Showing posts with label Chez Panisse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chez Panisse. Show all posts

October 18, 2021

20,000 Vinyl LPs 316: Kurt Weill ~ The Seven Deadly Sins

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vinyl LP front cover detail
painting by Tom Allen 
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®


Today, Monday, October 18, is the birthday of Lotte Lenya who was born in 1898. She was an Austrian-American singer, diseuse and actress, based in the United States. In the German-speaking and classical music world, she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her first husband, Kurt Weill.         
Lenya's voice is not what one would call pretty, it is dark, grating, raspy, almost out of tune. When you listen to her singing you can almost smell stale cigarette smoke and taste late nights of drinking whiskey in shabby bars and feel tales of lost loves; it is a voice that comes from the real world perhaps even the slums. It is beautiful in its own gravely way!    
 
In 1957 Lenya recorded one of the theater works by her husband, The Seven Deadly Sins (German: Die sieben Todsünden, French: Les sept péchés capitaux). It is a satirical ballet chanté ("sung ballet") in seven scenes (nine movements, including a Prologue and Epilogue) composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James. It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman and more recently by Michael Feingold. It was the last major collaboration between Weill and Brecht.       
 
 

vinyl LP front cover detail
painting by Tom Allen 
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®


 
This album is one of my purchases because of the cover, as stated in previous articles, I did that a lot. I had only known of Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) by Kurt Weill and had fallen in love with it but this was completely unknown to me.   
 
       
vinyl LP front cover
painting by Tom Allen 
photo of album cover by Styrous®


I got it home and listened to it, heard how beautiful the music is, especially the Prolog, and I was a Kurt Weill devotee from that very day and went on to buy every album I could find by him. And through this album and Threepenny discovered the amazing treasures of his collaborator Bertolt Brecht as well as his wife, Lotte Lenya.      


vinyl LP front cover detail
painting by Tom Allen 
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®
 
 
photographer unknown

 

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. Anna I, the singer, is the principal vocal role. Anna II, the dancer, is heard only infrequently and the text hints at the possibility that the two Annas are the same person:
 
"She's the one with the looks. I'm realistic. She's just a little mad, my head is on straight. But we're really one divided being, even though you see two of us. And both of us are Anna. Together we've but a single past, a single future, one heart and one savings account and we only do what suits each other best. Right Anna?"
        
"The Family", a male quartet, fills the role of a Greek chorus. They refer to Anna as a single daughter of the family, making a verbal allusion to her divided nature: "Will our Anna pull herself together?" The sisters set out from the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana to find their fortune in the big cities, intending to send their family enough money to build a little house on the river. After the prologue, in which Anna I introduces the sisters and their plans, each of seven scenes is devoted to one of the seven deadly sins, each encountered in a different American city:         
 
  1. Prologue
  2. Faulheit / Sloth (city unnamed)
  3. Stolz / Pride (Memphis)
  4. Zorn / Wrath (Los Angeles)
  5. Völlerei / Gluttony (Philadelphia)
  6. Unzucht / Lust (Boston)
  7. Habsucht / Greed (Tennessee, in posthumous versions Baltimore)
  8. Neid / Envy (San Francisco)
  9. Epilogue (home, in the new little house)


vinyl LP back cover 
back cover photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe
photo of album cover by Styrous®
 
 
It's really interesting to see how different groups have interpreted the work. The first link  (link below) is the version "By sin" with Peter Sellars & Teresa Stratas, there is emphasis on the singing; in the second link (link below) with the Opera de Paris it is the dancing and movement that predominates. Both versions are stunning in totally different ways!!!
          


vinyl LP back cover details
back cover photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe
detail photos of album cover by Styrous®





vinyl LP back cover detail
back cover photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®


vinyl LP back cover detail
photos by Styrous®



vinyl LP back cover details
detail photos by Styrous®














 


   
Tracklist:
       
Side 1:
        
A1 - Prolog
A2 - Faulheit
A3 - Stolz
A4 - Zorn
       
Side 2:
       
B5 - Völlerei
B6 - Unzucht
B7 - Habsucht
B8 - Neid
B9 - Epilog
       
Credits:
       
    Bass Vocals – Ernst Poettgen, Sigmund Roth
    Conductor – Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg
    Lyrics By – Bert Brecht*
    Music By – Kurt Weill
    Painting – Tom Allen*
    Tenor Vocals – Fritz Göllnitz, Julius Katona
    Vocals – Lotte Lenya
       
Barcode and Other Identifiers
       
    Matrix / Runout (Label side A): x"LP"39510
    Matrix / Runout (Label side B): x"LP"39511
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side A - stamped - variant 1): XLP39510-1A
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side B - stamped - variant 1): XLP39511-1D
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side A - stamped - variant 2): XXLP-39510-1D
    Matrix / Runout (Runout side B - stamped - variant 2): XXLP-39511-1AA
 
Lotte Lenya – Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins
Label: Columbia Masterworks – KL 5175
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1957
Genre: Classical, Stage & Screen
Style: Modern
 
 

         
Viewfinder links:        
         
Bertolt Brecht          
Lotte Lenya        
Peter Sellars        
Teresa Stratas        
Kurt Weill        
        
Net links:        
        
        
YouTube links:        
        
Kurt Weill ~      
     The Seven Deadly Sins (by sin) (47 mins.)   
     The Seven Deadly Sins (dance) (39 mins., 36 secs.)  
        
