UNITED KINGDOM: CABARET SINGER UTE LEMPER RECORDS ALBUM OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC WITH ELVIS COSTELLO AND OTHERS

Record ID: 389411

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: CABARET SINGER UTE LEMPER RECORDS ALBUM OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC WITH ELVIS COSTELLO AND OTHERS
  • Date: 14th March 2000
  • Summary: (CLEARANCE REQUIRED) UTE SINGING NEIL HANNON'S 'SPLIT' IN STUDIO WITH NEIL.
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAERS925OWGDDNIZL8P4JKX6AEL
  • Story Text: Ute Lemper - she exudes a power that leaves men trembling - the combination of those cheekbones and legs make women green with envy and men kneel down in total worship.But it's the raw talent of this woman that has propelled her into the limelight, with a voice and stage presence that has enabled her to give new life to the Berlin cabaret and the music of Weill and Brecht, as well as making the musical 'Chicago' one of the biggest hits on Broadway.She's now recorded a contemporary album with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, The Divine Comedy, Nick Cave and Tom Waits, all of whom wrote the songs personally for her.In an exclusive interview for Reuters she tells all.
    There are not many artists who are equally at home with the music of Kurt Weill, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elvis Costello, but then Ute Lemper is hardly typical of your average performer.
    The 36-year old German actress has bowled the world over with her voice, her cheekbones and her legs.Plastered over every London bus.she brought new audiences to London's West End, eager to see the living version of these pictures.
    Renowned for breathing new life into the music of Kurt Weill, she's now recorded a contemporary album with artists in the league of Elvis Costello and The Divine Comedy who were inspired to write songs for her, under the guiding hand of producer of the South Bank Festival, David Sefton: ''He got these incredible people sending songs in.I didn't even know that they would know me, that was even a surprise you know.So Elvis Costello sent in three songs, and Nick Cave sent in a song, and The Divine Comedy came up with three songs and wanted even to produce and do the arrangement of the full album, Philip Glass sent a song, Tom Waitts two songs, it's just you know an incredible mixture...Scott Walker sent two songs, two long epic pieces of eleven minutes - just an amazing bunch of people."
    A diverse group of artists who share with Ute a theatrical base which underlines all of their music.The German actress acknowledges that a standard 'tune' could never be a real option for her.Music has to be a drama, a narrative, a piece of theatre, and it's this that makes the departure from the classical music of the Weimar Republic that she's renowned for not as big as many would think: "I would say it's the contemporary version of it with elements of pop music obviously.But certainly looking at Elvis Costello, ever since "The Juliet Letters" - he is really in this very strange genre of, you call it crossover, whatever it is.It's still like rock or pop but it has very complex elements of classical music and the lyrics are so twisted and surreal and poetic and cynical, it's really very theatrical."
    Elvis Costello has written three songs on the album, including the title number 'Punishing Kiss'.He says he never doubted Ute would be able to take on a contemporary sound: "I knew that she had the range, it wasn't exclusively the German cabaret she could cover and I was aware of the fact that she'd also been in Broadway pieces so I knew that she was well able for these songs."
    It's Nick Cave's 'Little Water Song' that is the 'pearl' for Ute, although she finds it almost impossible to pick out one number, so excited as she is from the experience of working with such a range of artists.
    Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy features heavily in the album.As well as writing his own duet for her, he performs Kurt Weill's 'Tango Ballad' fom 'The Threepenny Opera' with Ute.It's the only song from the classical repertory Ute is famed for and it's the first time she has not performed the German composer in the traditional way.
    Ute has personally given new life to the works of Weill, Brecht and the Berlin cabaret.It's a select genre that she has amazingly created a massive appetite for across the world.
    It comes from a passion for the music but is rooted in a very deep need to pay tribute to her ancestors: "It's a mission for me to make this music, to bring it back to life as a German from a very different generation.I mean I was born eighteen years after the war and grew up in a vacuum I think in the sixties and the seventies where the issue of the holocaust and the war was never dealt with in a personal way, in a way of questioning German identity, questioning Germany responsibility and questioning the actions of your fathers and your grandfathers.And I really rejected this very much, and growing out of this world there was a deep desire to bring first of all the pre-war repertory which was mostly Jewish.Jewish writers, Jewish composers - the whole cultural scene of the Weimar republic was very much Jewish - the journalists, the painters, the intellectuals, the scientists.This was such a strong anarchic, creative, provocative, avant-garde scene which burst and shattered into pieces which was not reborn and unfortunately all these people had to go."
    But the need to keep this unique moment in time alive is not the only thing that keeps Ute performing these works.It's a passionate love for the wit, the humour, the irony, the twisted cynicism and debauched tales that even today leave audiences shocked at the seedy chaos these writers unleashed.
    She's uniquely suited to taking on such menacing, manipulative roles and thrives on her image as femme fatale, which shined out in her recent one-woman-show 'Life's A Swindle' that recently took centre stage in London's West End.
    Now it's time to start reheasing her coming tour of 'Punishing Kiss' that willl kick off in April in the States before moving on to Europe.She's hoping Costello or Hannon may join her for a few nights, but regardless will make a show in the way only she is capable.
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