Sunday, 12 September 2010
Sunday Night is... Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya Singing "Seeräuber Jenny" (Pirate Jenny) from the original 1931 film Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera).
Apart from it being Brecht and Weill at their best, it sends cold shivers up me. And there's the moment at the end of the clip where Lenya just moves her hands very slightly, as minimal as you get. It is as if she were opening death's door.
More excellent versions by Marianne Faithfull and Nina Simone. Lenya's is the simplest and deadliest. 'Alle.' Quiet satisfaction. And Hoppla!
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4 comments:
the best, and I've wanted to hear this again for ever so long. Thank you - and youtube.
That lifting of the hand after such stillness: mistress of gestus! Wunderbar.
Yes, the stillness. But all the songs from the film are good. I could keep putting them up. They are mostly on YouTube.
Absolutely marvelous George. Thanks for these. I know what you mean about the stillness etc. Dick (and it is wunderbar) but I think I prefer the older Lenya's version, also on Youtube. I am going to buy it through iTunes shortly. I have already just bought and downloaded the whole (original) Threepenny Opera with the old German versions, including the one George posted, for ten euro. A couple of pints, eh? Before listening to these, I only knew the Armstrong and Ella versions of Mack the Knife, which is superb, but... Lenya gives me serious goosebumps!
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