http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
Elvis Costello
World premiere
Opera|The Opera, Main Stage
Composer|Elvis Costello
Period|01. mar. - 04. apr.
Price|260 kr.
A chamber opera by British rock legend Elvis Costello spotlighting Hans Christian Andersen�s unrequited love for the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. Following last season�s warm-up performance of a song cycle from the opera, Takkelloftet now presents the world premiere of Costello�s first opera.
Direction: Kasper Bech Holten
Set design: Stine Martinsen
The Secret Songs are sponsored by The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Bikuben Foundation.
Cast
Hans Christian Andersen: Allan Klie
P.T. Barnum: Joachim Knop
Jenny Lind: Sine Bundgaard
Dr. Meisling: Kjeld Christoffersen
Henriette Wulff: Elsebeth Lund
Edvard Collin: Bo Kristian Jensen
Mrs Meisling: Andrea Pellegrini
The Secret Songs, full production , starts March 1 '07
The Secret Songs, full production , starts March 1 '07
Last edited by johnfoyle on Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/4968.html
July 28, 2006
Q & A: Kasper Bech Holten, Director of Schumann's Genoveva at Bard SummerScape
By Matthew Westphal
Robert Schumann is certainly celebrated as a composer for the voice, but not as a composer of operas. He wrote only one: Genoveva, for which he provided both music and libretto. Perhaps that was a problem, for the piece has had a stage career one might describe as ... er, less than successful. An article in last Sunday's New York Times (July 23), while acknowledging that much of the music was quite beautiful, referred to Genoveva as "the unloved opera" and a "perennial flop." The paper also gave us one tiny but telling taste of the libretto: the heroine's immortal line, "Avant, ignoble bastard!"
So if anyone is braver than Leon Botstein, artistic director of the Bard SummerScape festival, for deciding to present a full staging of Genoveva (the first in the U.S., in fact), it's Kasper Bech Holten for agreeing to direct it. In the following interview, conducted by Alison Ames of 21C Media Group, Holten,the 33-year-old artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, talks about what attracted him — to directing opera generally, and to a work long considered by many to be un-stageworthy.
Q: What is it especially about Genoveva that made you accept Bard's invitation — were you familiar with the work beforehand? Now that you know it, will you approach it in a "non-historical" way? I ask because of your interesting [Wagner] Ring ideas on your website, and the wonderful photographs of your staging.
Kasper Bech Holten: I have always found it interesting to get challenged. I did not know Genoveva, but I thought it was interesting that Schumann had written an opera. It is a challenging piece for a director, but it is also wonderfully operatic with its wild German high Romanticism, and it reminded me of a mix between Lohengrin and Freischütz.
Q: Do you have what you could describe as a general philosophy about directing opera and, if so, how does it apply to Genoveva?
KBH: For me opera is about trying to make people cry. The opera house should be the emotional fitness-center of society — a place where you go to use your love-muscle, your hate-muscle, etc. Genoveva is so wildly dramatic, moving and fascinating, if you want to express all this instead of looking for realism in it.
Q: Schumann's Genoveva seems to get very strong reactions from people. Liszt was a great admirer of it, which is one of the reasons Bard has decided to mount this production; he considered it one of the best operas of his time. And conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has recorded the work and has come to its defense when critics and performers take the work to task. What is this opera all about?
KBH: The more I get to know it, Genoveva is a dream of love that turns into a nightmare. It is about obsession — what happens when you are obsessed with love. The main character is really Golo, a character much like Alberich: who thirsts for love, but cannot have it and turns into a terrible caricature of himself.
Q: What should we tell a reluctant critic or editor who asks "Why would I want to drive all the way up to Bard to see this opera, and write a review?"
KBH: First of all, because you will have millions of chances to review Rigoletto or Nozze di Figaro, but you won't come across Genoveva very often. So if you have any curiosity, that should already make you come! But also because we will try to make it a wild, intense music-theatre experience, using the romantic wilderness of the text instead of excusing it.
Q: What got you into directing and when? Did you — like James Levine — do theatrical stagings with puppets as a child?
KBH: I did, actually! I saw Carmen when I was nine at the Royal Danish Opera (where I am now artistic director), and I was completely sold! I listened to the record over and over again, started dragging my parents to opera ever so often (they both work in finance), but at 12 they started to just let me go to the opera alone. At around the same time, we got a toy theatre and started off by doing Lohengrin, but from 12-14 I actually put on the WHOLE Ring cycle in the toy theatre — using Karajan's recording as sound track. For Götterdämmerung I even entered the whole Danish translation in my computer and timed it all, so we had our own titles for the audience! But still: My poor family, who had to sit through the whole Ring ...
Q: When did you first get going professionally?
KBH: At 18, I decided to give it a go and I started working as assistant director to people I admired. Very soon, I was lucky enough to get a chance to direct a chamber opera. And since then, it has moved really fast. But if anybody had told me 15 years ago that I would now have directed the whole Ring in a new opera house [the Operaen in Copenhagen] for the Royal Danish Opera — where I would be artistic director — I would just have laughed.
Q: Your enthusiasm for directing is contagious. What is it about this job that you find so appealing?
KBH: For me, directing is an incredible way of working: Your whole job is about inspiring other people — the singers, design team and finally the audience. I find it so rewarding to be able to make my ideas grow in other people's mind. What a privilege!
Q: Do you have any further dates in the U.S. beyond Genoveva at Bard?
KBH: Not yet. Right now I'm looking forward to doing a number of interesting projects in Europe, including Maskarade [by Carl Nielsen] in Copenhagen, La traviata in Stockholm, Elvis Costello's first opera, Secret Songs, and Don Carlo in Copenhagen, Lohengrin at Novaya Opera in Moscow, and Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna and Copenhagen.
The award-winning Danish stage director Kasper Bech Holten is now Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Opera. His first project in the United States was a critically acclaimed production of Ligeti's Grand Macabre for San Francisco Opera in November 2004. He returns to the U.S. this summer to oversee the first staged production in America of Schumann's only opera, Genoveva, which opens at the Bard SummerScape festival on July 28, 2006 (additional performances July 30, August 2, 4 and 5). Information is available at http://summerscape.bard.edu/.
July 28, 2006
Q & A: Kasper Bech Holten, Director of Schumann's Genoveva at Bard SummerScape
By Matthew Westphal
Robert Schumann is certainly celebrated as a composer for the voice, but not as a composer of operas. He wrote only one: Genoveva, for which he provided both music and libretto. Perhaps that was a problem, for the piece has had a stage career one might describe as ... er, less than successful. An article in last Sunday's New York Times (July 23), while acknowledging that much of the music was quite beautiful, referred to Genoveva as "the unloved opera" and a "perennial flop." The paper also gave us one tiny but telling taste of the libretto: the heroine's immortal line, "Avant, ignoble bastard!"
So if anyone is braver than Leon Botstein, artistic director of the Bard SummerScape festival, for deciding to present a full staging of Genoveva (the first in the U.S., in fact), it's Kasper Bech Holten for agreeing to direct it. In the following interview, conducted by Alison Ames of 21C Media Group, Holten,the 33-year-old artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, talks about what attracted him — to directing opera generally, and to a work long considered by many to be un-stageworthy.
Q: What is it especially about Genoveva that made you accept Bard's invitation — were you familiar with the work beforehand? Now that you know it, will you approach it in a "non-historical" way? I ask because of your interesting [Wagner] Ring ideas on your website, and the wonderful photographs of your staging.
Kasper Bech Holten: I have always found it interesting to get challenged. I did not know Genoveva, but I thought it was interesting that Schumann had written an opera. It is a challenging piece for a director, but it is also wonderfully operatic with its wild German high Romanticism, and it reminded me of a mix between Lohengrin and Freischütz.
Q: Do you have what you could describe as a general philosophy about directing opera and, if so, how does it apply to Genoveva?
KBH: For me opera is about trying to make people cry. The opera house should be the emotional fitness-center of society — a place where you go to use your love-muscle, your hate-muscle, etc. Genoveva is so wildly dramatic, moving and fascinating, if you want to express all this instead of looking for realism in it.
Q: Schumann's Genoveva seems to get very strong reactions from people. Liszt was a great admirer of it, which is one of the reasons Bard has decided to mount this production; he considered it one of the best operas of his time. And conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has recorded the work and has come to its defense when critics and performers take the work to task. What is this opera all about?
KBH: The more I get to know it, Genoveva is a dream of love that turns into a nightmare. It is about obsession — what happens when you are obsessed with love. The main character is really Golo, a character much like Alberich: who thirsts for love, but cannot have it and turns into a terrible caricature of himself.
