Malczewski. Given the period in which the opera was written, one supposes Russian and Wagnerian influences. Booking starts today for Wexford Opera's 2011 season. For more, visit their website.

The secret history of Sumer is icumen in

Sumer is icumen in is perhaps the earliest song preserved in manuscript.  It dates from about 1260 and is associated with Reading Abbey (founded 1120) which was destroyed in the Reformation and whose ruins are now a playground for drug addicts and drunks. Quite likely it was copied or transferred to the then brand new university at Oxford at an early stage. The manuscript is a compilation of various different pieces of music of which this is the only early English text. Interesting how even a thousand years ago, Europeans were sharing cultural artefacts. Sumer is icumen in is in the dialect of Wessex, a region stretching from the upper reaches of the Thames to the south coast.  Christianity came here in the mid 7th century, and with that monks, churches and literacy. Saxon churches still remain, oddly squat and simple, compared with later structures. Yet how imposing they must have looked once, rising above fields and woodland.

Sumer is icumen in in is a canon for four or more voices, lower voices interweaving with higher, a charming lilting sound. "Summer is a-coming in, loudly sing cuckoo ! "  And then, "The cow lows after the calf, The bullock stirs, the stag farts, Merrily sing, Cuckoo!" Bucolic medieval humour. Yet there are two texts, the red one in Latin, more conventionally pious and seeming to bear no reelation to the English text.  How were they meant to be interpreted?  Would performers and audiences be aware of both versions? Is the imagery quite as pure as it seems? William of Wycombe, one of the monks who made the compilation was later punished for "incontinence" or rather sex with a nun. That's to be expected, since the church was the only route to an education and a life less gruelling than farm labour or conscription. How much did the secular overlap with the sacred? How strictly were genres defined? Who would have sung this canon, and others, and when? In any case, at this time of year when the woods are bursting with bluebells, and the hedgerows fragrant with elder and cherry, Sumer is acumin in just seems so right.

Arbeiter, Bauern, gegen Faschismus !

Arbeiter, Bauern, nehmt die Gewehre nehmt die Gewehre zur Hand! Zerschlagt die faschistischen Räuberheere, setzt alle Herzen in Brand.

Labourers, farmers, take up the guns, take the guns into your hands! Smash the fascist bandits' armies, set all hearts on fire....the war submerging all countries is the war against you, prole! Labourers, farmers, take up the guns, take the guns into your hands! Smash the fascist bandits' armies, set all hearts on fire. Plant your red Labour banner on every field, on every factory - then a socialist World Republic will rise from the ashes of the old society!

The text is from 1941, about mobilizing the proletariat of the world to defend the Soviet Union from the Nazis. Ideas still relevant today - there was an updated version of this at the time of the Iraq invasion.   The music is Hanns Eisler, originally written for the film Niemansland (1931) directed by Victor Trivas.  It's copyright free and can be dowloaded in full HERE.

In the film, five men cheerfully enlist. In the trenches, they get cut off from their own lines and shelter together in a dug out. Gradually they get to know each other as men, not as enemies. When the shelling stops, they march out together. Where to  The film doesn't say but they're marching against a common foe - war itself.  That's when the Schlussmarch comes in, beautifully, no words. This is what socialism once stood for,. Blair admired Thatcher and said she was his role model. But even she would not have sold the country down the drain to please George Bush. "No alternative" now means "you must keep voting me in because you don't want the other lot". That's why they are scared witless that the system might change. Party above democracy. Ironic?

Although the film is didactic, there are some very good moments, such as the Jewish wedding and especially Louis Douglas, a black American who worked a lot in Europe where the colour bar was less oppressive. He's wonderful, singing and dancing and relaxing everyone else, though he himself is as scared as the rest of them.  There were quite a lot of black actors in European film, even during the Nazi era. Since France and Germany had colonies in Africa, there were thousands of blacks in Europe, some of whom had served in the First Wortld War. The French had entire battalions, who became prisoners of war after the fall of France. They were badly treated and used as slave labour (including as extras in Ufa films). Many died, though one later became the president of Senegal. One German-born African lived and worked in Berlin until he died in 1954. As for Louis Douglas, he went back to the US.

