BaL 15.10.16 - Cabaret

[Nick Armstrong]

With all the things said upthread in mind, it seems to me there are two distinct questions to answer.

1. Was BAL well presented?
2. Was Cabaret a suitable topic for BAL?

1. For me Richard Sisson conducted a splendid survey of the piece. He was (obviously) very well-informed and played lots of examples to illustrate his case. His manner was also just right for a R3 audience; intelligent, with occasional dry humour. It was an eye-opener to me to hear Judy Dench in the role of Sally Bowles! (I might add how awful 'a chat-with-Andrew' format would have been.)

2. Yes it most certainly was. Apart from the film, I'd only seen a student production of Cabaret (with one of my daughters as MD as it happens!) and I felt I wanted to get to know the show and its additional material better. No need to be highbrow or sniffy IMVHO.

I did feel the chosen version came as a bit of a rabbit out of a hat, though I respect entirely RS's opionion of its musical excellence. In spite of being a Francophile with knobs on, I do think I'd prefer an English language version if I bought a CD to live with.

I was left with a real enthsiasm to go and see a (professional) live staging were one to appear in a theatre near me...or a live streaming.

Caught this BAL this morning and couldn't put it better than that, ardcarp (though I might correct the spelling of HRH Judi's first name - agreed, her performance as Sally was a knock-out)

I have no problem with this piece getting the BAL treatment, and never having tired of the dark and disquieting undercurrents in the Fosse film, found the 'live' history of the show and its differences from what I'm familiar with fascinating.

One thing that marks this out as the only musical I really love, is that it lacks soupy string-heavy conventional 'Musical' numbers - I'm happier the closer it gets to Weill and a wind / jazz band feel. Some of the lesser known numbers from stage versions sounded to me to be nearer the conventional 'Musical' numbers, so I'm not sorry if they continue in relative obscurity.

I did think that the final conclusion, to choose the French version, teetered close to being perverse - but anyway, I no longer really care about final 'choices' on BAL, it's the analysis and examples that count for me, from which I'm happy to make up my own mind.

caberet saugvignon blanc

Dammit, I was going to do the Caberet Sauvignon gag!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... you're excluding here things like die Zauberflote and similar?

Well, yes - "Operas" were what was mentioned.

well, I spose the letter scene in la Traviata?

- is this often omitted from recordings?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ariadne auf Naxos (I think); Die Entführung?

PS: Having just seen vinteuil's response, I might be wrong about Entführung and have been thinking of Zauberflöte instead!

But Entfuhrung and Zauberflote (and Fidelio and Freischutz are - pedantically - Singspiels, not Operas.


Apologies.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And there's Carmen, of course

[Bryn]

And there's Carmen, of course

And Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives, though there are not that many different recordings, and without the spoken dialogue it would be pretty much an instrumental piece.

Come to think of it, Moses under Aron would suffer a bit without its spoken aspect.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[french frank]

Ariadne auf Naxos (I think); Die Entführung?
I too found the comment a little odd (which I think is what you are implying).

PS: Having just seen vinteuil's response, I might be wrong about Entführung and have been thinking of Zauberflöte instead!

Die Entführung most definitely has spoken dialogue. The WNO (?) production I saw opted for the sung parts in German and the spoken narrative in English which I didn't find altogether comfortable.

Btw - what is the plural of Singspiel?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Btw - what is the plural of Singspiel?

- Singspielen.

[french frank]

- Singspielen.

Just wondered. Sounds a bit elitist, if you ask me.

[BBMmk2]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]




Dammit, I was going to do the Caberet Sauvignon gag!

Have a pint of real ale on me!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just wondered. Sounds a bit elitist, if you ask me.

As opposed to "cultist"? Why - this is an idle thought, y'understand - is an Italian word less "elitist" than a German one?

[Pulcinella]

As opposed to "cultist"? Why - this is an idle thought, y'understand - is an Italian word less "elitist" than a German one?

Isn't it just that we don't 'do' foreign (and will presumably do even less after Brexit), so get ourselves wonderfully confused, with inventions such as paninis?
Singspiels would seem more intuitively correct to us, I suspect.

[ardcarp]

Despite being on the opposite side of he fence, I actually agree with Draco's points 1,2 and 3 (post#83) which are well-put.
However, I still don't have any objection in principle to Cabaret being 'done' and I did enjoy the programme and its presentation!

[vinteuil]

As opposed to "cultist"? Why - this is an idle thought, y'understand - is an Italian word less "elitist" than a German one?

... an interesting question. My lamentable secondary education wasn't able to provide any German, and I wasn't alert early enough to think of acquiring German by myself : consequently I've always had a bit of an inferiority complex about it, and look up with great respect to anything in the deutsches Sprache.

Is it that the unfortunate political choices of the Germans in the 20th century have made that language less immediately 'available' to us, and therefore more 'elitist'?

And yet Italian (with which I am personally more 'comfortable') shd surely be the ultimate 'elitist' language? - resonances of the Grand Tour, the unspeakeable red-trouser brigade who infest chiantishire...

But then Italian as a language is more of the bread-and-butter which ennyone innarested in classical music picks up from the very beginning - allegros and prestos, pianos and fortes...

Paninis? At least few think to refer to Mozart's concerto for three piani...

[french frank]

As opposed to "cultist"? Why - this is an idle thought, y'understand - is an Italian word less "elitist" than a German one?

On'y joshin'! I have no particular objection to 'Singspiels'. Mind you, enough of these operas - I'd say one opus, two opera if opus wasn't used for another purpose.