Q: What should we tell a reluctant critic or editor who asks "Why would I want to drive all the way up to Bard to see this opera, and write a review?"
KBH: First of all, because you will have millions of chances to review Rigoletto or Nozze di Figaro, but you won't come across Genoveva very often. So if you have any curiosity, that should already make you come! But also because we will try to make it a wild, intense music-theatre experience, using the romantic wilderness of the text instead of excusing it.
Q: What got you into directing and when? Did you — like James Levine — do theatrical stagings with puppets as a child?
KBH: I did, actually! I saw Carmen when I was nine at the Royal Danish Opera (where I am now artistic director), and I was completely sold! I listened to the record over and over again, started dragging my parents to opera ever so often (they both work in finance), but at 12 they started to just let me go to the opera alone. At around the same time, we got a toy theatre and started off by doing Lohengrin, but from 12-14 I actually put on the WHOLE Ring cycle in the toy theatre — using Karajan's recording as sound track. For Götterdämmerung I even entered the whole Danish translation in my computer and timed it all, so we had our own titles for the audience! But still: My poor family, who had to sit through the whole Ring ...
Q: When did you first get going professionally?
KBH: At 18, I decided to give it a go and I started working as assistant director to people I admired. Very soon, I was lucky enough to get a chance to direct a chamber opera. And since then, it has moved really fast. But if anybody had told me 15 years ago that I would now have directed the whole Ring in a new opera house [the Operaen in Copenhagen] for the Royal Danish Opera — where I would be artistic director — I would just have laughed.
Q: Your enthusiasm for directing is contagious. What is it about this job that you find so appealing?
KBH: For me, directing is an incredible way of working: Your whole job is about inspiring other people — the singers, design team and finally the audience. I find it so rewarding to be able to make my ideas grow in other people's mind. What a privilege!
Q: Do you have any further dates in the U.S. beyond Genoveva at Bard?
KBH: Not yet. Right now I'm looking forward to doing a number of interesting projects in Europe, including Maskarade [by Carl Nielsen] in Copenhagen, La traviata in Stockholm, Elvis Costello's first opera, Secret Songs, and Don Carlo in Copenhagen, Lohengrin at Novaya Opera in Moscow, and Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna and Copenhagen.
The award-winning Danish stage director Kasper Bech Holten is now Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Opera. His first project in the United States was a critically acclaimed production of Ligeti's Grand Macabre for San Francisco Opera in November 2004. He returns to the U.S. this summer to oversee the first staged production in America of Schumann's only opera, Genoveva, which opens at the Bard SummerScape festival on July 28, 2006 (additional performances July 30, August 2, 4 and 5). Information is available at http://summerscape.bard.edu/.
Tickets for this go on sale on Aug. 14th '06-
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
I'm hoping to go to the first night , March 1 '07.
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
I'm hoping to go to the first night , March 1 '07.
-
sweetest punch
- Posts: 5996
- Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
- Location: Belgium
The Englisch and Danisch website of The Secret Songs seem to contradict:
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx (look for the Danisch version).
I stedet for den planlagte kammeropera i opfører vi på forestillingsdatoerne i foråret 2007 en teaterkoncert med musik af Elvis Costello; dels sange fra hans sangcyklus "The Juliet Letters" og dels hans nykomponerede sange fra "The Secret Songs", der er skrevet direkte til Den Kongelige Opera og som hermed for første gang i verden opføres som musikdramatik.
Operachef Kasper Bech Holten iscenesætter teaterkoncerten, der bliver en fortælling om ensomhed og om menneskets forsøg på at række ud til hinanden ved at skrive breve, fortællinger, ord eller sange til andre mennesker - eller til fiktive personer. Det fortælles gennem kærlighedsbreve, breve fra et barn, fra en soldat lige før krigen og en jaloux kvindes brev - og i "The Secret Songs" gennem H. C. Andersens ensomme tanker, da han skriver sange til sin store kærlighed Jenny Lind uden at turde sende dem til hende.
Der bliver altså ikke tale om en operaforestilling i gængs forstand, men om en scenebegivenhed, der igennem Elvis Costellos sange fortæller en række små historier, som samler sig til en helhed.
Stine Martinsen står for scenografien, og på scenen medvirker skuespilleren Allan Klie og operasangeren Sine Bundgaard samt en strygekvartet og klaver.
Iscenesættelse: Kasper Bech Holten
Scenografi: Stine Martinsen
Can someone translate? Here they seem to be talking about a theaterconcert with songs from The Juliet Letters and The Secret Songs.
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
A chamber opera by British rock legend Elvis Costello spotlighting Hans Christian Andersen’s unrequited love for the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. Following last season’s warm-up performance of a song cycle from the opera, Takkelloftet now presents the world premiere of Costello’s first opera.
Direction: Kasper Bech Holten
Set design: Stine Martinsen
The Secret Songs are sponsored by The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Bikuben Foundation.
Here they talk about the complete chamber opera???
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx (look for the Danisch version).
I stedet for den planlagte kammeropera i opfører vi på forestillingsdatoerne i foråret 2007 en teaterkoncert med musik af Elvis Costello; dels sange fra hans sangcyklus "The Juliet Letters" og dels hans nykomponerede sange fra "The Secret Songs", der er skrevet direkte til Den Kongelige Opera og som hermed for første gang i verden opføres som musikdramatik.
Operachef Kasper Bech Holten iscenesætter teaterkoncerten, der bliver en fortælling om ensomhed og om menneskets forsøg på at række ud til hinanden ved at skrive breve, fortællinger, ord eller sange til andre mennesker - eller til fiktive personer. Det fortælles gennem kærlighedsbreve, breve fra et barn, fra en soldat lige før krigen og en jaloux kvindes brev - og i "The Secret Songs" gennem H. C. Andersens ensomme tanker, da han skriver sange til sin store kærlighed Jenny Lind uden at turde sende dem til hende.
Der bliver altså ikke tale om en operaforestilling i gængs forstand, men om en scenebegivenhed, der igennem Elvis Costellos sange fortæller en række små historier, som samler sig til en helhed.
Stine Martinsen står for scenografien, og på scenen medvirker skuespilleren Allan Klie og operasangeren Sine Bundgaard samt en strygekvartet og klaver.
Iscenesættelse: Kasper Bech Holten
Scenografi: Stine Martinsen
Can someone translate? Here they seem to be talking about a theaterconcert with songs from The Juliet Letters and The Secret Songs.
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
A chamber opera by British rock legend Elvis Costello spotlighting Hans Christian Andersen’s unrequited love for the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. Following last season’s warm-up performance of a song cycle from the opera, Takkelloftet now presents the world premiere of Costello’s first opera.
Direction: Kasper Bech Holten
Set design: Stine Martinsen
The Secret Songs are sponsored by The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Bikuben Foundation.
Here they talk about the complete chamber opera???
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
A friend in Copenhagen confirms that this appears to be the case. He also tells me that it's already booked out until March 26th! I now hope to go on that night. Apparently members of the Opera have had a week to make advance bookings.Can someone translate? Here they seem to be talking about a theaterconcert with songs from The Juliet Letters and The Secret Songs
http://www.billetnet.dk/html/artist.htm ... CRET+SONGS
'Currently few or no seats available'
.......or, in other words, the entire run is sold out!
Considering the venue size , it's not surprising -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Copenhagen_Opera_House
Takkelloftet
Besides the main stage, the building also comprises a small stage for experimental theatre, a socalled "black box" named Takkelloftet. Everything on the stage and in the audience area is totally black, and the audience seats can easily be removed, in order to make the room much easier to configure for alternative setups. There are up to approximately 200 seats for this stage.
Takkelloftet has its own foyer. In this room, some of the walls are decorated using the same Jura Gelb limestone as outdoor. These stones are mounted on the wall in a way that makes it possible to use the stone plates as a kind of music instrument just by knocking at them with your bare hands.
Takkelloftet is named after a building just south of the opera, which was originally 280 meter long and used for handling ropes (for the navy). That building was built in 1767-1772 and designed by Philip de Lange. By using this name, the opera keeps a connection to the marine history of its location.
'Currently few or no seats available'
.......or, in other words, the entire run is sold out!
Considering the venue size , it's not surprising -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Copenhagen_Opera_House
Takkelloftet
Besides the main stage, the building also comprises a small stage for experimental theatre, a socalled "black box" named Takkelloftet. Everything on the stage and in the audience area is totally black, and the audience seats can easily be removed, in order to make the room much easier to configure for alternative setups. There are up to approximately 200 seats for this stage.