Benjamin Britten : Ballad of Heroes

T Please see here for my more detailed review of Brittens Ballad For Heroes, Ivor Gurney's Glouycestershire Rhapsody and Arthur Bliss Morning Heroes (David temple, BBC CO, Watford)

For my review of Britten Ballad of Heroes with Toby Spence at BBC Prom 32 2017 please read here.

So Tony Blair didn't get invited to the Royal wedding? His sycophants whine. But Prince William has been to Afghanistan, he's a serviceman and he knows the real effects of war. So look who does get invited? People whose names aren't headlines, but disabled soldiers, widows, and charities who care for those maimed by Blair's wars brought upon this nation by shameless deceit. William's chosen guests are the real heroes whom we should honour. Blair's presence would be an insult but his followers are too blind to see. William's mother campaigned against landmines. Chances are she'd not have invited Blair either.

So it was an amazing coincidence that last night's Barbican concert, where Ilan Volkov conducted the BBCSO, should include Benjamin Britten's Ballad of Heroes. It commemorates the International Brigades who served in the Spanish Civil War. Men and women joined the International Brigades because they were idealists who were prepared to die if that's what it took to stop fascism. How different things are now when so-called socialists grovel for places at the Royal W! The real conscience of left idealism has effectively been disenfranchised for many years. The big political parties fear change because it threatens their stranglehold.

Britten's Ballad of Heroes was written three years after his seminal Our Hunting Fathers. a much underrated piece whose radicalism still isn't appreciated. This time the tenor is surrounded by a choir, representing the massed voices of the dead and suffering.  Offstage trumpet : a reference to distant conflicts as well as to the Christian idea of the last trumpet, for which you don't need to be a believer to acess. Alarums and whips of clarinet, marching ostinato in the orchestra and turbulence in the choral writing. "A world of horror!" Then suddenly the tenor emerges, uncovered.

"....and the guns can be heard across the hills like wa-a-aves at night". A distinctively Britten flourish.  Later there are huge leaps within phrases in the vocal line, which Toby Spence negotiates well. The orchestra comments, like a response in the sermon referred to in the text. This time the trumpet call is sour and distorted - a precursor of the horn in the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings. Though it's not a masterpiece, Ballad of Heroes is dramatic and would work well in public spaces. Like Westminster Abbey.

The text is from W H Auden and Randall Swingler, a communist poet of the 1930's  HERE is a link to another poem, much better and possibly all Auden, (though it's not, as the site suggests, the text used in this setting).  In Ballad for Heroes, Britten used lines from both poets. Since Auden's great poet and Swingler isn't, the joins are clear. 


The Spanish Civil War inspired so many artists and writers, from Picasso, to Hemingway and myriad others less famous. Where are the artists now, in our even more polarized times?  Have they all been lulled into complicity?  Britten's Ballad of Heroes is a million miles from Hanns Eisler and Ernst Busch (who actually took part) but Britten cared enough to make a statement.


Please also read my piece  Spaniens Himmel - Chinese volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. 

Berliner Philharmoniker Mega Symphony online

Real reason to celebrate! The Berliner Philharmoniker is streaming in full one of last year's finest Proms - the "mega symphony" which blended Berg, Webern and Schoenberg.  Catch it HERE.

Erich Korngold Die Kathrin - rare clips

Many thanks to Brendan Carroll for these clips from Erich Korngold's last opera Kathrin.  They come from an extremely rare recording issued only in Austria, featuring a Viennese tenor Walter Anton Dotzer. This Serenade comes from near the beginning, when Francois, the hero, serenades Kathrin outside her bedroom window. .Gorgeous set piece but the story isn't quite as simple as it sounds. The opera is set in 1930 for one thing, in the "present", and the subject is not quite as sugary as one might assume. Interestingly, the librettist is Ernst Decsey, Hugo Wolf's devoted follower and first biographer.

