I remember, maybe inaccurately, a verse by satirist Barry Humphries‘ character, Sir Les Patterson, that went like this, “Singing songs by Brecht needs the memory of an elephant / But what they lack in tune, they gain in relevance.” Brecht’s original 1930 radio-like recording of the Threepenny Opera is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature.
SHOW
The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1929 – 65 radio.
Mixed live-to-air by 1920s – 1930s singer and actor, Greg Poppleton, on radio 2SER 107.3 Sydney since 1985, The Phantom Dancer is re-broadcast on 23 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com.
You can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too, at 2ser.com.
PLAYLIST
The Brecht feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-50s radio. Read the full play list below.
Remember – the ALL VINYL FINYL HOUR.
DREIGROSCHENOPER
With song lyrics by Kurt Weill and book by Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (Dreigroschenoper), ‘a play with music’, was based on an Elisabeth Hauptmann translation of John Gay’s 18th-century English ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera. Hauptmann was Brecht’s girlfriend. Brecht did not credit her work.
RIP-OFF
1. Brecht claimed he did the translation, not Hauptmann
2. Brecht added four songs by French poet François Villon, without crediting Villon.
3. For these songs he used the translations by K. L. Ammer, without crediting Ammer.
When questioned by critics about these lapses, Brecht said he had, “a fundamental laxity in questions of literary property.”
STANDARDS
On this week’s Phantom Dancer we hear Lotte Lenya (married to Weill), Kurt Gerron, Erich Ponto, Willy Trenk-Trebitsch and Erika Helmke sing songs from Brecht’s play. the recordings are from an album of 78rpm records with radio-like announcements, made in Berlin in 1930.
Two of these songs you’ll now recognise as standards. They are, ‘Die Moritat von Mackie Messer’ (Mack the Knife) a jazz standard, and ‘Seeräuberjenny’ (Pirate Jenny) a cabaret staple.
CAPITALIST
Opening on 31 August 1928 at Berlin’s Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, The Threepenny Opera, is a socialist critique on the capitalist world.
PETIT-BOURGEOIS
But despite its socialist credentials, Brecht’s ‘play with music’ was panned after its 1930 Soviet premier. Izvestia scowled: “It is high time that our theatres ceased playing homage to petit-bourgeois bad taste and instead turned to more relevant themes.” Oh, Sir Les!
IMPACT
Composer Weill’s artistic gave his intent for the music in a dense statement he issued in 1929, “Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art. If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed. In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch.”
He also opined, “music cannot further the action of the play or create its background but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments.” This was much copied by subsequent Western doyens of agitprop-style worthiness.
BANKERS
The Threepenny Opera was slow to pick up audiences, but then it became a huge success in Berlin with 400 performances in its first run.
And ironically, the first run of Brecht’s socialist work was the place to be for Berlin’s monied classes. Socialites, bankers, industrialists and diplomats saw Brecht’s play as the place to be seen.
Productions elsewhere in the world in the 1930s were flops. Weill described a 1935 BBC broadcast of the play as totally misunderstanding what it was about. The 1930s Broadway production was described as dreary, though the music was praised, and closed after 12 performances.
SCORE
As you’ll hear, Weill’s music borrowed heavily from 1920s German jazz and dance band music, and this is its most interesting attribute.
Like Greg Poppleton’s 1920s-30s band, the original Lewis Ruth band in the 1930 album recording of The Threepenny Opera you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer were all multi-instrumentalists.
The seven-piece ensemble played 23 instruments.
