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23014. judithathome - 11/27/2007 5:38:41 PM I read that Nina Simone did a cover of it and I'd bet THAT was a great ride! 23015. alistairconnor - 11/27/2007 6:26:30 PM Yo arky... Actually his mother wants to send him to England next summer so he can improve his English... I say it's a waste of time:
(cue Professor Higgins ... while we're doing musicals)
Henry Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable she ever uttered.
By law she should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.
Eliza Aaoooww! Henry imitating her Aaoooww!
Heaven's! What a noise!
This is what the British population,
Calls an elementary education. Pickering Oh,
Counsel, I think you picked a poor example. Henry Did I?
Hear them down in Soho square,
Dropping "h's" everywhere.
Speaking English anyway they like.
You sir, did you go to school?
Man Wadaya tike me for, a fool?
Henry No one taught him 'take' instead of 'tike!
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
This verbal class distinction, by now,
Should be antique. If you spoke as she does, sir,
Instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be selling flowers, too!
Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse,
Hear a Cornishman converse,
I'd rather hear a choir singing flat.
Chickens cackling in a barn Just like this one!
Eliza Garn! Henry I ask you, sir, what sort of word is that?
It's "Aoooow" and "Garn" that keep her in her place.
Not her wretched clothes and dirty face.
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
This verbal class distinction by now should be antique.
If you spoke as she does, sir, Instead of the way you do,
Why, you might be selling flowers, too.
An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him,
The moment he talks he makes some other
Englishman despise him.
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get.
Oh, why can't the English learn to set
A good example to people whose
English is painful to your ears?
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely
disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
Norwegians learn Norwegian; the Greeks have taught their
Greek. In France every Frenchman knows
his language fro "A" to "Zed"
The French never care what they do, actually,
as long as they pronounce in properly.
Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning.
And Hebrews learn it backwards,
which is absolutely frightening.
But use proper English you're regarded as a freak.
Why can't the English,
Why can't the English learn to speak?
23016. alistairconnor - 11/27/2007 6:27:15 PM How would the exchange thing work? Would the schools already need to be hooked up? 23017. wonkers2 - 11/27/2007 6:31:31 PM Threepenny Opera is one of my favorites. I once had an LP with Lotte Lenya singing the lead in German. I've seen the show twice. Once in NYC and once in Detroit. And I'd see it again given the opportunity. 23018. Ms. No - 11/27/2007 6:55:15 PM Judith,
Pirate Jenny was one of Nina Simone's signature songs. When she sang it you were very aware of her singing from the point of view of a black servant woman fed up with her treatment who finally gets her revenge in violence and blood on those who have mistreated her for so long. It made a brilliant protest song in her hands.
Another of Simone's standards was I Loves You Porgy from Porgy and Bess. 23019. Ms. No - 11/27/2007 7:03:00 PM David,
Ah, "How to Survive", 3 Penny is full of home truths. I haven't heard Marianne Faithful's rendition, but we did keep it in our production when the university staged it back in '93. The only thing I remember us cutting was the Lucy Brown character.
It was a great show experience. We had a guy that came to every performance and would carry signs --- not that I can now remember what any of them said. He kind of freaked people out but it was so very Brechtian that I wondered if perhaps our director who was a member of the International Brecht Society hadn't maybe put him up to it. 23020. PelleNilsson - 11/27/2007 8:30:59 PM wonkers -- you asked me upthread about the paper I'm writing. It is about the infamous Nüremburg laws of 1935 and about the dispute between the Nazi party and the civil service over how to look at the offspring of so called mixed marriages and over the status of assimilated, converted Jews. 23021. arkymalarky - 11/27/2007 9:27:12 PM Yo arky... Actually his mother wants to send him to England next summer so he can improve his English... I say it's a waste of time:
Is that a subtle way of saying you don't think we would improve his English in Arkansas? ;-> 23022. arkymalarky - 11/27/2007 9:30:07 PM I'll ask the person who works with the exchange program in our area. I don't know what the process is of application, placement and all that. I know we've had several who came to our school from other parts of the US or other host families that didn't work out, so it's evidently flexible. 23023. Wombat - 11/27/2007 9:58:11 PM Pelle:
Mischling, eh? Sounds interesting. Have you read "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers?" 23024. PelleNilsson - 11/27/2007 10:34:59 PM Yes, Mischlinge of the first and second degree. No, I haven't read Rigg's book but I looked it up. It doesn't seem to be a seminal work, not even an interesting one. 23025. judithathome - 11/28/2007 12:46:00 AM I have been using "The 3 Penny Opera" because that is the way the title is on Pabst's film...but I like "The Threepenny Opera" better.
I had always loved Bobby Darin's rendition of "Mack The Knife" and appreicate it even more so now. Keoni was determined to learn who "Sukey Tawdry" was and the film answered the question. Ha! 23026. wonkers2 - 11/28/2007 1:38:47 AM Judith, you've got to listen to Lotte Lenya sind Threepenny Opera. She's the greatest. She has the hard edge to her voice that's required for the lyrics and music. 23027. wonkers2 - 11/28/2007 2:08:35 AM Lotte Lenya sings Surabaya Johnny 23028. wonkers2 - 11/28/2007 2:13:50 AM Here's a better one with Lotte Lenya singing Surabaya Johnny Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill I haven't yet found Mack the Knife by Lotte Lenya. 23029. wonkers2 - 11/28/2007 2:19:54 AM Here's the first version I remember hearing of Mack the Knife.Louis Armstrong's Mack the Knife 23030. judithathome - 11/28/2007 2:31:24 AM Even Louis said Darin's was the definitive version...but I love Lenya. She was superb in the movie. I read later that she had a larger part in the original stage version. I can see why.
Face it, for a pop singer like Bobby Darin to even attempt anything by Kurt Weill at that time was brave, to say the least.
Love all the versions.... 23031. judithathome - 11/28/2007 2:32:20 AM Wonks, get the DVD and watch it all the way through; then watch it again with the commentary. 23032. wonkers2 - 11/28/2007 3:05:07 AM Is the DVD of the entire Threepenny Opera? 23033. judithathome - 11/29/2007 1:24:01 AM Yes....well, it is G. W. Pabst's version, anyhow.
Go ahead and see it...you'll not regret it!
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