Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill - The Threepenny Opera (1954 New York Cast) (Blitzstein Adaptation)
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Free Music Notes for The Threepenny Opera (1954 New York Cast) (Blitzstein Adaptation)
Free Music Review: Take it for what it is, not what you (or I) expect to be.
Hit: 4 Stars
Okay, I bought it suspecting different things than I got. I read the reviews, I listened to my mother who saw it back in the 50's with Lotte Lenya, and I know the background of the music, authors, style, etc. The words are very toned down due to censorship (according to CD liner) and and some of the songs have been clipped. Some I barely rcognized. However, it is still extremely enjoyable. The background "orchestra" has a good tinny sound which goes well with the music. Lots of fun listening to well known actors and actresses behaving as social misfits. Easy to listen to; worth the few bucks it cost. Wish there was more of Lenya...Free Music Review: Very good despite watered-down lyrics
Hit: 4 Stars
This is an excellent recording, marred only by the fact that the record company forced Blitzstein to censor a number of the lyrics, including some of the best and brightest ones. If you've seen a stage production of this play, you may be disappointed by the toning-down of the lyrics on this.Free Music Review: Historical document inexcusably mangled by rogue producer
Hit: 3 Stars
Once again, CD producer Brian Drutman has remastered and reissued an all-time classic theater recording with a carelessness and indifference to spacing the tracks that borders on professional malpractice. There should be at least 5-6 seconds between the end of each song and the beginning of the next. Not so in a Brian Drutman reissue. Mr. Drutman and his engineers (usually Chris Roberts) leave no more than 1-2 seconds from the end of one song to the beginning of the next on this extraordinary recording; sometimes the next track begins instantaneously. What was he thinking? Is this some kind of contemporary pop music DJ sensibility misapplied to an original cast theater recording? Whatever the reason, it is nothing but artistically irresponsible to not allow the listener a moment's pause to absorb such mighty coups de theatre as Lenya's "Pirate Jenny" before racing into the next cue. Vandalism! Fie, fie, fie. It's utterly disgraceful. Drutman and his cronies do much the same on their other Decca reissues of classic original cast recordings, but there they usually insert 3-4 seconds between tracks (not enough) instead of 1-2. This one is their worst. Butchery. Write a letter to Decca, theater lovers. And they price their hackwork at $18.99 no less!Free Music Review: Hollywood showbiz
Hit: 2 Stars
Don't be fooled by the featuring of Lotte Lenya great though her Pirate Jenny may be. This is a sanitised showbiz version of Brecht which fails entirely as satire or political comment.