Radio 3 drama

[ardcarp]

Last Sunday's broadcast of Brecht's and Eisler's The Mother was welcome but what a pity Radio 3 did not have the wit or courage to use the John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy 1984 adaptation which transferred the location to northern Ireland. See pages 171 to 173 of http://40.114.28.106/pdf/04-08-2019_...0191536779.pdf ,

I plead huge and unforgivable ignorance here, Bryn. Is this the same as Mother Courage? I remember my sister (who read German) doing an undergrad thesis on it in the 1950s ! Must listen when time permits.

[Bryn]

I plead huge and unforgivable ignorance here, Bryn. Is this the same as Mother Courage? I remember my sister (who read German) doing an undergrad thesis on it in the 1950s ! Must listen when time permits.

No, The Mother (after the novel by Maxim Gorky) treats with Pelagea Vlassova, the mother of a Bolshevik activist who, after initially opposing her son's politics joins in when he is arrested and imprisoned. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_(Brecht_play). It was one of the first fruits of collaboration between Brecht and Eisler.

[Serial_Apologist]

I plead huge and unforgivable ignorance here, Bryn. Is this the same as Mother Courage? I remember my sister (who read German) doing an undergrad thesis on it in the 1950s ! Must listen when time permits.

The play/opera you are possibly thinking of is Brecht's 1941 stage production "Mother Courage and Her Children", set to music by Paul Dessau in 1946. While I have never heard the entire opera, the songs from it which I have heard are rather fine, in my opinion.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-03278-5_5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnnDzlBVh2Q

Other youtubes are available.

I've often thought that the music of Eisler, as well as one or two others such as Gunther Kochan, were probably bright stars among the few redemptive features of life in the postwar GDR.

[Bryn]

Further to #17, an English translation of Maxim Gorky's original novel can be found here.

[Bella Kemp]

Last Sunday's broadcast of Brecht's and Eisler's The Mother was welcome but what a pity Radio 3 did not have the wit or courage to use the John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy 1984 adaptation which transferred the location to northern Ireland. See pages 171 to 173 of http://40.114.28.106/pdf/04-08-2019_...0191536779.pdf ,

It was a fine performance and I think a bit unfair to suggest they should have gone with the John Arden and Magaretta D'Arcy version when this was a live recording of what was a remarkable and innovative performance: https://culturenet.co.uk/events/bbc-...y-hanns-eisler
John Arden! - a blast from a strangely distant past. I used to avidly seek out his plays and subscribed to Peace News.

[Bryn]

It was a fine performance and I think a bit unfair to suggest they should have gone with the John Arden and Magaretta D'Arcy version when this was a live recording of what was a remarkable and innovative performance: https://culturenet.co.uk/events/bbc-...y-hanns-eisler
John Arden! - a blast from a strangely distant past. I used to avidly seek out his plays and subscribed to Peace News.

Hmm. I found Nali's conducting a bit restrained, especially considering other Eisler works I have heard him conduct. The Ulster accent of one of the antagonists helped to reinforce my memories of the D'Arcy/Arden adaptation, from which the Arts Council withdrew its funding for the 1984 QEH performance of the cantata under political pressure from the Thatcher government. Fortunately the GLC stepped in to rescue the production. In its own terms, the production broadcast last Sunday was pretty fine, to be sure.