VIDEO
Max Raabe introduces Bertolt Brecht…
25 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST
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Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN #333 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 25 September 2018 |
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Set 1
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Raymond Scott on 1940-41 Radio | |
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Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + Wellesley High Jump
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Raymond Scott Orchestra
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Blackhawk Restaurant
WGN Mutual Chicago 21 Oct 1940 |
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Humpty-Dumpty Heart
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Raymond Scott Orchestra (voc) Roberta Leigh
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Burmuda Room
Hotel Brunswick WBZ Boston 6 Dec 1941 |
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Huckleberry Duck + Pretty Little Petticoat (theme)
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Raymond Scott Orchestra
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Blackhawk Restaurant
WGN Mutual Chicago 1 Nov 1940 |
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Set 2
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John Coltrane live on 1960s Radio | |
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Afro Blue
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John Coltraine
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The Half-Note
WCBS-FM NY 26 Mar 1965 |
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Set 3
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Trad Jazz on 1940s Radio | |
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Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (theme) + Original Dixieland One Step
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Wild Bill Davison
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‘This is Jazz’
WOR Mutual NY 17 May 1947 |
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Song of the Wanderer
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Muggsy Spanier
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‘Eddie Condon’s Jazz Concert’
WJZ Blue NY 17 Feb 1945 |
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I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling + Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (theme)
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Wild Bill Davison
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‘This is Jazz’
WOR Mutual NY 24 May 1947 |
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Set 4
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Dreigroschenoper 1930 | |
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Overture + Mack the Knife
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Lewis Ruth Band (voc) Kurt Gerron
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Dreigroschenoper Album
Comm Rec Berlin 1930 |
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Ballad of the Agreeable Life + Love Duet + Cannon Song
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Lewis Ruth Band (voc) Willy Trenk-Trebitsch, Erika Helmke, Gerron
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Dreigroschenoper Album
Comm Rec Berlin 1930 |
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Pirate Jenny + Finale Act 1
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Lewis Ruth Band (voc) Lotte Lenya, Erika Helmke, Erich Ponto
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Dreigroschenoper Album
Comm Rec Berlin 1930 |
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Set 5
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Harmonists on 1930s Radio | |
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Swingin’ on the Strings
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The Inkspots
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WEAF NBC Red NY
9 Aug 1935 |
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Swing for Sale
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Mills Brothers
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‘Norge Program’
Radio Transcription NYC 1937 |
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Why Don’t You Practice What You Preach?
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Boswell Sisters
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‘Woodbury Show’
KNX CBS LA 18 Sep 1934 |
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Down Among the Sleepy Pines
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The Three Ambassadors + Jean Shark
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Cocoanut Grove
Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1932 |
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Set 6
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Cab Calloway | |
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Shout, Shout, Shout
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Cab Calloway
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Comm Rec
New York City 30 Aug 1938 |
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Hey Now, Hey Now
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Cab Calloway
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‘One Night Stand’
Club Zanzibar NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 1945 |
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We, The Cats, Shall Hep You
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Cab Calloway
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‘One Night Stand’
Club Zanzibar NYC AFRS Re-broadcast 16 Jul 1945 |
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Ducktrot
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Cab Calloway
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‘Guest Star’
Radio Transcription New York City 17 Sep 1950 |
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Set 7
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Royal Garden Blues | |
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Royal Garden Blues
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Muggsy Spanier
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Club Hangover
KCBS San Francisco 11 Apr 1953 |
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Royal Garden Blues
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Ray Miller Orchestra
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‘Sunny Meadows Show’
Radio Transcription Chicago 26 Jan 1929 |
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Royal Garden Blues
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Louis Armstrong
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‘Damon Runyon Memorial Jazz Concert’
Blue Note ABC Chicago 11 Dec 1948 |
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Royal Garden Blues
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Hot Lips Page
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‘Doctor Jazz’
Stuyvesant Casino WMGM NYC 1950 |
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Set 8
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Women Singers Part 2 | |
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Rocking Chair (theme) + Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone + I’ll Never Be The Same
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Mildred Bailey
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‘Music Till Midnight’
WABC CBS NY 1944 |
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As Long As I’m Dreaming
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Peggy Lee
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‘Peggy Lee Show’
KNX CBS LA 1948 |
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Mad About The Boy
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Lena Horne
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‘Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1944 |
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Chewin’ Gum + I Wanna Be A Rug Cutter
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Ella Fitzgerald
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Savoy Ballroom
WEAF NBC Red NY 4 Mar 1940 |
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 