Karyn Levitt's 'Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook' Set for Release in October

"Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook," the debut CD from soprano actress Karyn Levitt, will be available from Roven Records on October 30. From her rich collaboration with world-renowned Brecht translator Eric Bentley, Levitt sings over 20 Brecht-Eisler songs in English translation, all rarely-heard and many never-before recorded until now. Bentley adapted the song texts (poems and theater ballads by Brecht) from their original German into English, unlocking Eisler's starkly beautiful songs for English-speaking audiences. "Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook" is produced by four-time Emmy award winner Glen Roven.

Karyn Levitt is an Oberlin-trained performer who has appeared at Carnegie Hall and other distinguished venues. Levitt initiated her collaboration with Bentley in 2011 when she wrote a letter to the Theatre Hall of Fame inductee requesting counsel on a pending Weill-Brecht show she was planning. Bentley replied days later suggesting that instead of Weill, Levitt explore the works of a lesser known Brecht composer, Hanns Eisler, obtain Bentley's 1967 The Brecht-Eisler Song Book, and listen to his 1964 recording Songs of Hanns Eisler.He agreed to meet after Levitt had completed her initial research. Levitt took on the research assignment before meeting with Bentley who ultimately presented her with his unpublished English versions of Hanns Eisler's lieder. Within two weeks, Levitt had recorded a demo of the material for her new mentor, who responded "Bravo, Karyn! Now create a whole show!"

Under Bentley's guidance, Levitt and pianist Eric Ostling created an evening of Eisler's songs that has earned rave reviews around the country with Irving Wardle of the London Times raving "Karyn Levitt is doing something which, to my ears, is new. My acquaintance with the Eisler songs is limited to (other) singers (who have) a harsh and urgent style, very much a product of the cruel and dangerous times in which the work first appeared. Ms. Levitt's approach, it seems to me, is to negotiate a passage for these songs into the concert hall. In place of the gritty style, she allows them to bloom and be beautiful."

The new CD, "Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook," is the culmination Levitt's journey, under the mentoring of Eric Bentley, into the world and music of Hanns Eisler.

"I regard it as a privilege that in our numerous coaching sessions over the years, Eric Bentley has given me his unpublished translations of Eisler songs with words by Goethe, Heine, Eichendorff, Leopardi, Anacreon, Karl Kraus, and even Shakespeare," says Karyn Levitt. "Eisler's stylistic range is dazzling. Few composers have used Schoenbergian techniques to such lyrical ends, and few would dispute that Eisler was as important a song composer as Schubert. Brecht and Eisler were one of the 20th century's great musical partnerships."

The set list for "Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook features 23 tracks, half of which have never before been recorded:

1. I came to the cities

2. Ballad of the Soldier

3. The Sprinkling of Gardens

4. There's Nothing Quite Like Money

5. And What Did She Get?

6. Musical Interlude: Song of the United Front

7. To the Little Radio

8. The Plum Tree

9. The Love Market

10. Song of the Moldau

11. In the Flower Garden

12. The Mask of Wickedness

13. Easter Sunday, 1935

14. The Son

15. On Suicide

16. On the World's Kindness

17. Song of a German Mother

18. A Saying (for 1939)

19. Musical Interlude: Komintern

20. Truly I live in a time of darkness!

21. The Homecoming

22. Musical Interlude: Solidarity Song

23. You who will be borne up