Takkelloftet has its own foyer. In this room, some of the walls are decorated using the same Jura Gelb limestone as outdoor. These stones are mounted on the wall in a way that makes it possible to use the stone plates as a kind of music instrument just by knocking at them with your bare hands.
Takkelloftet is named after a building just south of the opera, which was originally 280 meter long and used for handling ropes (for the navy). That building was built in 1767-1772 and designed by Philip de Lange. By using this name, the opera keeps a connection to the marine history of its location.
This production appears to have been , ahem, reduced somewhat; it will now feature a cast of TWO.
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
Cast
Hans Christian Andersen: Allan Klie
Jenny Lind: Sine Bundgaard
With flights and show tickets already booked and paid for I'll still be going ( the March 26th date ), but this really seems to be a considerable downsizing of the whole thing. Some tickets for a few dates appear to have become available
http://www.billetnet.dk/html/artist.htm ... =kglteater
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
Cast
Hans Christian Andersen: Allan Klie
Jenny Lind: Sine Bundgaard
With flights and show tickets already booked and paid for I'll still be going ( the March 26th date ), but this really seems to be a considerable downsizing of the whole thing. Some tickets for a few dates appear to have become available
http://www.billetnet.dk/html/artist.htm ... =kglteater
After I've got over being in a huff I find that
the ever fab. Jan Gardberg had posted this translation of the Danish blurb on listserv last October -
( extract)
About the performance
Instead of the planned chamber opera we will, on the
performance dates in the beginning of 2007, present a
theatre concert with music by Elvis Costello; on one
hand songs from his song cycle “The Juliet Lettersâ€
the ever fab. Jan Gardberg had posted this translation of the Danish blurb on listserv last October -
( extract)
About the performance
Instead of the planned chamber opera we will, on the
performance dates in the beginning of 2007, present a
theatre concert with music by Elvis Costello; on one
hand songs from his song cycle “The Juliet Lettersâ€
Some coverage - I wonder was Elvis in Denmark for tonight's opening show ?
http://hd.se/noje/2007/03/02/costello-b ... kongelige/
Publicerad 2 mars 2007
Costello-brev på Det Kongelige
Så blev det till slut dags för Det Kongelige Teater att sätta upp Elvis Costellos hela sångcykel "The secret songs". De nyskrivna sångerna framförs tillsammans med "The Juliet letters" i en teaterkonsert signerad Kasper Bech Holten. Fram till den 4 april ges det 22 föreställningar av "The secret songs" på sidoscenen Takelloftet.
http://hd.se/noje/2007/03/02/costello-b ... kongelige/
Publicerad 2 mars 2007
Costello-brev på Det Kongelige
Så blev det till slut dags för Det Kongelige Teater att sätta upp Elvis Costellos hela sångcykel "The secret songs". De nyskrivna sångerna framförs tillsammans med "The Juliet letters" i en teaterkonsert signerad Kasper Bech Holten. Fram till den 4 april ges det 22 föreställningar av "The secret songs" på sidoscenen Takelloftet.
No reviews in the Danish media yet - but then they do have other things on their minds -
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 99161.html
March 3, 2007, 12:43AM
'Police arrest 170 in Copenhagen protests'
The Curse Of Costello , or what !?!?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 99161.html
March 3, 2007, 12:43AM
'Police arrest 170 in Copenhagen protests'
The Curse Of Costello , or what !?!?
-
VonOfterdingen
- Posts: 462
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:28 pm
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
The venue's site has the songs ( and lyrics) used in this show ; the basic structure is songs form the Juliet Letters , with The Secret Songs after an interval.
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
Cast
Hans Christian Andersen: Allan Klie
Jenny Lind: Sine Bundgaard
Sjællands String Quartet
1,3,9,10,12,14.16,17,19,21,26,28,31 March and 2 April 2007
Anne Søe Iwan, 1. violin
John Bak Dinitzen, 2. violin
Bernd Rinne, viola
Richard Krug, cello
Jeremy Bines/Carol Conrad, piano
Bent Clausen, percussion and banjo
The Royal Danish Teater String Quartet
5,7,23,24,30 March and 4 April 2007
Tobias Durholm/Anna Gwozdz (30. marts), 1. violin
Anna Zelianodjevo/Inge Andersen (24. marts), 2. violin
Sune Ranmo, viola
Juliane von Hahn/Ingemar Brantelid (4. april), cello
Jeremy Bines/Carol Conrad, piano
Bent Clausen, percussion and banjo
1. For Other Eyes
2. Swine
3. Expert Rites
4. I Almost Had A Weakness
5. Why?
6. Who Do You Think You Are?
7. This Offer Is Unrepeatable
8. Dear Sweet Filthy World
9. This Sad Burlesque
10.Romeo's Seance
11.The First to Leave
12.Taking My Life In Your Hands
13.The Birds Will Still Be Singing
PAUSE
14.My Toy Theatre
15.How Deep Is The Red?
16.Illustrated Lady
17.The Misfit
18.American Humbug
19.He Has Forgotten Me Completely
20.She Handed Me A Mirror
Songs from '05 shows not used -
http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2 ... 8659#98659
She Was No Good
Red Cotton
The Famous Artificial Bird
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyrics
For Other Eyes
I don't know what I would do
If this letter should fall into
Other hands than it should pass through
For other eyes
He said, "It was nothing...it's over and done"
But the rotten worm was burrowing still
Its spirit invades me bleeding me white
For other replies
I searched his pockets
I searched his eyes
I searched his wallet for clues and lies
And I found a number that I somehow dialed
A woman answered, a woman smiled
Then she hung up on the silence unperplexed
Innocently spun her rolodex
I dialed again I could not resist
Revealing just the dentist receptionist
One day we'll laugh about it or maybe we'll curse
But there is one thing that is making it worse
And it's the lack of forgiveness that I can't disguise
No matter how well he lies
Now we don't know each other anymore
And when we touch our lips feel sore
I question the longing left in his sighs
For other eyes
Swine
You're a swine and I'm saying that's an insult to the pig
In the foul furrow that you dig
Why don't you lay your head down
In that unconsecrated ground
WAS she your MOTHER?
Or WAS she your bride
To defile and to blister
To gnaw at her side
Is this the end of the world?
Now that you've finished your life
This RIDDLE is the work of my little pen-knife
Expert Rites
I marvel at the wonder of it in our souless age
Fast flow the tears upon the page
Don't be alarmed I am her friend
Will I be excused if I presume
It's more than disappointment that we share
You share the same sorry life, the families fight,
that unhappy blade you both invite
This romantic ideal has a lonely appeal
I once loved someone the way that you do
But I had to let her go
I live with my regret
Don't despair my would-be Juliet
I Almost Had A Weakness
Thank you for the flowers
I threw them on the fire
And I burned the photographs that you had enclosed
GOD they were ugly children
So you're the little bastard of that brother of mine
Trying to trick a poor old woman
'Til I almost had a weakness
Last week Cousin Florence
Bit your Uncle Joe
Hit him on the forehead with a knife and a fork
(She) said that he looked like the devil
Then she said... "pass the vinegar," I'm beginning to think
(That) I'm the only one who hasn't taken to the drinking of it
Though I almost had a weakness
It pains me to mention
These delicate concerns
While I have to tolerate you family jewels
I really mustn't grumble
('Cause) when I die the cats and dogs will jump up and down
And you little swines will get nothing
Though I almost had a weakness
Why?
Why is Daddy not here?
Are you crying?
Why?
Does he still love me?
Will you take care of me?
If you both love me so
Why don't you love each other
Mummy's gone missing
Daddy's on fire
Daddy's on fire
Daddy's on fire
Who Do You Think You Are?
The hunted look, the haunted grace
The empty laugh that you cultivate
You fall into that false embrace
And kiss the air about her face
Who do you think you are?
The tres bon mots you almost quote from your
QUIVER of literary darts
A thousand or so tuneless violins thrilling your cheap
little heart
Who do you think you are?
My cigarette burns right down to the ash, my coffee
cup is unstained
The waiter hovers close at hand
His courtesy strained
Who do you think you are?
I close with my regards
Well I'm the red-face gentleman
Caught in this picture postcard
Who do you think you are?
