Hans RotmoStarting with the Threepenny Opera, I really liked it. Although I have never seen it before (only heard the songs), I understand certain criticisms of the direction of the showing, as it did not really tell me what Brecht wanted to say 75 years ago. On the other hand, it could be because my political views are a bit to the right of those of Brecht and years of listening to Hans Rotmo have made me a bit vaccinated against musical propaganda from the left.
To be honest, it was Weill's music that really atracted me, not Brecht's literature (though the lyrics is such a great part of the songs it is hard to say who is the real genius of Brecht/Weill). Oh, and Paul Ottar Haga stars in it.
The songs were of course translated to Norwegian, and I am one of those who normally do not like Norwegian translations (eg. I found
Mack the Knife a bit silly). However, it was good to finally find out what Pirate Jenny really was about, and the racist lines in The Cannon Song was made a wee bit worse in Norwegian (the language of Burzum :P)The highlight of the show was not the cast, but actually a woman on the first row with a bit 'slow development' that provided. In one scene were Mackie (Haga) rose up from a bathtub, she startet laughing, and soon she had the whole audience laughing with/at her. The actress playing Polly (Heidi Gjermundsen Broch) struggled to repress her laughter, while poor Haga - not suprising - did not look that happy. Maybe as well that he only showed his rear, which actually disappointed me a bit (I hoped to see Haga's penis IRL in that scene; he had no trouble showing it off in Peer Gynt).
An old classy woman sitting next to my cousin had a bit more sophisticated taste, so I wonder what she was doing there at all; she was shocked every time a nasty word was said, and flipping through the programme during the 'sex'-scenes.
Nick Cave was AWESOME.
The Ship Song, Tupelo, The Mercy Seat and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! was amongst the songs they played. He managed to start sing-alongs with Papa Won't Leave You, Henry and The lyre of Orpheus. Into My Arms was done with only Cave on the piano and one of the drummers, and as requested (during half the gig) by the audience, they closed with Stagger Lee. Amongst the few negative things were their performance of Red Right Hand and that they never played Jack the Ripper, which it sounded like they were going to start playing a lot of times.Just some (semi-)relevant tags; Louis Armstrong, Robbie Williams, Lotte Lenya, Stan Ridgway, Nick Cave in Oslo, Frank Sinatra, Ute Lemper, Westlife, Sting, Litfiba.
