Marianne Faithfull – Weill – The Seven Deadly Sins (1998)

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single “As Tears Go By” and became one of the lead female artists during the British Invasion in the United States.

Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending a Rolling Stones party, where she was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. Her debut album Marianne Faithfull (1965) (released simultaneously with her album Come My Way) was a commercial success followed by a number of albums on Decca Records. From 1966 to 1970, she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Mick Jagger. Her popularity was further enhanced by her film roles, such as those in I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968), and Hamlet (1969). However, her popularity was overshadowed by personal problems in the 1970s. During that time she was anorexic, homeless, and a heroin addict.

Noted for her distinctive voice, Faithfull’s previously melodic and higher-registered vocals (which were prevalent throughout her career in the 1960s) were affected by severe laryngitis, coupled with persistent drug abuse during the 1970s, permanently altering her voice, leaving it raspy, cracked and lower in pitch. This new sound was praised as “whisky soaked” by some critics and seen as having helped to capture the raw emotions expressed in Faithfull’s music.

After a long commercial absence, Faithfull made a comeback with the 1979 release of her critically acclaimed album Broken English. The album was a commercial success and marked a resurgence of her musical career. Broken English earned Faithfull a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and is often regarded as her “definitive recording”.

She followed this with a series of albums, including Dangerous Acquaintances (1981), A Child’s Adventure (1983), and Strange Weather (1987). Faithfull also wrote three books about her life: Faithfull: An Autobiography (1994), Memories, Dreams & Reflections (2007), and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record (2014).

Faithfull is listed on VH1’s “100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll” list. She received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards and was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France. (wikipedia)

The Seven Deadly Sins is a studio recording of the Kurt Weill opera of the same name by British singer Marianne Faithfull, released in 1998.

Marianne Faithfull had already performed The Seven Deadly Sins live at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Brooklyn,[3] but it was only after working with Dennis Russell Davies on 20th Century Blues that the idea of recording the opera came to her. Davies agreed to collaborate again with her, and the album was recorded in June 1997 at the Vienna Konzerthaus with Davies conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony orchestra.

The recording also includes other songs by Weill & Brecht like the “Alabama Song” and songs from The Threepenny Opera, which Marianne Faithfull also performed live in 1992 at the Dublin Gate Theater, playing the role of the prostitute Jenny and interpreting the famous Pirate Jenny song. (wikipedia)

If you’re looking for the angelic Marianne Faithfull of As Tears Go By, or the angry diva of Broken English, or the lusher but piercingly acute imagery of her work with Angelo Badalamenti, you will not find it here. What you will find, though, is a fully orchestrated work that she has been selling out the house with in Europe — a parable of commerce called The Seven Deadly Sins, with the Vienna Radio Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies conducting. These are the songs of Kurt Weill, composer, and Bertolt Brecht, lyricist. This work, it would seem, is a perfect match of voice timbre and sound wished for by the composer. The husky and weary voiced Faithfull does these songs as they were intended to be done, her voice a beautiful match in tone and color. It is the heavy and somber tone of the music that blends so perfectly with her voice here.

Weill’s music tends toward a formality and somberness that shadows the concerns of the songs. Here Brecht’s lyrics tell the moribund story of a girl placed on a tour by her family to earn money for their luxury; her voice reflects the weariness that becomes the ideal vehicle for her travails and lacerations. According to the tabloids, if they are to be believed, Marianne has spent her life researching this work. She displays that rare intelligence that allows all “misfortunes” to be converted to her benefit. There is a detachment that allows one to be intimately involved with, but not consumed by this type of work. This is her best work in quite some time. She deserves all the accolades that come her way as a serious singer who can pull off the piece. A wonderful disc from one whose live presence we must count as miraculous considering what she has lived through. (by Bob Gottlieb)

Recorded live at the Konzerthaus Vienne/Austria, June 5, 1997 (01. – 08.)
Recorded at the Grosse Sendesaal Radiokulturhaus Vienna/Austria,
Februay 9, 1998 (09. – 12.). 