Trying my best to make the best of your absence
Though the joke gets tired and sordid
Sea-shell hearts get trampled under foot
Punchlines unrewarded
But even at this distance it's not easy to accept
The vision that I chase returns when I least expect it
I've fallen from your tired embrace
I kiss the air around the place that should be your face.
This Offer Is Unrepeatable
DON'T SEND ANY MONEY!
Fate has no price
Ignore at your peril this splendid advice
An invaluable link in an infinite chain
An offer like this will just not come again
You wish you had women to charm and bewitch
Power of life and death over the rich young girls will
be swooning
Because you're exciting them
And not only fall at your feet but be biting them
Guaranteed, guaranteed to capture your breath
Or just possibly scare you to death
Sign it and seal it and send it to friends
But don't mention my name
Don't make any long term plans
In thirty-six hours your fortunes will change
Your best friends won't know you
And neither will strangers
Do not keep this letter
It must leave your hand
You have been selected from over five thousand
A twister or dupe will bamboozle or hoodwink you
I can't say more it would only confuse you
The wine that they offer will go to your head
And you'll start to see double in fishes and bread
Guaranteed, guaranteed for a lifetime or more
Guaranteed, for this world and the next
Guaranteed, guaranteed for the world and its mother
Cherish this life as you don't get another one
UNLESS you should take up this fabulous offer
Don't leave it too late or you'll be bound to suffer
And woebetide anyone so woebegone
You won't know you're born or about to pass on
You'll never get tired
You'll never get bored
By the way I just hope you're insured
And if you're not satisfied
If you want more
We can always provide an improved overture
Guaranteed at a price that is almost unbeatable
This offer is unrepeatable
Your trouble will vanish
Your tears will dry
Your blessing will just multiply
Guaranteed at a price that is almost unbeatable
This offer is unrepeatable
Guaranteed, guaranteed to bring fortune and favor
In a riot of colours, (a variety of) and flavours
Guaranteed at a price that is almost unbeatable
This offer is unrepeatable
Would I lie to you? Would I sell you a dud?
Just sign on the line. Could you possibly write it in blood?
Dear Sweet Filthy World
Dear sweet filthy world, my wife or whoever reads this
I think that I've lived too long
With all of my promise unfulfilled
But there is a veil drawn over all of that
I know you'll probably say, "Spare us the melodrama"
"I don't know how he chose the pills or the stupid revolver"
I'm out of luck
I'm not that strong
My hands, your neck
I might have wrung
Don't try to find me
I'm not worth anything anymore
I am not leaving you with all of your problems
The biggest one is me
Life is dark
Cold as the sea
Embrace me in my anguish
Put seaweed in my hair and vow that you won't cry because
I've gone
I can't go on, I can't go on, I can't go on
I must close now
This Sad Burlesque
I write in hopes that by the time you get this letter
We may live to see a change for the better
Or are we so devoted to these wretched selfish motives
When the cold facts and figures all add up
They cannot contradict this sad burlesque
This sad burlesque
With miserable failures making entertainment of our fate
Laughter cannot dignify of elevate
This sad burlesque
Now can they recall being young and idealistic
Before wading knee-deep in hogwash and arithmetic
The pitying smirk
The argument runs like clockwork
Will run down eventually and splutter to a stop
P.S. Well by now you know the worst of it
And we've heard all the alibis that they've rehearsed
The smug predictions
If it's not a contradiction
Keep faith in human nature
And have mercy on the creatures in this sad burlesque
Romeo's Seance
Is anyone there I can talk to?
Give us a sign if you're with me
CAN'T you see that I'm dying to hear you
EVERYONE ELSE HAS LOST INTEREST
AND I'M ALL ALONE IN THIS DREAM HOUSE
Though you're gone
I don't feel like crying
Romeo is calling you
Knock once or twice if you're out there
Send me a message my sweetheart
When I'm out and about I'll be coming to see you
IT ISN'T EASY TO LIVE WITH THIS MATRONLY FACE
AT THE WINDOW
Try to contact me, if you can see how I'm suffering
Romeo is calling you
Scatter the paper and thimbles
You can take care of the candles
An unplugged radio plays. She is close NOW
Me and my hand-holding baby walking the floor and the ceiling
THIS IS the song SHE dictated this evening.
Romeo is calling you
ROMEO IS CALLING YOU
The First to Leave
I should open with a kiss
For if you're reading this
You must have opened up your case
And found this letter where I placed it
In between the silk and lace
There were other clues, like your walking shoes
But I still refused to believe
That you were meant to be the first to leave
Everybody here sends you their love
How can I forget you still walk above
Or below
Perhaps you'll never know this purgatory
We never could agree
There's a thought, there's a pause
No time to repent
Eternally yours
In a permanent lent
But if I should give you up
If you're right and life just stops
And I never see your face again
Then from unearthly pleasures, proud and plain
I shall abstain
Until you realise, my loss is your surprise
Unless you know otherwise
Then don't grieve
You see I had to be the first to leave
Taking My Life In Your Hands
My dear impulsive darling I suspect my letter got to you too late
And it's really just a silly fragment of paper
But it means so much to those who wait
All the suffering days and nights till I dare dream again
There you suddenly stand and I'll be damned if you didn't disappear with the dawn
Hours pass and darkness comes
Soon I will close my eyes
Will you return if you don't reply
You'll be taking my life in your hands
You'll be taking my life in your hands
Taking my life in your hands
I don't know why my dearest darling
I can't tell you how I feel when you are near
When I see you have returned my letters unopened
I will tear them up, your voice ringing in my ears
But you're kidding yourself if you think this correspondence will end
I can always pretend words I don't have the courage to send
Reach you
Hours pass and darkness comes
Soon I will close my eyes
Will you return if you don't reply
You'll be taking my life in your hands
You'll be taking my life in your hands
Taking my life in your hands
The Birds Will Still Be Singing
Summertime withers as the sun descends
He wants to kiss you. Will you condescend?
Before you wake and find a chill within your bones
Under a fine canopy of lover's dust and humourous bones
Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
Eternity stinks, my darling. That's no joke
Don't waste your precious time pretending you're heartbroken
There will be tears and candles
Pretty words to say
Spare me lily-white lillies
With the awful perfume of decay
Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
If I'm lost or I'm forgiven
The birds will still be singing
It's so hard to tear myself away
Even when you know it's over
It's too much to say
Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
If I'm lost or I'm forgiven
The birds will still be singing
PAUSE
My Toy Theatre
When I was born and placed upon my parent’s bridal bed
Made from the timber of a nobleman’s unwanted coffin
They say I screamed an endless song
Beyond that snuffed out spark
Frightened of the dark
That covers land like blight
Now all the verses that I sing
Are pulled out of the superstitious night
My poor mad grandfather would take his knife and carved strange beasts
Sometimes he’d wander from the forest with garlands in his hair
He sat shaping creatures that resembled dogs with wings
As harmless lunatics weave cradles out of twine
But deep within the spinning room
I feared one day this madhouse might be mine
All of them had recognised their worth
Accept for the changeling that lives beneath the stairs
I knew I was a foundling of some noble birth
My father dreamed some rare dreams for a shoemaker
He made for me this very fine toy theatre
He taught me how I might first cut and then dress the paper dolls
Showed me strings I should attach to every puppet and fool
And in time it came to me to give to them their stories and their souls
So do you think that my pale eye
Would fail to spy the street below?
Where gutters run with butcher’s blood
They say untold wealth lies
Beneath all unholy cries
While the poor pour fiery furnaces that spout
The brass that’s battered out into cornets that will trump
Notes from the wan fanfare of every loveless chump
Slumped in doorways, dimmed like lamps
Airs are strained with brazen verses
Harlot’s curses, dipping into beggar’s purses
Gambler’s hunches
Songs of finches
Forfeit these and sweeter stenches
Old men die by shrunken inches
Infants chained to factory benches
And yet I wait for him or is it her?
Hoping that they may appear
In My Toy Theatre
The words I really long to reach
Hide behind each halting speech
Just as some familiar hand lies just beyond my grasp
From that first fine entrance and through each mistake until our life’s last gasp
How Deep Is The Red?
Is this is not a pretty tale?
Is this not a riddle?
A bow shoots arrows through the air
A bow drags notes from a fiddle
But who is the beau of poor girl’s dreams?
That a king may send to battle
Is this not a pretty tale?
Is this not a riddle?
If red is the breast of soldier’s tunic hung with a silver medal
And red is the thorn that protects the rose, a deeper red than the petal
How deep is the red our redeemer bled, the debt of our sins to settle?
How deep is the red?
How deep is the red?
How deep is the red our redeemer bled?
