UTE LEMPER, BERLIN CABARET
I have been under Ute Lemper’s spell for at least 30 years. Her championing of Weimer Germany’s explosive music scene, bringing us the songs of Brecht and Kurt Weill, has continued to enthral. And here she was in person at the Corn Exchange thanks to the Cambridge Music Festival giving a one-woman performance that brought pre-Nazi Berlin cabaret to Wheeler Street. She was backed by a superb eight-strong band conducted by Cambridge resident Robert Ziegler. The orchestra contained those vital Weill-Brecht ingredients of harsh piano, wry trombone, Klezmery clarinet, jazzy guitar and that essential sleazy instrument, the accordion. Willkommen to Cabaret!
Lemper now in her early 60s has lost none of her hall-filling vocal power, immense range including that spine-chilling deep alto and the Eartha Kitt-like ability to roll those rrrrs when a touch of feline rasp is needed in the bittersweet lyrics. She also a human chameleon adapting her gorgeous voice to the varying styles of her favourite composers of the 20s and 30s. Slinking on stage in slinky black, she began the show with Alabama Song, that catchy acidic song by Weill and Brecht – ‘Oh show me the way to the next whisky bar…’, perhaps a mistimed lyric given that many of us had just come from such a saloon. But it was a great start – Lemper never simply sings a great song, she lives it, lives every word: ‘I tell you I must die’..she intones in breathless desperation. Other songs from the great duo included Pirate Jenny, which Lemper presented her perfectly shaped music drama as the enslaved skivvy who dreams of murderous revenge. Not pretty but deeply moving.
There were other excellent choices including works by Friedrich Holländer, Auschwitz victim Victor Ullman (a beautiful hopeful song) and an unexpected treat; ‘The Man I Love’ by George and Ira Gershwin. Talking of the last, Ute gave us some lovely songs by taken from Weill’s later sojourn as a Jewish exile in the USA. One was the haunting Speak Low with words by Ira Gershwin, another I’m a Stranger Here Myself, with lyrics by Ogden Nash.
If I had one small criticism it was that some of the big-band arrangements in the second half were a touch overblown. Lemper added her own jazzy scat ornamentation, and the effect was both thrilling but eventually a touch repetitive. In some songs such as the famous Mack the Knife, much less is much more.
Those comments aside, Ute Lemper was on full power to present an evening of musical marvels. She is a consummate star, of the old school, and the perfect interpreter of Marlene Dietrich whose sexy songs of melancholy were given a brilliant airing. Here Lemper in a range of scarves, jackets and hats, her powerful sing-spiel style echoing around the vast space, was every bit the sensual siren – no wonder we were all now under her spell.
images: Cambridge Music Festival