Personnel:
Marianne Faithfull (vocals)
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Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies
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Peter Becker (Baritone)
Mark Bleeke (Tenor)
Hugo Munday (Tenor)
Wilbur Pauley (Bass)
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Hudson Shad (background vocals)

Tracklist:

The Seven Deadly Sins:
01. Prologue (Prolog) 3.50
02. Sloth (Faulheit) 3.57
03. Pride (Stolz) 4.49
04. Anger (Zorn) 4.47
05. Gluttony (Völlerei) 3.29
06. Lust (Unzucht) 5.22
07. Covetousness (Habsucht) 3.02
08. Envy (Neid) + Epilogue (Epilog) 5.55

Kurt Weill Songs:
09. Alabama Song 2.54
10. The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency 2.35
11. Bilbao Song 5.03
12. Pirate Jenny 4.24

Music: Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Bert Brecht
Translation:
W. H. Auden & Chester Kallman (01. – 08.)
Michael Feingold & Frank McGuinness (09.- 12.)

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More from Marianne Faithful:

The official website:

Andre Previn and J.J. Johnson – Play Kurt Weill (1962)

André George Previn KBE (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor.

His career was three-pronged. Starting by arranging and composing Hollywood film scores for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Previn was involved in the music for over 50 films over his entire career. He won four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings (and one more for his Lifetime Achievement). He was also the music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In jazz, Previn was a pianist-interpreter and arranger of songs from the Great American Songbook, was piano-accompanist to singers of jazz standards, and was a trio pianist.

James Louis Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001) was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.

Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop.

André Previn and J. J. Johnson (subtitled Play Kurt Weill’s Mack the Knife & Bilbao-Song and Other Music from The Threepenny Opera, Happy End, Mahagonny) is an album by pianist André Previn and trombonist J. J. Johnson performing Kurt Weill’s compositions which was released on the Columbia label. (by wikipedia)

Previn intersected most notably with Weill on a 1961 LP, André Previn and J.J. Johnson Play Kurt Weill’s Mack the Knife and Barbara-Song and Other Music from Threepenny Opera, Happy End and Mahagonny (the combo also included Red Mitchell on bass and drummer Frank Capp). Actually the disc held six more tracks: “Bilbao-Song,” the Overture to The Threepenny Opera, “Seeräuberjenny,” “Surabaya-Johnny,” “Wie man sich bettet,” and “Lied von der Unzulänglichkleit menschlichen Strebens.” Some of Weill’s songs had become jazz standards by then, but an entire album devoted to Weill’s music was unusual to say the least. (It has been reissued on CD as Lonehill Jazz LHJ10376.) Around the same time, Previn recorded “Lost in the Stars” as piano soloist with orchestra; years later he accompanied Kiri Te Kanawa on a 1991 disc that included “It Never Was You.”

Undoubtedly Previn’s advocacy gave Weill a push among jazz musicians, particularly in reaching past “Mack the Knife” and exploring other music from Weill’s Berlin years. Previn was in fact born in Berlin in 1929, and it is tempting to imagine that Weill’s music was some of the first he heard as a young child in a city intoxicated with the Threepenny Opera. (New York Times, Feb. 28, 2019)

Personnel:
Frank Capp (drums)
J. J. Johnson (trombone)
Red Mitchell (bass)
André Previn (piano)

Alternate front + backcover:

Tracklist:
01. Bilbao Song (from Happy End) 4.24
02. Barbara Song (from The Threepenny Opera) 6.27
03. Overture (from The Threepenny Opera) 5.21
04. Seeräuberjenny” – 4:20 (from The Threepenny Opera)
05. Mack The Knife (Moritat) 5.19
06. Surabaya Johnny (from Happy End) 4.27
07. Wie man sich bettet (“Meine Herren, meine Mutter prägte” from Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) 6.28
08. Unzulänglichkeit (from The Threepenny Opera) 5.14

All compositions by Kurt Weill

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Alfred Drake – Down In The Valley (Kurt Weill (1950/1960)

Down in the Valley is a folk-opera in one act by composer Kurt Weill and librettist Arnold Sundgaard, initially composed and conceived for the radio in 1945 then rewritten and produced in 1948. It uses famous American tunes to carry the story (including “Down in the Valley”, “The Lonesome Dove”, and “Hop Up, My Ladies”) and connected by original choral music.