How deep is the red?
Illustrated Lady
I dip my pen into the well and draw up
An indolent Princess, insolent soldiers and invisible garments thrown over old tyrants
A heart that beats within a spinning top
Scratched upon blank paper
Stain it with Indian ink
Now let me think
How does a glass containing ruby wine fill up once it is drunk?
Why does that song come from branches of a lightening blasted trunk?
Friends said I would recognise her by her silhouette
And that I’d be sorry for that merry day before we met
But where on earth is my ideal?
Is this she the latest one who makes me feel my heart, my heart
My heart is set upon?
But if my past I should reveal then I may well be undone
My mother was laundress
Wading in the icy river
The blue veins raised upon her skin like carnival tattoos
Washing out of secrets found in other people’s dirt
Gin to cheer her when the waters were turbulent
And laughing at the scandal of a noble mistress beaten by her servant
Her sister ran a wanton house of dubious repute
Her daughter fell into the arms of every brute
Who offered her a tiny fist of coins and drunken punches
Blows and blessings raining down in bunches
And I gathered up these splinters put them in my tales and misadventures
Where is the one that I hold sacred
Everything that I hold dear
Anyone that I wanted but can’t hold near for fear
For fear, for fear, for fear
Anyone one that I wanted
Anyone that I hold dear
For fear
For fear
They said that Jenny, too was once an ugly wretch
And how her dress was torn and ragged
Back when her life was bleak and rugged
She had no sense for fine perfume
And still her eyes cast down as she walks through each gilded room
You’ll note her gowns are never hung with a strings of pearls
No one who sees her, plain and modest, senses the illegitimate girl
Hidden within…
So, hark and hail “The Swedish Nightingaleâ€
http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/ ... Songs.aspx
Cast
Hans Christian Andersen: Allan Klie
Jenny Lind: Sine Bundgaard
Sjællands String Quartet
1,3,9,10,12,14.16,17,19,21,26,28,31 March and 2 April 2007
Anne Søe Iwan, 1. violin
John Bak Dinitzen, 2. violin
Bernd Rinne, viola
Richard Krug, cello
Jeremy Bines/Carol Conrad, piano
Bent Clausen, percussion and banjo
The Royal Danish Teater String Quartet
5,7,23,24,30 March and 4 April 2007
Tobias Durholm/Anna Gwozdz (30. marts), 1. violin
Anna Zelianodjevo/Inge Andersen (24. marts), 2. violin
Sune Ranmo, viola
Juliane von Hahn/Ingemar Brantelid (4. april), cello
Jeremy Bines/Carol Conrad, piano
Bent Clausen, percussion and banjo
1. For Other Eyes
2. Swine
3. Expert Rites
4. I Almost Had A Weakness
5. Why?
6. Who Do You Think You Are?
7. This Offer Is Unrepeatable
8. Dear Sweet Filthy World
9. This Sad Burlesque
10.Romeo's Seance
11.The First to Leave
12.Taking My Life In Your Hands
13.The Birds Will Still Be Singing
PAUSE
14.My Toy Theatre
15.How Deep Is The Red?
16.Illustrated Lady
17.The Misfit
18.American Humbug
19.He Has Forgotten Me Completely
20.She Handed Me A Mirror
Songs from '05 shows not used -
http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2 ... 8659#98659
She Was No Good
Red Cotton
The Famous Artificial Bird
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyrics
For Other Eyes
I don't know what I would do
If this letter should fall into
Other hands than it should pass through
For other eyes
He said, "It was nothing...it's over and done"
But the rotten worm was burrowing still
Its spirit invades me bleeding me white
For other replies
I searched his pockets
I searched his eyes
I searched his wallet for clues and lies
And I found a number that I somehow dialed
A woman answered, a woman smiled
Then she hung up on the silence unperplexed
Innocently spun her rolodex
I dialed again I could not resist
Revealing just the dentist receptionist
One day we'll laugh about it or maybe we'll curse
But there is one thing that is making it worse
And it's the lack of forgiveness that I can't disguise
No matter how well he lies
Now we don't know each other anymore
And when we touch our lips feel sore
I question the longing left in his sighs
For other eyes
Swine
You're a swine and I'm saying that's an insult to the pig
In the foul furrow that you dig
Why don't you lay your head down
In that unconsecrated ground
WAS she your MOTHER?
Or WAS she your bride
To defile and to blister
To gnaw at her side
Is this the end of the world?
Now that you've finished your life
This RIDDLE is the work of my little pen-knife
Expert Rites
I marvel at the wonder of it in our souless age
Fast flow the tears upon the page
Don't be alarmed I am her friend
Will I be excused if I presume
It's more than disappointment that we share
You share the same sorry life, the families fight,
that unhappy blade you both invite
This romantic ideal has a lonely appeal
I once loved someone the way that you do
But I had to let her go
I live with my regret
Don't despair my would-be Juliet
I Almost Had A Weakness
Thank you for the flowers
I threw them on the fire
And I burned the photographs that you had enclosed
GOD they were ugly children
So you're the little bastard of that brother of mine
Trying to trick a poor old woman
'Til I almost had a weakness
Last week Cousin Florence
Bit your Uncle Joe
Hit him on the forehead with a knife and a fork
(She) said that he looked like the devil
Then she said... "pass the vinegar," I'm beginning to think
(That) I'm the only one who hasn't taken to the drinking of it
Though I almost had a weakness
It pains me to mention
These delicate concerns
While I have to tolerate you family jewels
I really mustn't grumble
('Cause) when I die the cats and dogs will jump up and down
And you little swines will get nothing
Though I almost had a weakness
Why?
Why is Daddy not here?
Are you crying?
Why?
Does he still love me?
Will you take care of me?
If you both love me so
Why don't you love each other
Mummy's gone missing
Daddy's on fire
Daddy's on fire
Daddy's on fire
Who Do You Think You Are?
The hunted look, the haunted grace
The empty laugh that you cultivate
You fall into that false embrace
And kiss the air about her face
Who do you think you are?
The tres bon mots you almost quote from your
QUIVER of literary darts
A thousand or so tuneless violins thrilling your cheap
little heart
Who do you think you are?
My cigarette burns right down to the ash, my coffee
cup is unstained
The waiter hovers close at hand
His courtesy strained
Who do you think you are?
I close with my regards
Well I'm the red-face gentleman
Caught in this picture postcard
Who do you think you are?
Trying my best to make the best of your absence
Though the joke gets tired and sordid
Sea-shell hearts get trampled under foot
Punchlines unrewarded
But even at this distance it's not easy to accept
The vision that I chase returns when I least expect it
I've fallen from your tired embrace
I kiss the air around the place that should be your face.
This Offer Is Unrepeatable
DON'T SEND ANY MONEY!
Fate has no price
Ignore at your peril this splendid advice
An invaluable link in an infinite chain
An offer like this will just not come again
You wish you had women to charm and bewitch
Power of life and death over the rich young girls will
be swooning
Because you're exciting them
And not only fall at your feet but be biting them
Guaranteed, guaranteed to capture your breath
Or just possibly scare you to death
Sign it and seal it and send it to friends
But don't mention my name
Don't make any long term plans
In thirty-six hours your fortunes will change
Your best friends won't know you
And neither will strangers
Do not keep this letter
It must leave your hand
You have been selected from over five thousand
A twister or dupe will bamboozle or hoodwink you
I can't say more it would only confuse you
The wine that they offer will go to your head
And you'll start to see double in fishes and bread
Guaranteed, guaranteed for a lifetime or more
Guaranteed, for this world and the next
Guaranteed, guaranteed for the world and its mother
Cherish this life as you don't get another one
UNLESS you should take up this fabulous offer
Don't leave it too late or you'll be bound to suffer
And woebetide anyone so woebegone
You won't know you're born or about to pass on
You'll never get tired
You'll never get bored
By the way I just hope you're insured
And if you're not satisfied
If you want more
We can always provide an improved overture
Guaranteed at a price that is almost unbeatable
This offer is unrepeatable
Your trouble will vanish
Your tears will dry
Your blessing will just multiply
Guaranteed at a price that is almost unbeatable
This offer is unrepeatable
Guaranteed, guaranteed to bring fortune and favor
In a riot of colours, (a variety of) and flavours
Guaranteed at a price that is almost unbeatable
This offer is unrepeatable
Would I lie to you? Would I sell you a dud?
Just sign on the line. Could you possibly write it in blood?