        
         
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Monday, October 18, 2021       
       
 
 












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Peter Sellars articles/mentions

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mentions:
Igor Stravinsky ~ Oedipus Rex     
Kurt Weill ~ The Seven Deadly Sins 
     
     
     
     
         
     
     
photo by Styrous®



        
       
       
       
        
       














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October 3, 2021

Alice Waters articles/mentions

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Chez Panisse ~  
      40th Anniversary Pt 1           
      40th Anniversary Pt 2        
           
            
           
           
            
           
            
            
           
            
           
            
Alice Waters - 2011            
photo by Styrous®           
           
            
           
            
                       
            
           





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February 16, 2018

David Byrne articles/mentions

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Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Pt 1           
Paul Simon at the Greek Theater       
The Tubes - White Punks On Dope video   
  
  
     
 
   
  
David Byrne - 2011
Berkeley Art Museum 
photo by Styrous®
        
    





 





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July 20, 2017

Radio

In order of appearance

Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary    
The 1968 Exhibit       
Mina - Salomé        
Frank Sinatra        
Judy Collins ~ In My Life           
Jon Lord - Gemini Suite           
Barbara Streisand           
Mystic Moods Orchestra         
Well Made of California           
Kay Kyser        
Todd Rundgren radio show              
The Tubes - White Punks On Dope             
Edward R. Murrow          
Ralph Records ~ the inner sleeve               
Gabor Szabó ~ Dreams           
Chuck Berry ~ Maybellene           
Bernard Herrmann ~ Psycho         
Michelle Vignes         
Lon Clark            
Dragnet on the air        
       
       
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February 3, 2014

Berkeley Art Museum articles

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Exhibitions:

BAMscape at the Berkeley Art Museum      
Barry McGee @ the BAM/Introduction           
Barbara Chase-Riboud - The Malcolm X Steles       
Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Exhibition      
Barry McGee @ the BAM/The Reception         
Barry McGee/BAM review by Artforum       

Events:

Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Pt 1      
Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Pt 2       
The Possible       

Performances:

Pamela Z ~ Will @ the BAM/PFA            

               


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July 25, 2012

Food articles

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Tom White food        
Tom @ 80 ~ the food       
yak butter teapot   

                                                                                                     photo by Styrous®



Green hyperlinks in the articles lead to 
more information about the article





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September 16, 2011

Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Pt 2

The extravagant Gala commemorating the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse at the Berkeley Art Museum on the 26th of August was fashionably elegant, and beautifully showcased the finished, polished product we have come to call, slow food.

The day after the Grand Opening, on the 27th in the museum gardens, the nuts and bolts to bring that slow food to us was featured by over a dozen small businesses and educational food initiatives that produce it. This as well as other events was sponsored by OPENrestaurant and the Chez Panisse Foundation.

I arrived early and got a chance to watch the producers set up. It was overcast at the beginning of the day but after a couple of hours the sun came out and it turned into a perfect, beautiful day.

I entered the gardens and the first thing I saw were the brightly colored bee hives of The Mobile Bee Observatory. It is a honeybee ecology classroom on wheels. Rob Keller furnished a 28-foot Airstream trailer with a floor-to ceiling observation hive and a honey tasting station. Keller shares his knowledge of beekeeping and extolls the beauty and importance of the honeybee.


photo by Styrous®


photo by Styrous®


Keller shares his knowledge of beekeeping and
extolls the beauty and importance of the honeybee.
photo by Styrous®




The next thing I saw was the Digger's Bread Bakery. In the mid-60s the Diggers in San Francisco proposed a form of "community anarchism" in which they offered free food, medical care, and street performance. They also baked and gave away bread, and were rumored to have introduced whole-wheat flour into US hippie counterculture. Artist Chris Sollars and Steve Sullivan from Acme Bakery bake Digger bread in cans while David Simpson and Jane Lapiner recount stories from their experience as Diggers.




photo by Styrous®

I tried to get a shot of the finished bread-in-can but
every time I went back it had been eaten up by the audience.
photo by Styrous®



At the Edible SchoolYard Project, a charming young girl 
offered me a tasty chapati made from whole wheat flour
with a yogurt topping.
photo by Styrous®


They had a weird contraption I first thought was some sort 
of exercise bicycle but I discovered it was used
to grind the wheat for the flour.
photo by Styrous®


A young man kindly demonstrated how the process was done.
Fascinating!
photo by Styrous®



Wandering down the path a bit I came across,
of all things, goats at Goats Milk.
photo by Styrous®

Jeannie McKenzie raises goats in Oakland and teaches about urban homesteading. Jeannie is a circus artist, dancer, musician, and teacher. 72% of milk used in the world is goat's milk.!t is easier to digest for the majority of people who cannot digest cows milk.


