sins

"es ist richtig so, Anna, aber so schwer..."

Last night I went out, and everyone I met seemed about 24; by the end of the night I felt ancient and exhausted.
If ever there existed a cure for feeling ancient (at 31!), it might just be attending a Sunday matinee at the SF Symphony. I haven't seen so many walkers and canes in one place in years. Despite a mild hangover and sleep deprivation, I started feeling quite spry almost as soon as we arrived.

In January I bought a couple tickets to see Ute Lemper perform "The Seven Deadly Sins" (a Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht collaboration which premiered in Paris in 1933, and one of my favorite pieces of music) and some Berlin cabaret songs (most of which she recorded a few years ago as part of a series of "Entartete Musik"). The concert was, at long last, today, and Deb and I tarted ourselves up and had a nice brunch first.

the concert was splendid. our seats were decent, though for this occasion I feel I should have splurged for the orchestra seats, or at least brought some opera glasses along.
Ms. Lemper came out in a long, black, form-fitting jacket over something red, and after the first song peeled off the outer layer to reveal a red velvet dress that looked as if it had been poured over her.
At the end of Spoliansky's "I am a Vamp" she hopped off the stage to finish the song, then leaned over and bit some gentleman on the neck. (not exactly what the traditional symphony crowd would have expected.) She turned back to the stage, only to realize that the little staircase she was expecting wasn't there, and improved a hilarious performance out of getting her victim to help her back up on the stage. I'm not doing the moment any justice here, but that poor guy will never forget it, that's for certain. She ended up managing, quite gracefully, to get back up mostly by herself.
I was glad she sang Hollaender's "Munchhausen," one of my favorite songs from the Berlin Cabaret Songs recording, and even more grateful that she came out with "The Lavender Song" ("weil wir ja anders als die andern sind") for an encore after the first act.
She switched back and forth between German and English for the cabaret songs, which was confusing, but I later saw a notice in the program explaining that, due to copyright restrictions, they couldn't provide texts or translations for that part of the program. It was a good compromise. The translations of these songs (and for the Weill) are horrible, in my opinion. I s'pose I'm lucky and shouldn't complain.
"The Seven Deadly Sins" was gorgeously done, with the Hudson Shad quartet singing the part of "The Family."
When I got home I had to do a few calculations, and- yes, I believe I have been guilty of all seven sins. possibly even this week! maybe I'll take a page from Brecht/Weill and refer to myself as Susan I and Susan II from now on.

" Meine Schwester ist schön, ich bin praktisch.
Sie ist etwas verrückt, ich bin bei Verstand.
Wir sind eigentlich nicht zwei Personen,
sondern nur eine einzige.
Wir heissen beide Anna,
wir haben eine Vergangenheit und eine Zukunft,
ein Herz und ein Sparkassenbuch,
und jede tut nur, was für die andere gut ist.
Nicht war, Anna?

Ja, Anna."