Kathrin is a servant and Francois is a soldier. He seduces her by moonlight and ships out, as soldiers do.  She gets pregnant and loses her job - grim reality. As happens to destitute girls, she ends up in dangerous situations, which involve lust, deception and murder. Francois turns up unexpectedly - he's now a freelance musician.  He thinks she's killed the villain and goes to jail on her behalf. Years later he's free and goes wandering in the mountains and sings the Wanderer Lied below. He gets a job serenading a woman who turns out to be Kathrin ! All's well after all.  Please see my numerous other posts on Korngold and related composers.

South Bank Centre 2011/12

Interesting things happening at the South Bank 2011 and 2012, once you get past the "Festival of Britain" and Olympics hype that's infected everyone. Maybe they have to sell crass populism to get funding, but there's some serious musicianship behind the dross.

One theme is "Music that defines an Era", defined by a quote from T S Eliot, "the still point of turning world". ie moments when a piece of music distils the Zeitgeist of an era.  "Every one of the main works in this series has a context that in some way summarizes the human condition", says Esa Pekka Salonen. His choices are surprising, but extremely well considered.  Luigi Dallapiccola's opera Il Prigioniero, (The Prisoner) where Dallapiccola protests the rise of Mussolini.  Italian Fascism s oddly different to Nazism or the rise of the redneck Right, because modernism rejected Pope and King. "It is very rarely played" says Salonen, "because of the tremendous technical challenges but I'm confident that bretween the Philharmonic Voices, the Orchestra and the soloists we can do justice to this very strong piece." You bet. Since Salonen has taken over the Philharmonia they've developed from a good orchestra to arguably the best in Britain. Artistically he's stretched them and they've responded - Bartok, Messiaen, Schoenberg Gurrelieder.

Gosh, did London hit the jackpot with Salonen! He proves why orchestras need conductors with knowledge and vision who aren't prepared to dumb down and play safe. The Philharmonia seems energized, and audiences, too. Even Ormandy might think the Philadelphia model does not work. Salonen doesn't conduct all these concerts, though. Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Shostakovich 13 Babi Yar. Ashkenazy knows about the Soviet system. Clear all for 26/1 and 24/5 in 2012. Probably also 16/2 for Christoph Dohnanyi conducting Brahms German Requiem and Beethoven 4. Brilliant programme. Britten's War Requiem and Mahler's Second Symphony also seem to define their eras. Salonen's good in Mahler, but I can't cope with Maazel especially not in Britten.

Mega Blockbusters too. Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in October. severely tempting even though they're doing Bruckner. Lots of Bruckner this year (three Sevenths) conducted by Barenboim  (Staatskapelle Berlin), Eschenbach, Jurowski and Masur. Though I keep trying, I've never really been able to get my head round Bruckner.

Boulez, on the other hand,  I booked early March ! Intensive weekend of Aimard, Boulez and Ensemble Intercontemporain. In the US there's lots of hype aginst Boulez, generated by Nadia Boulanger's acolytes and Bernstein whom Boulez might have competed with.  As some masterclass students said recently: "He's not a monster at all". Listen and learn.  There'll also be Conlon Nancarrow and John Cage weekends with good performers and choices. Since the Barbican Total Immersions have gone disgracefully downmarket, the South Bank has clearly grabbed back the Crown for serious musical explorations. 

Vladimir Jurowski is heading another major series with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, titled Prokofiev: a man of the people?"  I don't know why the question mark, as Prokofiev chose to go back and stay in the Soviet Union. But Jurowski is planning to mix famous pieces with lesser known. There's also a Study Day.

Lots more, too - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Renée Fleming, Simon and Mrs Rattle, Padmore, Kaufmann etc.

Carnal Flower and Lys méditerranée

Summer is a-coming in, everything coming in to bloom at once. Time to switch perfumes too. In with Lys méditerranée, and my winter signature Carnal Flower into cool dark storage. Both are creations by Frédéric Malle. Why do I "need" perfume when the money could keep a family of ten in Burkina Faso fed for a year?  But on the other hand, a good perfume enhances your soul.