This short opera, originally running only about 20 minutes, was conceived as the first of a series of radio operas by Olin Downes, the music critic of The New York Times, and Charles McArthur, a businessman. The radio idea eventually fell through for lack of a sponsor, although Maurice Abravanel conducted an audition recording that was never broadcast. Hans Heinsheimer, the director of publications at Schirmer, approached Weill with a request for a school opera like Der Jasager for production by the opera department of Indiana University School of Music. Weill expanded and simplified Down in the Valley to a 40-minute version, and the revised version had its world premiere at that university in Bloomington, Indiana in 1948, directed by Hans Busch (son of Fritz Busch) and conducted by Ernst Hoffmann. Alan Jay Lerner’s wife, Marion Bell, played Jennie. The piece was soon broadcast on NBC radio. In 1950, it was broadcast on NBC television. It was subsequently produced in July 1952 in Provincetown, New York at the Provincetown Playhouse, directed by Tony Randall. (by wikipedia)

The chorus sings “Down in the Valley,” interwoven with the Leader’s sung exposition of the story of Brack Weaver, who “died for the love of sweet Jennie Parsons / He died for the slaying of Thomas Bouché.” (The Leader acts as a singing narrator throughout the work.)

The action shifts to Brack’s cell in Birmingham jail the night before he is to be executed. Brack has just seen the mail train go by, and he asks the guard whether he has received a letter from Jennie Parsons. The guard says no. Anguished, Brack sings “Where Is the One Who Will Mourn Me When I’m Gone.” Against the advice of another prisoner, he escapes and sets off for Jennie’s house, with the sheriff and a posse in pursuit.

At 2:00 a.m. Jennie is sitting up on her porch, grieving over Brack’s impending death. Her father tells her to come inside and forget about Brack, but she’s inconsolable, lost in memories of their time together and declaring that her love will never die (“Brack Weaver, My True Love”). After her father goes back in the house, Jennie hears Brack’s whistle in the distance, and she ventures out to look for him. When she finds him, they embrace, but the posse can be heard circling ever closer. Jennie explains to him her father wouldn’t let her write to him. Brack asks her if she loves him. Yes, she ardently replies (“The Lonesome Dove”).

Brack recalls their first “date,” when they walked home from a Wednesday night prayer meeting a year earlier, and the scene shifts to the church–the congregation sings “The Little Black Train,” after which Brack walks Jennie home. Brack tells Jennie he saw her walking home the previous week with Thomas Bouché, a shady businessman who had cheated his father. Jennie protests that she has no feelings for Bouché. Brack then asks Jennie if she’ll go with him to the dance at Shadow Creek. When she says yes, he is beside himself with joy (“Hop Up, My Ladies”). But when Jennie arrives home, her father is sitting on the porch with Bouché. The much older man also asks Jennie to the dance. She balks, and Bouché says he will return later for her answer, implicitly threatening her. Jennie’s father presses her to go to the dance with Bouché, who is ostensibly helping him with his financial troubles. When Jennie fiercely refuses, her father warns her that she can’t go to the dance with anyone else, either.

Kurt Weill with his wife Lotta Lenya

Jennie meets Brack at the dance (“Hoedown,” based on “Sourwood Mountain”). Brack takes Jennie aside and declares his love for her. At that moment, a drunken Bouché shows up and demands that Brack get away from his woman. Brack refuses, and they fight. Bouché is killed in the melee. Brack flees but is apprehended and imprisoned.

The flashback ends–it’s now almost dawn. Brack surrenders willingly, now that he knows Jennie will always care for him. From the jail cell, he contributes a verse of “Down in the Valley” as Jennie and the Chorus sing a final reprise. (by Mark N. Grant)

Here we hear Alfred Drake in the main role:

Alfred Drake (October 7, 1914 – July 25, 1992) was an American actor and singer.

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College. He is best known for his leading roles in the original Broadway productions of Oklahoma!; Kiss Me, Kate; Kismet; and for playing Marshall Blackstone in the original production of Babes in Arms, (in which he sang the title song) and Hajj in Kismet, for which he received the Tony Award. He was also a prolific Shakespearean, notably starring as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing opposite Katharine Hepburn.

Drake was mostly a stage and television actor; he starred in only one film, Tars and Spars (1946), but played several roles on television. He appeared in a minor film role as president of the stock exchange in the classic comedy Trading Places (1983), with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. His first musical television appearance was as Captain Dick Warrington in the January 15, 1955 live telecast of the operetta Naughty Marietta. His 1964 stage performance as Claudius in the Richard Burton Hamlet was filmed live on the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, using a “quickie” process called Electronovision, and shown in movie theatres in a very limited engagement. It was also recorded on LP. His final stage appearance in a musical was in 1973 as Honore LaChaisse in Lerner and Loewe’s Gigi. Two years later he starred in a revival of The Skin of Our Teeth.

