Well, dear readers, someone recently told me this is the holiday season. Who knew? Does it feel like the holiday season? Does it feel like we’re two days from Christmas? I’m not feeling it, frankly, but I think I’ll get in the swing of things, I’ll get in the Christmas spirit, I’ll spread the Christmas cheer. But as I sit here and write these here notes, I’m feeling decadent because I’m listening to Miss Lotte Lenya sing her hubby Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins – it’s a mono recording in excellent sound and the sins are very well done, as sins go. I’m currently on gluttony, which is appropriate because I think I may have gone over the old calorie count, oh, yes, I think I may have gone over the old calorie count. Sometimes one simply must, you know. But not that far over, just a little over. I’ll get to that later in these here notes. For now, gluttony is the musical selection – it’s in German, of course, so I have no idea what they’re actually singing about, other than I keep hearing Louisiana every now and then. Ah, finally – lust. I’m down with lust, baby – lust for life, lust of music and art and theater and film. In fact, I’m a glutton for lust, to combine two sins in one. Has there ever been anyone like Lotte Lenya? She wouldn’t even get in the audition door today, but she was completely unique, a one-off, a total original, both as actress and singer. I first saw her the way I imagine many did – as Rosa Kleb in the second James Bond movie, From Russia, With Love. I thought she was brilliant in it. The, of course, soon thereafter I heard The Threepenny Opera off-Broadway cast album and loved her in that – just the sound of her voice. I didn’t see The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone when it came out – that would come much later, but I thought she was brilliant in that. No, the next time I heard her was on the cast album of Cabaret, and she was amazing and gave her songs so much heft and history – absolutely mesmerizing and no one, and I mean NO ONE, will ever do So What and What Would You Do as well as she did. She brought such authenticity to the score and the show. I saw the national tour of Cabaret, which opened the Ahmanson Theater, and was blown away, but Signe Hasso, while very good, was no Lenya.
Then I moved to New York at the end of 1968, and sometime in early 1969, I moseyed on over to the Broadway Theater and got a single to see Cabaret, which had moved to that theater and would end its run there. Martin Ross was playing the Emcee, George Voskovec was in the Gilford role, Anita Gillette was Sally Bowles – and miracle of miracles, Lenya had come back in the show. And she was everything you’d hope she would be – she took my breath away and keep in mind how many times she’d played the role by then. So, what a treat that was – to see that kind of legend on stage. Unforgettable, really. If the ibdb is right, I might have seen Larry Kert as Cliff. And in the chorus, Ann Reinking, making her Broadway debut. But it was Lenya’s show all the way. I would love to have met her, but thankfully we have a lotta Lenya recordings. I also listened to the Mahagonny complete recording from 1956 that she did and oversaw. It’s a great record marred by some distortion and shrill mono – I’m sure it could be improved if they remastered it these days. And we have her singing a lot of Weill songs, the off-Broadway Threepenny along with the original German from 1958, and lots of others. I Love Lucy and I Love Lenya and I don’t care who knows it.
Yesterday was a day – it seemed very much like a Tuesday – perhaps that’s because it was a Tuesday. I only got five hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, shaved, showered, and then we had a drop-in guest – young Mackenzie Wrap, who you know from the Kritzerland shows, and her mom, bringing me a holiday Bundt cake, which was very sweet of them. Then the helper came by and picked up something she needed to ship, and then I was finally able to go to Gelson’s and get food. I decided to try something that looked good to me – cheese enchiladas – pre-packaged by them in their deli section, cold, so you microwave it for a few minutes. I also got some penne pasta in red sauce with cheese – same deal, pre-packaged and cold. I then went and picked up some packages and thankfully it wasn’t crowded for a change.
Then I came home and ate the cheese enchiladas, which were really excellent. After that, I did some work on project two, but mostly I heard the final orchestration and did some little adjustments and now that part of the adventure of project one is done. Then it was time for our Zoom session, which was fun. We went over schedules, technical stuff, and we’re all on the same page as we get ready to make this a reality. We’re all very excited. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched – well, tried to watch – another DVD production of Hansel Und Gretel. This one was conducted by Georg Solti but it’s not a stage version, it’s a “film” and it’s horribly done and just weird and I shut it off after enduring forty minutes of it. Then I watched another opera on DVD – act one of Dvorak’s Rusalka. I like Dvorak and it’s directed by Robert Carsen, who I thought did such a great job with Der Rosenkavalier. Sadly, the magic didn’t happen here – no, here we get a “concept” production of this fairy-tale opera, which has similarities to The Little Mermaid. The problem is, I had no idea what the concept actually was or what he was going for, other than wanting to be different. The set was big, certainly, and weird, certainly, but what it had to do with the story is anyone’s guess. Renee Fleming was very good, but I suspect I should not go beyond act one and just listen to a CD of it, as I really liked the music a lot. There are other productions of it, too, on Blu-ray and DVD. Or I could finish it and just close my eyes and listen to the music.
After that, I listened to music, ate the penne pasta (only 350 calories and the enchiladas had about 650 or thereabouts, so that part was fine calorie-wise, but the Darling Daughter sent me a package for the holidays, one item of which was her famous cherry loaf and I hate a little less than half of it – so that was the gluttony part of the evening. She always gives me a lottery scratcher and I never ever win – well, once I one two bucks and once I won another lottery scratcher. But this time I lucked out – I was within one number of winning five million dollars, but instead won five dollars, but also there were four bonus squares and if any one of the four had the year 2021 in it you won whatever that prize was, too. And I got one, for twenty-five bucks – so thirty bucks and I go into 2021 a winner.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, friend Kay Cole is dropping by briefly to pick up a few of her CDs, and she’ll be followed by a dealer picking up a few CDs. That will be followed by hopefully picking up some packages, I’m hoping for a major miracle, so send excellent vibes and xylophones, I’ll eat something light so I can have the rest of the cherry loaf – she sent two. After that, I’ll do more adjustments to project two but that’s it for now. Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is our annual Christmas Eve Do, which we’re not Doing due to the pandemic. I may drop by a friend’s – just four folks and outside and distanced – just to say hey and have some food perhaps. I’m on my own, of course, for Christmas, and I’ll continue to make book notes and then I’m going to try and write three or four pages of it, just so that on January 1 I’m already into it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, have to drop-in pick-ups, hopefully pick up packages, eat, hope for a major miracle, do a few last clarifications on project two, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a whole lotta Lenya going on.