Carnal Flower turns heads because it's so subtle and unique. I love tuberose but it doesn't usually like me. I  love the idea of Tuberose criminelle but can't wear it. Carnal Flower, on the other hand, is natural, and works with you. Tuberoses need hot, sunny summers to thrive and usually come into bloom just as frosts set in in Europe. One year I brought them into the conservatory for shelter together with lemon and orange blossom. Unbelievably heady!  But that's what Carnal Flower is like - tuberose, citrus and something mysterious like the night. There's a hint of coconut, a smell I normally can't abide, but there's nothing cheap about Carnal Flower. Maybe Malle's comes from the young, green, fresh macapuno. Carnal Flower is carnal, but elegant and brainy.

Lys Méditerranée is more complex than the soliflores I used to wear when I was more cautious. Lilies are pure and fragile looking but they grow on tough stems. They have to be, to support as many as 20 blooms on each head.  A courageous flower, not for wimps. Lilies stand tall above the crowd.  I like clean, straight, direct. The plant hunter, Robert Fortune, discovered a valley in China with hundreds of thousands of lilies growing together. That was in Yunnan, I think, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Lys Méditerranée is crisp and fresh. like winds blowing in from the sea, so it's cool and very green. Once I was on a bus in Australia and an old Greek guy came on board, arms full of Madonna lilies, like he must have known when he was young and in Greece, growing wild on mountain slopes. So poignant.  Another time the stall holder I used to buy flowers from gave me his entire left over stock and this time it was me with an even bigger armful of lilies, so many that I couldn't walk far less get on the bus. So when I wear Lys méditerranée, memories and connotations enfold me.

Weimar lives! Mischa Spoliansky Melinda Hughes

"Life's a swindle, life is short but greed's always in season"
Mischa Spoliansky (1898-1985) wrote hits for Weimar cabaret in Berlin, and for music theatre including Es liegt in der Luft (1928) with which Marlene Dietrich made her stage debut.  Obviously after 1933 Spoliansky had to get out quick. But the spirit of Weimar Cabaret never dies as  long as there are creative people with independent minds.

Melinda Hughes is classically trained but she's  made a name as a composer, lyricist and performer of radical, modern cabaret. Her new CD Smoke and Noise is now out on Nimbus Alliance.  The title refers to Schall und Rauch, a nightclub Spoliansky worked for long ago.  His music hasn't been forgotten as he was an extremely successful composer for movies after he relocated to London. There's even an LP of him playing his greatest hits but this is the first new tribute.and easily available CD.  Spoliansky's on the verge of a revival, because his cabaret work connects to contemporary concerns. BCMG is doing a concert of songs by Spoliansky, Hanns Eisler and Stefan Wolpe in May. Get Melinda  Hughes's CD now to prepare, because it's very good.

Hughes  tracked down Spoliansky's music through the Jewish Music Institutre in London and met Steve Edis, whom she describes as "the fount of all knowledge Spoliansky". He played the songs on Spoliansky's own piano and told her the stories behind them.  The new CD features songs from some of Spoliansky's greatest hits like Es liegt in der Luft. You can just imagine Marlene Dietrich smouldering in L'heure bleue, an ironic song about the perfume, wildly popular in the Weimar period. Hughes, who's fluent in German, is pretty good at smouldering too, and has a comic gift.

Mischa Spoliansky's Alles Schwindel (1931) from which the line above comes, must have been explosive at the time, after the Wall Street Crash and rise of fascism.  It's subversive even now, especially with Jeremy Lawrence's English lyrics. Life's a swindle has lines like "Politicians are magicians, they make money disappear". It's a great rousing anthem but the irony is bleak.

Even better is The Smart Set, also from Alles Schwindel, also known as Das Lied der Gesellschaft . Hughes delivers the lines with a cut glass accent so arch that sometimes she deliberately sings up a tone, so it feels like the cut glass is cracking. Which is exactly what the song is about.  Savagely trenchant.

Some may remember Julie Andrews in drag in Victor Victoria. One of Spoliansky's other great successes was Victoria but I don't know if they're connected. Evidently though Spoliansky had sympathie, although he was straight.  Das Lila Lied deals with gay rights - in 1920!   Auf dem Mundharmonica comes from a 1956 show about a circus, but the words are potent. Circuses travel all over Europe. But so did soldiers. The song comes from a musical based on Carl Zuckmayer's play Katarina Knie. The ironic I am a Vamp (1933) is so exuberant, you sing along.