photo by Styrous®


McKenzie milked a goat . . .
photo by Styrous®


. . . the kids were fascinated . . .
photo by Styrous®


. . . and they made the most incredible candy from the milk.
photo by Styrous®


On the lawn of the gardens were huge letters cut from corrugated cardboard. Alphabet Soup placed huge cut-out letters on the lawn as an invitation for people to rearrange the letters to form new words and redistribute them on the lawn.


photo by Styrous®


About midway, I found A Curious Radio. It was a week-long children's workshop A Curious Summer conducted that explores the radio: its history as an instigator of change, its inner workings, and its unique ability to deliver stories directly to the theater of the mind. Inspired by this experience, young journalists operate an FM station at OPEN education, providing live coverage, conducting interviews, and curating the content of a freeform radio show. The transmission was picked up on receivers scattered throughout the Berkeley Art Museum, as well as online. This was a collaboration with OPENrestaurant and Mutiny Radio.


photo by Styrous®


Next to A Curious Radio, appropriately, was the Free Speech Police Car. In 1964 the Free Speech Movement made world news when Mario Savio stood on top of a police car in Sproul Plaza in the midst of a crowd of student protesters. Now, the car is a stage for talks and conversations with educators, students, farmers, food activists, and eaters wrestling with the corporatization of our school systems and the industrialization of our food systems.


photo by Styrous®



The side of the police car was used as a chalkboard list
of the day's speakers.
photo by Styrous®


One of the many fun & tasty stops, and perfect for the warm sunny day, was the Metas Lemonade Stand. Artist Alison Pebworth with students from METAS at Contra Costa College created custom sodas, lemonade, and aguas frescos with herbs, fruits, and honey from edible schoolyards. METAS students discussed do-it·yourself alternatives to mass-produced beverages. METAS is an enrichment program assisting latino students to achieve personal and higher education goals.


photo by Styrous®


Behind them the Lettuce Daybed thrived in the sun. Earlier this year, Latino protesters gathered in the streets, reminding us that there is no future without dreams. In South Son Francisco, Brooke Budner and Caiyn Galloway run Lime City Gardens, a functioning urban farm. They often ask volunteers to lie down between the beds, offering a different kind of service to the farm. The lettuce daybed provides a place to lie down and dream while browsing a library of seeds and political literature. To-go seeds and compost are provided by Hayes Valley Farm, a community-run farm and urban agriculture education project created on the site of a San Francisco freeway ramp.


photo by Styrous®



I found a curious set up with a pair of shoes smack
in the middle of all the food.
photo by Styrous®


photo by Styrous®

The culprit: Reheating Werner Herzog's Shoe. Werner Herzog made a bet with Errol Morris that Morris would never finish his first movie, promising to eat his shoe if he lost. For the premiere of "Gates of Heaven" in 1980, Alice Waters cooked Herzog's shoe with garlic, herbs, and duck fat for five hours. Herzog ate his shoe in front of an audience at the UC Theater, an event documented by Les Blank in the documentary "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe."


photo by Styrous®


Finally on the lawn level was the Obugs Pickle Workshop. Since 1998 OBUGS (Oakland Based Urbon Gardensl has been building healthy communities through experiential learning programs offered to children, youth and families. Functioning as a network of school and neighborhood gardens, green spaces, and farmers markets, OBUGS offers in-school and after-school programs as well as summer camp each year.


photo by Styrous®


photo by Styrous®



Of course, Ms. Waters was there for the event.
photo by Styrous®



On one of the upper terraces I found a stand
with the most incredible tamales . . .
photo by Styrous®



. . . and across from them was a stand with grilled corn
that was out of this world.
photo by Styrous®


photo by Styrous®


Further down on the terrace was the Four Barrel Ojer Caibal School Kitchen. Four Barrel Coffee works with a small community of 300 families in Ojer Caibal, Guatemala to grow coffee in 61 tiny gardens. The exchange of getting a fair price for their beans provides cooking appliances, clean water, and waste management. Four Barrel adds an additional 25 cents per pound to the retail price of this coffee and funnels the surplus toward building a new kitchen for the school in Ojer Caiba!.


photo by Styrous®


photo by Styrous®


Across from Four Barrel was the La Cocina Salsa Kitchen: Salsa-making with the metaphorical harvest of the Three Sisters garden with Dilsa lugo from los Cilantros. Dilsa and Caleb Zigas discuss la Cocina, a business incubator designed to help entrepreneurs create successful small businesses.


photo by Styrous®


In back of them was a mini-library with food-related books from the Chez Panisse Library and Moe’s bookstore plus a copy machine to make reproductions. There were books, periodicals and magazines for reading and there was paper, pencils, coloring materials and all kinds of fun things for kids to work on.


photo by Styrous®



Of course, inside the museum the children
were romping on top of the BAMscape.
photo by Styrous®



Not only was it a beautiful, sunny California day,
 it was an educational one as well.
photo by Styrous®


I had a fantastic time thanks to all who participated in the event.

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