Dear Jane
I have been trying to track this one down and cannot
find any Kipling work that sounds like "Surabaya
Johnny" (which does not mean that it isn't based on RK
work).
However, I did notice in the song list on the Kurt
Weill Foundation website for "Happy End" that there is
a song in the german version titled "Der Song von
Mandelay". Unfortunately, I can't find the text
anywhere so this may be a coincidence.
I did find a reference to a parody of an RK poem
"There were three friends that buried the fourth" from
"The Light that Failed", in Brecht's poem "Death in
the Forest" where three men look on with indifference
as a fourth dies.
There are references to Brecht (and/or Elisabeth
Hauptmann) having incorporated work by Kipling and
Villon in "The Threepenny Opera", but that these were
cut during the rehearsals for the original production.
They may have been re-incorporated for later
productions. Again, I can't lay my hands on the
libretto at the moment, so this is all rather
speculative.
With best regards
David Page
Harrow UK
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
|