Hughes mixes Spoliansky's originals with songs from her own cabaret Kiss & Tell, like CRUNCH. This song is brilliant. Every line crackles - impossible to quote the best!  Less succesful is Carbon Footprints in my Jimmy Choos whose theme is a bit predictable, but Toy Boy and Smoker's Lament are excellent - both satires on modern pretensions. The combination is sensitively done, since Kiss & Tell's material reflects the political  bite of Weimar cabaret. Although Spoliansky is the focus of this CD, the Kiss & Tell songs are so good that they're worth hearing on their own merits.

Yet not all Weimar music was radical or even leftist.  Long before he moved to Britain and wrote music for movies like Sanders of the River and King Solomon's Mines, Spoliansky was writing for Ufa movies. Close your eyes and wish for happiness is straightforwardly sentimental, though we can't help but hear it tinged with what we know happened later. Similarly the gentle Auf Wiedersehen, but its message is hopeful.  Spoliansky is gone, but we'll meet him again through his music.
HERE is a link to the Mischa Spoliansky website, which has sound and video clips. This CD is on page one.

Peter Lieberson, Lorraine and Neruda

Peter Lieberson died on April 23 2011, aged only 64. He had an eventful life, but perhaps some of his best years were those spent with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, second of his three wives, for whom he wrote the Neruda songs. Lorraine seemed haunted by cancer. The Liebersons downplayed her own illness at the time, but as her condition deteriorated, he, too was diagnosed. Lorraine died in 2006, and the Neruda Songs were issued on CD almost immediately in her memory. The booklet was stark and unadorned by anything but essentials. On the front was a photograph of her beaming defiantly. Inside, a photo snapped moments later, still smiling, but her eyes closed. And then, on the back cover, only black.

Our response to these songs is of course coloured by what we know about their background. But why not?  Art is a medium through which people can work through their feelings and hopefully create something that can help and benefit others. When her mother and sister died from cancer, Lorraine created a mise-en-scène interpretation based on  Bach's Ich habe genug. Dressed in a hospital gown, she sang poignantly and with dignity. It was an act of protest against the disease which stirred many. It raised public awareness and  helped many people, directly and indirectly.

Although the background to these songs can't, and shouldn't be, forgotten, Lieberson's Neruda Songs are haunting as pure music. The voice jumps straight in with an unsentimental, matter-of-fact directness. Life is celebrated here, not death, and love affirms life. "Everything is alive so that I can be alive, ….. in your life I see everything that lives". She sings that last phrase with delicious fire. The accompaniment is spare, but sensual. High strings are balanced by the deeper notes of a harp.

In the second song, the mood is of spaciousness, the strings shimmering as if to capture the stars and open air in the poem. "There’s nothing here but light, quantities, clusters, space opened by the graces of the wind". The voice part isn’t adorned, but floats above the accompaniment. In contrast, the third song confronts fear and loss. It’s eerily quiet, anxiety rising despite the poet’s attempt to suppress it. The last word, "moriendo" (dying) is repeated several times over as if the singer is contemplating what will happen. Yet, again, it’s more dignified and firm than sentimental. The imagery in the fourth song is restful and almost dreamlike, the words "Amor!" repeated lovingly. Yet the strings tell a different story: they are starker, entering with greater force, though a simple little figure pushes the movement ahead. It ends abruptly. Then, comes the magnificent final song, where the poet confronts death and separation. Chill strings shimmer, like the "vague wind swept on us, like sailing seeds". But it’s the final strophe that’s most moving. "Love doesn’t end, goes the poem, because it has no birth, it has no death. … It is like a long river, only changing hands, and changing lips". As if the composer cannot bear to end the song, he repeats the verse again, and then the last line, and then, simply "Amor … amor …. amor".

Peter Lieberson's obituary in the NY Times is HERE. I've heard great things about the Buddhist commmunity in Nova Scotia.  Long may they continue helping those in need.