As a director he staged the 1974 premiere of The Royal Rape of Ruari Macasmunde at the Virginia Museum Theater. He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.

He was also a published author – writing at least a few plays: Dr. Willy Nilly, an adaptation of Molière’s The Doctor in Spite of Himself, an adaptation of Goldoni’s The Liar, and even at least one book on cards (specifically Gin Rummy).

Alfred Drake died of heart failure, after a long fight with cancer, in New York City at the age of 77. (by wikipedia)

And Kurt Weill died on  3. April 1950 in New York City; “Down In The Valley” was his last completed composition.

Personnel:
Norman Atkins (Thomas Bouché)
Leo Bernache (Peters)
Alfred Drake (Brack Weaver)
Dorothy Egen (First Woman)
Herman Hennig (A Man)
Leonard Kranendonk (Guard)
June McMechon) (Second Woman)
John Petterson (Jennie´s Father)
Danny Slick (The Preacher/The Leader)
Jane Wilson (Jennie Parsons)

Orchstra and Chorus conducted by Maurice Levine
Entire production under supervision of Kurt Weill

 

Tracklist:

01. Down in the Valley (Part One) 15.04
01.1.Down In The Valley
01.2 The Lonesome Dove

02. Down in the Valley (Part Two) 14.41
02.1.Hop Up
02.2.My Ladies
02.3.Other

Music Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Arnold Sundgaard

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Taken from Kurt Weill: “An Illustrated Life” by Jürgen Schebera, Yale University, 1995

Center City Brass Quintet – Kurt Weill – From Berlin To Broadway (2002)

Hailed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for playing which is “keenly balanced, sensitive, and brilliant in technical accomplishment”, the Center City Brass Quintet is renowned for setting new standards of artistry on brass instruments. The members of the quintet, regarded as five of the finest brass players of their generation, come from the ranks of the nation’s leading symphony orchestras and music school faculties, who convene regularly for chamber music making of the highest caliber.

The quintet takes its name from the famous downtown district of Philadelphia, in which it was founded in 1985 at the Curtis Institute of Music. Winners at the Coleman and Carmel chamber music competitions, the group has since been featured on numerous live television and radio broadcasts, including NPR’s Performance Today, and won wide acclaim for its concert tours throughout the U.S. and abroad. In 2001, the quintet was in residence at the inaugural Music Masters Course in Kazusa festival in Japan, where they performed in recital and taught brass students from around the world.

The members of the quintet are:

This release by the award-winning Center City Brass Quintet showcases the depth and variety of music by the German-born composer Kurt Weill, beginning with a suite of songs from his best-known Threepenny Opera. This is followed by a collection of cabaret and art songs composed in Europe, and concludes with songs composed in America for the Broadway stage in collaboration with the likes of Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart. Every song is in a brand new arrangement for brass quintet, written especially for this recording. Fans of the Center City Brass Quintet’s previous CD releases will enjoy the same rich sound, technical brilliance, and artistry they have come to expect from this fabulous ensemble which the American Record Guide has deemed “one of the strongest of today’s brass quintets”.

Personnel:
Anthony DiLorenzo (trumpet)
Geoffrey Hardcastle (trumpet)
Richard King (horn)
Craig Knox (tuba)
Steven Witser (trombone)

Tracklist:
01. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Overture 2.01
02. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Ballad of Mac the Knife)  2.01
03. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Act I: Cannon Song) 2.19
04. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Ballad of Immoral Earnings 3.01
05. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Act II: Finale: Second Threepenny Finale) 1.20
06. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Act III: Solomon Song)  3.27
07. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Act III: Call From The Grave) 3.14
08. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Act III: Epitaph) 1.53
09. The Threepenny Opera Suite: Act III: Finale: Third Threepenny Finale) 2.31
10. Happy End: Act III: Surabaya Johnny 4.49
11. Mahagonny: Part I: Alabama-Song 3.13
12. Je ne t’aime pas 5.16
13. Mahagonny: Part II: Denn wie man sich bettet, so liegt man 4.27
14. One Touch of Venus: Speak Low (arr. for brass quintet) 4.07
15. Lost In The Stars 2.28
16. Lady In The Dark: Part I: My Ship 5.08
17. Lady In The Dark: Part II: One Life To Live 4.20
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