Tag Archives: spoliansky

Serious Cabaret

Posted on by
Reply

BRQ_CD_DPS1_8-1Serious Cabaret is an album by singer Mary Carewe and pianist Philip Mayers who is also responsible for the arrangements.  It’s an eclectic mix of cabaret material from the 1920s to the 1970s.  There’s classic material from the Weimar Republic, including songs by Hollaender (“Oh just suppose”) and Spoliansky (“Maskulinum/Femininum”, “It’s All a Swindle”) and one I hadn’t heard before; Zemlinsky’s “Herr Bombardil” about a man who eats until he explodes. Continue reading →

Weimar and Back

Posted on by
Reply

NI6367After discovering a rare Viktor Ullmann video, the Shoah Songbook concert and seeing Ute Lemper live I decided to go off and have a look for more music from Weimar, the Holocaust and resistance to Nazis; past and present.  It was an interesting haul and included a 2018 album from English cabaret singer/comedienne Melinda Hughes.

Her 2018 album Weimar and Back consists of the songs from her one woman show Margo Half Woman Half Beast about the cabaret singer Margo Lion.  It’s a mix of Weimar cabaret material by the likes of Mischa Spoliansky, Friedrich Hollaender, Kurt Weill and Werner Heymann that anyone familiar with the genre likely knows.  There’s Das lila Lied and Chuck All the Men out of the Reichstag and Youkali and  Der Mensch muss ein Heimat haben but there’s also more modern material; mostly by Hughes and collaborator Jeremy Limb. Continue reading →

Dance to the Abyss

Posted on by
Reply

artoftimeDance to the Abyss is a show of music from the Weimar Republic currently on stage at Harbourfront Centre Theatre.  It’s given by Art of Time Ensemble as part of their 25th and final season.

It’s an interesting mix of instrumental and vocal music.  The first piece in the programme is Erwin Schulhoff’s Hot Sonate for Sax and Piano which is a four movement, heavily jazz piece influenced, expertly played by Andrew Burashko and Wallace Halladay (I think).  It’s followed by three pieces by the prolific Mischa Spoliansky.  There’s the atmospheric instrumental piece Sehnsucht and two songs sung by Patricia O’Callaghan in English translation; I Am a Vamp and L’heure Bleue.  The songs are pretty well known and fun and I liked O’Callaghan’s playful treatment of them. Continue reading →

Ute Lemper at Massey Hall

Posted on by
Reply

This one has been on the bucket list for ages.  I have loved Ute Lemper’s work since I discovered it back in the 1980s but had never had a chance to see her live.  Last night she played Massey Hall which was. a big enough deal for me to miss an opening at the COC of one of my favourite operas.  (Fear not, I’m going to Cunning Little Vixen tomorrow).

lemper2

Continue reading →