Dear Sweet Filthy World
Dear sweet filthy world, my wife or whoever reads this
I think that I've lived too long
With all of my promise unfulfilled
But there is a veil drawn over all of that
I know you'll probably say, "Spare us the melodrama"
"I don't know how he chose the pills or the stupid revolver"
I'm out of luck
I'm not that strong
My hands, your neck
I might have wrung
Don't try to find me
I'm not worth anything anymore
I am not leaving you with all of your problems
The biggest one is me
Life is dark
Cold as the sea
Embrace me in my anguish
Put seaweed in my hair and vow that you won't cry because
I've gone
I can't go on, I can't go on, I can't go on
I must close now
This Sad Burlesque
I write in hopes that by the time you get this letter
We may live to see a change for the better
Or are we so devoted to these wretched selfish motives
When the cold facts and figures all add up
They cannot contradict this sad burlesque
This sad burlesque
With miserable failures making entertainment of our fate
Laughter cannot dignify of elevate
This sad burlesque
Now can they recall being young and idealistic
Before wading knee-deep in hogwash and arithmetic
The pitying smirk
The argument runs like clockwork
Will run down eventually and splutter to a stop
P.S. Well by now you know the worst of it
And we've heard all the alibis that they've rehearsed
The smug predictions
If it's not a contradiction
Keep faith in human nature
And have mercy on the creatures in this sad burlesque
Romeo's Seance
Is anyone there I can talk to?
Give us a sign if you're with me
CAN'T you see that I'm dying to hear you
EVERYONE ELSE HAS LOST INTEREST
AND I'M ALL ALONE IN THIS DREAM HOUSE
Though you're gone
I don't feel like crying
Romeo is calling you
Knock once or twice if you're out there
Send me a message my sweetheart
When I'm out and about I'll be coming to see you
IT ISN'T EASY TO LIVE WITH THIS MATRONLY FACE
AT THE WINDOW
Try to contact me, if you can see how I'm suffering
Romeo is calling you
Scatter the paper and thimbles
You can take care of the candles
An unplugged radio plays. She is close NOW
Me and my hand-holding baby walking the floor and the ceiling
THIS IS the song SHE dictated this evening.
Romeo is calling you
ROMEO IS CALLING YOU
The First to Leave
I should open with a kiss
For if you're reading this
You must have opened up your case
And found this letter where I placed it
In between the silk and lace
There were other clues, like your walking shoes
But I still refused to believe
That you were meant to be the first to leave
Everybody here sends you their love
How can I forget you still walk above
Or below
Perhaps you'll never know this purgatory
We never could agree
There's a thought, there's a pause
No time to repent
Eternally yours
In a permanent lent
But if I should give you up
If you're right and life just stops
And I never see your face again
Then from unearthly pleasures, proud and plain
I shall abstain
Until you realise, my loss is your surprise
Unless you know otherwise
Then don't grieve
You see I had to be the first to leave
Taking My Life In Your Hands
My dear impulsive darling I suspect my letter got to you too late
And it's really just a silly fragment of paper
But it means so much to those who wait
All the suffering days and nights till I dare dream again
There you suddenly stand and I'll be damned if you didn't disappear with the dawn
Hours pass and darkness comes
Soon I will close my eyes
Will you return if you don't reply
You'll be taking my life in your hands
You'll be taking my life in your hands
Taking my life in your hands
I don't know why my dearest darling
I can't tell you how I feel when you are near
When I see you have returned my letters unopened
I will tear them up, your voice ringing in my ears
But you're kidding yourself if you think this correspondence will end
I can always pretend words I don't have the courage to send
Reach you
Hours pass and darkness comes
Soon I will close my eyes
Will you return if you don't reply
You'll be taking my life in your hands
You'll be taking my life in your hands
Taking my life in your hands
The Birds Will Still Be Singing
Summertime withers as the sun descends
He wants to kiss you. Will you condescend?
Before you wake and find a chill within your bones
Under a fine canopy of lover's dust and humourous bones
Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
Eternity stinks, my darling. That's no joke
Don't waste your precious time pretending you're heartbroken
There will be tears and candles
Pretty words to say
Spare me lily-white lillies
With the awful perfume of decay
Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
If I'm lost or I'm forgiven
The birds will still be singing
It's so hard to tear myself away
Even when you know it's over
It's too much to say
Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
If I'm lost or I'm forgiven
The birds will still be singing
PAUSE
My Toy Theatre
When I was born and placed upon my parent’s bridal bed
Made from the timber of a nobleman’s unwanted coffin
They say I screamed an endless song
Beyond that snuffed out spark
Frightened of the dark
That covers land like blight
Now all the verses that I sing
Are pulled out of the superstitious night
My poor mad grandfather would take his knife and carved strange beasts
Sometimes he’d wander from the forest with garlands in his hair
He sat shaping creatures that resembled dogs with wings
As harmless lunatics weave cradles out of twine
But deep within the spinning room
I feared one day this madhouse might be mine
All of them had recognised their worth
Accept for the changeling that lives beneath the stairs
I knew I was a foundling of some noble birth
My father dreamed some rare dreams for a shoemaker
He made for me this very fine toy theatre
He taught me how I might first cut and then dress the paper dolls
Showed me strings I should attach to every puppet and fool
And in time it came to me to give to them their stories and their souls
So do you think that my pale eye
Would fail to spy the street below?
Where gutters run with butcher’s blood
They say untold wealth lies
Beneath all unholy cries
While the poor pour fiery furnaces that spout
The brass that’s battered out into cornets that will trump
Notes from the wan fanfare of every loveless chump
Slumped in doorways, dimmed like lamps
Airs are strained with brazen verses
Harlot’s curses, dipping into beggar’s purses
Gambler’s hunches
Songs of finches
Forfeit these and sweeter stenches
Old men die by shrunken inches
Infants chained to factory benches
And yet I wait for him or is it her?
Hoping that they may appear
In My Toy Theatre
The words I really long to reach
Hide behind each halting speech
Just as some familiar hand lies just beyond my grasp
From that first fine entrance and through each mistake until our life’s last gasp
How Deep Is The Red?
Is this is not a pretty tale?
Is this not a riddle?
A bow shoots arrows through the air
A bow drags notes from a fiddle
But who is the beau of poor girl’s dreams?
That a king may send to battle
Is this not a pretty tale?
Is this not a riddle?
If red is the breast of soldier’s tunic hung with a silver medal
And red is the thorn that protects the rose, a deeper red than the petal
How deep is the red our redeemer bled, the debt of our sins to settle?
How deep is the red?
How deep is the red?
How deep is the red our redeemer bled?
How deep is the red?
Illustrated Lady
I dip my pen into the well and draw up
An indolent Princess, insolent soldiers and invisible garments thrown over old tyrants
A heart that beats within a spinning top
Scratched upon blank paper
Stain it with Indian ink
Now let me think
How does a glass containing ruby wine fill up once it is drunk?
Why does that song come from branches of a lightening blasted trunk?
Friends said I would recognise her by her silhouette
And that I’d be sorry for that merry day before we met
But where on earth is my ideal?
Is this she the latest one who makes me feel my heart, my heart
My heart is set upon?
But if my past I should reveal then I may well be undone
My mother was laundress
Wading in the icy river
The blue veins raised upon her skin like carnival tattoos
Washing out of secrets found in other people’s dirt
Gin to cheer her when the waters were turbulent
And laughing at the scandal of a noble mistress beaten by her servant
Her sister ran a wanton house of dubious repute
Her daughter fell into the arms of every brute
Who offered her a tiny fist of coins and drunken punches
Blows and blessings raining down in bunches
And I gathered up these splinters put them in my tales and misadventures
Where is the one that I hold sacred
Everything that I hold dear
Anyone that I wanted but can’t hold near for fear
For fear, for fear, for fear
Anyone one that I wanted
Anyone that I hold dear
For fear
For fear
They said that Jenny, too was once an ugly wretch
And how her dress was torn and ragged
Back when her life was bleak and rugged
She had no sense for fine perfume
And still her eyes cast down as she walks through each gilded room
You’ll note her gowns are never hung with a strings of pearls
No one who sees her, plain and modest, senses the illegitimate girl
Hidden within…
So, hark and hail “The Swedish Nightingaleâ€
This recent article appears to have a photo from the 'Juliet' part of the show ; maybe VonOfterdingen can give us an idea of the tone of the following coverage -
http://www.fyens.dk/article/763191
23.02.2007
Inspirationen til forestillingen kommer fra breve, som mennesker hvert år skriver til Romeos Julie i Verona. Derfor består scenografien af 33.000 breve, som Allan Klie her står iblandt.foto Casper Sejersen, det kongelige teater:
Rocksangeren i Operaen
Allan Klie har sunget læssevis af musicals og teaterkoncerter. I Elvis Costellos "The Secret Songs" skal skuespilleren dele scene med en strygekvartet og en operasanger
Af Lene Kryger
Allan Klie har spillet de førsteelskerroller, et kønt ydre indbyder til. Han har prøvet kræfter med det meste af Shakespeares repertoire fra "En skærsommernatsdrøm" til "Hamlet". Men det er fortrinsvis i musicals og rockede teaterkoncerter, den 41-årige skuespiller har gjort sig bemærket. Torsdag træder han et skridt længere ind i musikkens verden, når han sammen med operasangeren Sine Bundgaard fortolker Elvis Costello-sange på Takkelloftet.
