geezer opera & theatre ... CATCH MAHAGONNY (und Godot und Mutter Courage) LIVE IN BERLIN!!!

"Halloh, Joe! Schluck keinen Zahn!"
"Hey Joe! Don't swallow your teeth!"

A performance of Mahagonny in Berlin, from the website of the Heldentenor Elliot Palay, in the role of the lumberjack Jimmy Mahoney.

If I got this straight, "Mahagonny" will be performed from September thru December 2006 at the Komische Oper in Berlin DE.

Trust me -- you don't really have to speak German to figure out what's going on in "Mahagonny." And you'll remember it long after you've forgotten who won the World Cup.

"Mahagonny" premiered in Leipzig on 9 March 1930, was performed in Berlin on 21 December 1931 -- and then was dark until a British production in Sadler's Wells in 1963.

~ ~ ~

Okay in several recent posts Vleeptron has made references to the Alabama USA city of Mahagonny, and the Mahagonnydrinksalon, and we have explained that Mahagonny is an Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.

Vleeptron said "opera" and so everyone immediately clicked off Vleeptron and went surfing for digital virtual toon teen ultraviolent pixel porn.

Yup, there's nothing in an old Euro-opera that anybody could possibly be interested in.

Here's a song from "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny," lyrics rendered into English. A few young people have heard this song, a few Americans have heard this song. Some old dead dude named Jim Morrison used to sing it. He had this band called The Doors.

But I filched these from a Nina Simone fansite. Make a list of the 20th Century's most famous singers -- jazz, rock -- and they just cover and cover and cover Brecht and Weill. And the crowd goes wild.

Though both Brecht and Weill would soon have to flee for their lives to America, neither had ever been to America when they created the Alabama city of Mahagonny. Weill died in New York City after doing some of his best work for the Broadway musical theater. Brecht was chased back to East Berlin during the USA's Red Scare of the 1950s. In Berlin he founded a great theater that's still there, doing great things.

VLEEPTRON EXTRA SUPER BONUS!!!

"Warten Auf Godot" ("Waiting for Godot") is on at Brecht's Berliner Ensemble on 15 and 16 June 2006 -- this coming week!!!

And then Brecht's "Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder" ("Mother Courage and Her Children") on 24 and 25 June!!!

============

Alabama Song
(Whiskey Bar Song)

from "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny"
"Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny"

music: Kurt Weill
lyrics: Bertolt Brecht

Show us the way to the next whiskey bar
Don't ask why
For we must find the next whiskey bar
Or if we don't find the next whiskey bar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you
I tell you
I tell you we must die

Oh Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey ... you know why

Oh Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey ... you know why

Show us the way to the next dollar
Don't ask why
For we must find the next little dollar
Or if we don't find the next little dollar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you
I tell you
I tell you we must die

Oh Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have dollar oh you know why

Oh Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have dollar oh you know why

Oh show us the way to the next little girl
Oh don't ask why
For we must find the next little girl
Or if we don't find the next little girl
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you
I tell you
I tell you we must die

Oh moon of Alabama
It's time to say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
We must have little girl oh you know why

Oh moon of Alabama
It's time to say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
We must have little girl oh you know why