Berberian, whom I saw do that evening of Victorian & other drawing room
favourites - delightfully amusing - was Berio's muse even after their
marriage broke up; she did do some Monteverdi, also some cod-baroque
versions of the Beatles, but was otherwise mainly celebrated for her
performance of modern music. I had the great good fortune to experience
her in Berio's *Recital (for Cathy)* (a hysterical diva in the interval
going over her performance & everything else, Molly-Bloom-wise) & a
3-language version of *Pierrot lunaire*. The RCA recording of the former
coupled with Berio's version of various folksongs plus the 3
Berio-orchestrated Weill songs is easily & very cheaply available, one
of my absolute top vocal recordings, not to be missed. On a Wergo CD
including some Monteverdi & "I've got a ticket to ride" she also sings
songs by Cage & Bussotti, I think - because our copy has mysteriously
vanished. She was one of the most magnetic singer-actresses I've ever
seen on stage, others being Helga Pilarczk as Lulu & Marie and Mara
Zampieri in *Ballo in Maschere*. (I've got a little list... Hildegard
Behrens as Katja Kabanova comes to mind, now that you mention her.)
mj
Ken Wolman wrote:
> MJ Walker wrote:
>
>> I was going to snobbishly say that the original Seeräuber Jenny,
>> Carola Neher, made the best recording, but then I put on the old LP
>> (with Brecht's own recording of "Moritat" - Mackie Messer) & listened
>> to her & (early) Lenya in succession - Lotte is the tops. (I agree
>> Marianne is very good in her way.) Though I must say my very
>> favourite Brecht/Weill recording is in English - Cathy Berberian's
>> "Song of sexual slavery", which she translated herself, I believe -
>> the English is at least as good as the German (a fairly unique
>> case.), and Berio's instrumentation superb. And Milva's version of
>> the same in Italian is wild, think Anna Magnani.
>> Poachum ;-)
>
>
> Mea culpa. I know very little about Berberian, and certainly did not
> know about her Weill connection. I associate her with florid
> Baroque. I also heard a probably hot set of mp3s of a concert where
> she recreated a 19th century English house party recital, singing
> some perfectly atrocious ballads, some straight and some as send-ups.
> A few she deliberately mangled, others overcame the material and were
> exquisite.
>
> Ken
>
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