- Oprindelig var det meningen, at Elvis Costello skulle skrive en H.C. Andersen-opera til Det Kongelige Teater. Men da han meldte fra, besluttede operachefen, Kasper Bech Holten, at gennemføre projektet i en anden form, forklarer Allan Klie, der har været næsegrus beundrer af Costello siden midt-80'erne, hvor skuespillerspiren hang ud med den intellektuelle punkelite i København.
Ingen musical-cd'er
Selv om Allan Klie har medvirket i traditionelle musicals som "Les Misérables", "Grease, og "Esther", er det de mere rockede og rå forestillinger som "The Dark Side Of The Wall" og "Black Rider", der ligger ham mest på sinde:
- For mig er musicalformen noget tillært. Der står ikke musical-cd'er hjemme hos mig. Så når jeg har fået så mange sangopgaver, vælger jeg at tro, at det er fordi, jeg med min rockbaggrund kan tilføre genren noget nyt.
I "The Secret Songs" er det første gang, Allan Klie skal optræde unplugged, altså uden elektrisk forstærkning, men blot akkompagneret af en strygekvartet eller af klaver og slagtøj.
- Selv om jeg var skeptisk, så virker det fantastisk godt. Det giver udtrykket en særlig nøgenhed, som jeg aldrig tidligere har oplevet, forklarer Allan Klie.
Samarbejdet med den klassisk uddannede sopran, Sine Bundgaard, fungerer også upåklageligt.
- Når hun lukker helt op for stemmen, har jeg med min uskolede stemme ikke en chance for at være med. Men det giver god mening at lade mig synge Costello, siger han.
Breve til Romeos Julie
Forestillingens første halvdel tager udgangspunkt i Costellos sangcyklus "The Juliet Letters", som han i 1993 udsendte sammen med den klassiske Brodsky Kvartet.
- Hvert år skriver tusindvis af mennesker til Julie Capulet i Verona - altså Romeos Julie - akkurat som børn skriver til julemanden i Grønland. Det er de breve, skrevet til en død, fiktiv person, der har inspireret Costello, fortæller Allan Klie, der sammen med Sine Bundgaard skal bevæge sig rundt i en scenografi bestående af 33.000 breve. Breve, der af sikkerhedshensyn hver og ét er blevet brandimprægneret.
- Der er brevet fra selvmorderen, fra barnet, der frygter forældrenes skilsmisse, og fra den kvindelige soldat i Golfkrigen, der måske af angst for døden skriver til et menneske, hun aldrig kommer til at møde i virkeligheden.
Hemmelige arier
Allan Klie ser en tydelig parallel til forestillingens anden del, der kredser om H.C. Andersens store og ubesvarede kærlighed til den svenske nattergal, sangerinden Jenny Lind.
- H.C. Andersen kunne ikke acceptere, at Jenny Lind var til falds for ussel mammon, og han betragtede hendes Amerika-eventyr med cirkusdirektøren J.T. Barnum som en kunstnerisk deroute. Det var nogle af de smertefulde overvejelser, der lå til grund for eventyret "Nattergalen", siger Allan Klie og fortsætter:
- I forestillingen får Andersens tanker og følelser mæle i form af de hemmelige arier, han skriver til Jenny Lind. Men det er tvivlsomt om arierne nogensinde når frem til den svenske nattergal.
Takkelloftet, Operaen, København, torsdag kl. 20
http://sydsvenskan.se/nojen/article221718.ece
Det bidde en tumme, men en väldigt grann tumme
Av Håkan Engström
Senast uppdaterad 2 mars 2007 13:43
Elvis Costello tog sig an uppdraget att skriva en opera till HC Andersen-året, men tappade något längs vägen. Det kan ha varit tråden, intresset, självförtroendet eller alltihop.
Musikteater: The Secret Songs
Plats: Takkelloftet, Operaen i Köpenhamn 1.3
Text och musik: Elvis Costello, med Brodskykvartetten (första akten).
PÃ¥ scen: Sine Bundgaard och Allan Klie.
Regi: Kasper Bech Holten.
Scenografi: Stine Martinsen.
Medverkande musiker: Sjællands strygekvartet (första akten); Carol Conrad, piano, och Bent Clausen, slagverk (andra akten).
Vad som framfördes vid torsdagens urpremiär - den första av hela tjugo föreställningar - var samma sju sånger som Costello presenterade vid en konsert på Operaen i oktober 2005.
Då var det ännu en ofärdig opera, nu en komplett ¿ ja vadå? En miniopera?
Det är över på 35 minuter, motsvarande en lunchrast. Det räcker förstås inte.
Därför har föreställningen drygats ut med en längre och betydligt svagare första akt, bestÃ¥ende av sÃ¥ngcykeln â€
http://www.fyens.dk/article/763191
23.02.2007
Inspirationen til forestillingen kommer fra breve, som mennesker hvert år skriver til Romeos Julie i Verona. Derfor består scenografien af 33.000 breve, som Allan Klie her står iblandt.foto Casper Sejersen, det kongelige teater:
Rocksangeren i Operaen
Allan Klie har sunget læssevis af musicals og teaterkoncerter. I Elvis Costellos "The Secret Songs" skal skuespilleren dele scene med en strygekvartet og en operasanger
Af Lene Kryger
Allan Klie har spillet de førsteelskerroller, et kønt ydre indbyder til. Han har prøvet kræfter med det meste af Shakespeares repertoire fra "En skærsommernatsdrøm" til "Hamlet". Men det er fortrinsvis i musicals og rockede teaterkoncerter, den 41-årige skuespiller har gjort sig bemærket. Torsdag træder han et skridt længere ind i musikkens verden, når han sammen med operasangeren Sine Bundgaard fortolker Elvis Costello-sange på Takkelloftet.
- Oprindelig var det meningen, at Elvis Costello skulle skrive en H.C. Andersen-opera til Det Kongelige Teater. Men da han meldte fra, besluttede operachefen, Kasper Bech Holten, at gennemføre projektet i en anden form, forklarer Allan Klie, der har været næsegrus beundrer af Costello siden midt-80'erne, hvor skuespillerspiren hang ud med den intellektuelle punkelite i København.
Ingen musical-cd'er
Selv om Allan Klie har medvirket i traditionelle musicals som "Les Misérables", "Grease, og "Esther", er det de mere rockede og rå forestillinger som "The Dark Side Of The Wall" og "Black Rider", der ligger ham mest på sinde:
- For mig er musicalformen noget tillært. Der står ikke musical-cd'er hjemme hos mig. Så når jeg har fået så mange sangopgaver, vælger jeg at tro, at det er fordi, jeg med min rockbaggrund kan tilføre genren noget nyt.
I "The Secret Songs" er det første gang, Allan Klie skal optræde unplugged, altså uden elektrisk forstærkning, men blot akkompagneret af en strygekvartet eller af klaver og slagtøj.
- Selv om jeg var skeptisk, så virker det fantastisk godt. Det giver udtrykket en særlig nøgenhed, som jeg aldrig tidligere har oplevet, forklarer Allan Klie.
Samarbejdet med den klassisk uddannede sopran, Sine Bundgaard, fungerer også upåklageligt.
- Når hun lukker helt op for stemmen, har jeg med min uskolede stemme ikke en chance for at være med. Men det giver god mening at lade mig synge Costello, siger han.
Breve til Romeos Julie
Forestillingens første halvdel tager udgangspunkt i Costellos sangcyklus "The Juliet Letters", som han i 1993 udsendte sammen med den klassiske Brodsky Kvartet.
- Hvert år skriver tusindvis af mennesker til Julie Capulet i Verona - altså Romeos Julie - akkurat som børn skriver til julemanden i Grønland. Det er de breve, skrevet til en død, fiktiv person, der har inspireret Costello, fortæller Allan Klie, der sammen med Sine Bundgaard skal bevæge sig rundt i en scenografi bestående af 33.000 breve. Breve, der af sikkerhedshensyn hver og ét er blevet brandimprægneret.
- Der er brevet fra selvmorderen, fra barnet, der frygter forældrenes skilsmisse, og fra den kvindelige soldat i Golfkrigen, der måske af angst for døden skriver til et menneske, hun aldrig kommer til at møde i virkeligheden.
Hemmelige arier
Allan Klie ser en tydelig parallel til forestillingens anden del, der kredser om H.C. Andersens store og ubesvarede kærlighed til den svenske nattergal, sangerinden Jenny Lind.
- H.C. Andersen kunne ikke acceptere, at Jenny Lind var til falds for ussel mammon, og han betragtede hendes Amerika-eventyr med cirkusdirektøren J.T. Barnum som en kunstnerisk deroute. Det var nogle af de smertefulde overvejelser, der lå til grund for eventyret "Nattergalen", siger Allan Klie og fortsætter:
- I forestillingen får Andersens tanker og følelser mæle i form af de hemmelige arier, han skriver til Jenny Lind. Men det er tvivlsomt om arierne nogensinde når frem til den svenske nattergal.
Takkelloftet, Operaen, København, torsdag kl. 20
http://sydsvenskan.se/nojen/article221718.ece
Det bidde en tumme, men en väldigt grann tumme
Av Håkan Engström
Senast uppdaterad 2 mars 2007 13:43
Elvis Costello tog sig an uppdraget att skriva en opera till HC Andersen-året, men tappade något längs vägen. Det kan ha varit tråden, intresset, självförtroendet eller alltihop.
Musikteater: The Secret Songs
Plats: Takkelloftet, Operaen i Köpenhamn 1.3
Text och musik: Elvis Costello, med Brodskykvartetten (första akten).
PÃ¥ scen: Sine Bundgaard och Allan Klie.
Regi: Kasper Bech Holten.
Scenografi: Stine Martinsen.
Medverkande musiker: Sjællands strygekvartet (första akten); Carol Conrad, piano, och Bent Clausen, slagverk (andra akten).
Vad som framfördes vid torsdagens urpremiär - den första av hela tjugo föreställningar - var samma sju sånger som Costello presenterade vid en konsert på Operaen i oktober 2005.
Då var det ännu en ofärdig opera, nu en komplett ¿ ja vadå? En miniopera?
Det är över på 35 minuter, motsvarande en lunchrast. Det räcker förstås inte.
Därför har föreställningen drygats ut med en längre och betydligt svagare första akt, bestÃ¥ende av sÃ¥ngcykeln â€
Sine Bundgaard , part of this show , has a website and responded today to a e-mail I sent her ; she's OK with my passing this on -
http://sinebundgaard.dk/
It's great fun for me to be a part of this special Costello event. I am
not
sure you know though that the concept of the show was changed about
half a
year ago, and now consists of two parts bound together by the topic of
letters sent but not received.
Part two is the Hans Christan Andersen/Jenny Lind story "Secret Songs",
with
Allan Klie as the poet and myself singing Jenny.
Part one is a theatrical concert of "the Juliet letters", with again
Allan
and myself on stage and a string quartet, as you know.
The concept of the show was changed in agreement with Elvis Costello,
and we
have enjoyed the whole process and intimacy of the new connection
between
the Juliet Letters and the Secret songs. I hope you will too.
We are sold out,
so two extra performances are given on March 8th and April 3rd.
As the operatic part of the piece it's a true pleasure to interpret
these
great songs, and mix the sounds of rock/pop and opera singing.
-
VonOfterdingen
- Posts: 462
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:28 pm
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
I've seen three reviews now. One 5-star and two 2-stars reviews. The latter pretty much agree that EC should have sung the songs and that the two singers arent up to the task.
http://www.jp.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=4276544/
http://www.berlingske.dk/dine-ord/artikel:aid=869672
Starts with "Once upon a time there was a rockcomposer called Elvis Costello"...
The good review is in Børsen, and can be found one of these days at http://www.borsen.dk.
I'll have a look later on at the other articles
http://www.jp.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=4276544/
http://www.berlingske.dk/dine-ord/artikel:aid=869672
Starts with "Once upon a time there was a rockcomposer called Elvis Costello"...
The good review is in Børsen, and can be found one of these days at http://www.borsen.dk.
I'll have a look later on at the other articles
I'm not buying my share of souvenirs
-
VonOfterdingen
- Posts: 462
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:28 pm
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
And another one. http://ibyen.dk/scene/anmeldelser/article257415.ece
They call it an intimate og moving theater-concert experience...
They call it an intimate og moving theater-concert experience...
I'm not buying my share of souvenirs
From listserv -
OK, I translated this interview with the male actor in
The Secret Songs – you can find the original text
here:
http://www.fyens.dk/article/763191
So this was one of these links John Foyle provided.
But I DON’T really speak Danish, so my translation
might be a bit so and so – some of it is based more on
guess-work than on any actual knowledge of the Danish
language.
So for example, I think the headline could be
translated as either “The rock singer at the Operaâ€
OK, I translated this interview with the male actor in
The Secret Songs – you can find the original text
here:
http://www.fyens.dk/article/763191
So this was one of these links John Foyle provided.
But I DON’T really speak Danish, so my translation
might be a bit so and so – some of it is based more on
guess-work than on any actual knowledge of the Danish
language.
So for example, I think the headline could be
translated as either “The rock singer at the Operaâ€
Jan posts to listserv-
I was trying to find more info on this male actor in
The Secret Songs, Allan Klie, and I came across this -
from what I understand he's been interviewed on Danish
radio, for one of the country's biggest radio
programmes when it comes to following culture (they
claim to have the biggest staff, or so, among that
kind of programmes):
http://www.dr.dk/P2/p2plus/Dagensgaest/ ... anKlie.htm
http://www.dr.dk/P2/p2plus/omp2plus/
So he's been talking about these shows, and his
relationship to Costello's music, and so forth.
I was trying to find more info on this male actor in
The Secret Songs, Allan Klie, and I came across this -
from what I understand he's been interviewed on Danish
radio, for one of the country's biggest radio
programmes when it comes to following culture (they
claim to have the biggest staff, or so, among that
kind of programmes):
http://www.dr.dk/P2/p2plus/Dagensgaest/ ... anKlie.htm
http://www.dr.dk/P2/p2plus/omp2plus/
So he's been talking about these shows, and his
relationship to Costello's music, and so forth.
Hi from , yet again, Copenhagen. Glorious sunshine had me dumping my jacket 'n jumper at the hotel (The Admiral, same one as last time - they are still showing the same video in the lift , something about yachts in turbulent seas) , getting a ice cream from the same corner store (they actually make the wafers for the cones in front of you), getting the ferry across to the Opera House and searching for signs of The Secret Songs.
The Takkelloftet is at the very back of the new building. The ceiling to floor windows either side of the entrance were filled with light cloured drapes. It was closed. The lettering above the door had cobwebs glistening in the afternoon sun. It's an extreme contrast to the spacious, port side entrance to the main auditorium , venue for the shows in '05. The only evidence of the 'Songs show was a bundle of postcards in a rack with leaflets for other shows. A crowd was coming out of a afternoon show , moving en masse to the ferrys. I joined them and travelled back to the town centre.
After a meal I now intend catching up on sleep . What with clocks going forward an hour last night and having to put my watch forward yet another hour during my flight I've 'lost' an hour or two somewhere. I hope to take the train to Malmo for some of tomorrow.
More later!
The Takkelloftet is at the very back of the new building. The ceiling to floor windows either side of the entrance were filled with light cloured drapes. It was closed. The lettering above the door had cobwebs glistening in the afternoon sun. It's an extreme contrast to the spacious, port side entrance to the main auditorium , venue for the shows in '05. The only evidence of the 'Songs show was a bundle of postcards in a rack with leaflets for other shows. A crowd was coming out of a afternoon show , moving en masse to the ferrys. I joined them and travelled back to the town centre.
After a meal I now intend catching up on sleep . What with clocks going forward an hour last night and having to put my watch forward yet another hour during my flight I've 'lost' an hour or two somewhere. I hope to take the train to Malmo for some of tomorrow.
More later!
-
VonOfterdingen
- Posts: 462
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:28 pm
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
