Raul Julia NYSF Threepenny Opera for download

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 4:20pm

OHMYGOD!

I have no idea how I found but I stumbled across a blog that had info about the NYSF version of "Threepenny" with Ellen Greene and Raul Julia.

This has never been available on CD but all the tracks are listed. So I thought I would listen to what I've been missing.

To my surprise clicking on each song automatically downloaded it to my iTunes music library.

So check out the site and get this wonderful recording for yourself: http://www.dinosaurgardens.com/categories/audio/soundtrack

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 4:49pm

oh, by the way - its free

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 4:59pm

It's always been my favorite of the Threepenny recordings... Not as poetic as the Blitzstein translation, but it feels truer to a direct translation of the Brecht. (And of course, my signature features one of my favorite lyrics from "Jealousy Duet").

The rumor has been that the Kurt Weill Foundation will not allow the NYSF recording to be released on CD. I can't for the life of me understand why.

Updated On: 12/30/07 at 04:59 PM

[folkyboy]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 5:09pm

thanks for the heads up!

[Effie]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 5:39pm

Muchas gracias!

[zooxanthellae]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 5:43pm

Thank You you for sharing!
Updated On: 12/30/07 at 05:43 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 6:09pm

I own this cd, it is definitely one of my favorites. Ellen Greene's Jenny rocks and I love that she got "Pirate Jenny" in this version. This is my favorite "Tango Ballad" (or "Ballad of Immoral Earnings"), I have a thing for the late fabulous Raul Julia.
I really enjoy this translation of "Pirate Jenny" as well, it's the translation Donna Murphy sang at the Public Sings benefit. So good.

[LuPonatic]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 7:49pm

wow! That is Ellen Greene? Sounds so different from Little Shop of Horrors!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/30/07 at 8:18pm

It's okay, but it doesn't make up for there being no revival recording with Brian Charles Rooney singing "Lucy's Aria".

[neelyohara]

Posted: 12/31/07 at 12:11am

I can't seem to get the songs to download...I click on them and it goes to a QuickTime player. Am I missing something?

[emg_sound]

Posted: 12/31/07 at 12:17am

does anyone have any VISUAL documentation on this particular production? One aspect that is oft overlooked is that this production was directed by Richard Foreman (yes, that Richard Foreman) and I'm very curious on how his visual aesthetic clashed with Brectian needs!

[emg_sound]

Posted: 12/31/07 at 12:18am

does anyone have any VISUAL documentation on this particular production? One aspect that is oft overlooked is that this production was directed by Richard Foreman (yes, that Richard Foreman) and I'm very curious on how his visual aesthetic clashed with Brechtian needs!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/31/07 at 2:23am

You have to right click the song titles and choose "save target as".

[roseaddams]

Posted: 12/31/07 at 3:19am

Or ctrl+click on a mac.

[cka2nd]

Posted: 1/16/08 at 11:02pm

Oh MY God!

Thank you SO much for this. J.J. Peachum was played by my father, C.K. Alexander, in this production, so you can imagine how unhappy I have been with the fact that this has never been released on CD. Over the years, I hunted down the LP and bought copies for my brothers and sisters, but folks just don't have record players anymore, so this will be the first chance that most of them have had in years to hear this show again, and for my nieces and nephews, well, nevermind.

I'm not even sure how many of us actually saw Dad in the NYSF's Threepenny, since some of us were in college and out of town in 1976. I was lucky enough to see the original cast - Raul, Dad, Liz Wilson, Ellen Greene, Blair Brown, the wonderful Caroline Kava, David Sabin (for whom I would later babysit), the rubbery Tony Azito and that most brilliant ballad singer, Billie Breeze himself, Roy Brocksmith, who went on to a successful career as a character actor in Hollywood, thank you very much - in a preview at the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center, and then saw it again at the Delacourt (?) in Central Park with Philip Bosco stepping in for Raul (Bosco added an extra bit of creepiness since he was older than Raul) and Jerome Dempsey for my Dad. Liz Wilson had been replaced by one of MacHeath's whores, I think Gretel Cummings; both Dad and Liz were in the audience that night and I actually caught my Dad singing in his seat during the finale!

I loved this show. It got mixed reviews at the time, and I've talked to folks since then who absolutely hated it. I try to be objective about my father's work - he was not at all at his best playing the Governor in The Scarlet Letter produced for PBS in the late 70's and starring Meg Foster, which got far too generous reviews when it was released on DVD soon after Demi Moore's version had been crucified when it hit the multiplexes - but I do think he was excellent in this production. He'd played Peachum before, a number of times, apparently, and I think that experience and the confidence of a man who felt pretty much at the top of his craft allowed him to give perhaps the finest performance of his career. We literally went through every review of the show we could find for an ad he took out in Backstage (or was it Variety? Probably the former.) and we literally could not find a single one that gave him a negative notice (we couldn't quite figure out what Alan Rich was trying to say in New York Magazine...). Not to be presumptuous, but I honestly believe he deserved a Tony nomination for best supporting actor that year.

Anyway, I've gone on way too long, but thanks again and again for bringing this link to our attention.

Charles

[cka2nd]

Posted: 1/16/08 at 11:32pm

I know I've read some interesting stuff on Richard Foreman directing Brecht, i.e., Threepenny, including either an interview that he gave or his own writing on the subject, and as I think that was in the last few years, it must have been on the internet, so go forth and google if you haven't already.

As for visual documentation, my Mom has one or two photos of the show, I think both with Philip Bosco rather than Raul Julia playing Macheath, but no wide shots. I remember there being very sparse sets; furniture, platforms, jail bars, but the only backdrop that I can see in my mind's eye is a curtain in the whorehouse, I think.

I don't know how hard it would be for you to get copies of photos of the production from the New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center, Richard Foreman or the photographers involved, but in case this might help, the photo credits for the fold-out LP cover are as follows:

Front Cover: Jim Houghton
Interior: Kramer - Jos. Abeles Studio
Back Cover: Tony Lover, Liberty Studios

A side note: Armin Shimerman, one of Peachum's beggars, appears in the front cover photo. A year or two after Threepenny, he played one of the three Soviet agents in an Equity Library Theater production of Silk Stockings around the corner from where we lived on the Upper West Side (the Peter Lorre part in the Astaire/Charisse film), and he and some of his cast mates came over to our place after a show. Very cool memory. A decade plus later, he played Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Last thing: The album cover for the LP for the NYSF production of Threepenny Opera was absolutely fabulous. As mentioned by another poster, it included commentaries by the Festival's Joe Papp and Musical Director Stanley Silverman, plus an extended synopsis of the show, plus the lyrics, which was especially important given the new translation, plus lots of photos, the cover one including that gorgeous poster for the show by Paul Davis. A first class package.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 12:07am

This production rocked.
I had a friend in it so I saw it many times.
The visuals were striking and it was incredibly physical,
at one point the Late great Tony Azito as the head of the Keystone Cops did a back role into a headstand. no hands, and I said WHOA!

And the nite the mics went out in the park and Ms. Greene just kept on singing.
and singing.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 4:14am

Hey, Charles, your father was a terrific Peachum in that production.

[cka2nd]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 9:15am

One correction about Tony Azito. He played the Sergeant of the police in the NYSF's The Pirates of Penzance. In Threepenny, he played, if memory serves, Peachum's assistant. Also a dancing role, and I just read on Tony's Wikipedia site that it was created especially for Tony by Foreman.

Very cool about Ellen Greene singing through the mikes going down. Brava!
Updated On: 1/17/08 at 09:15 AM

[roquat]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 1:22pm

Ellen Greene has to be the most underused great talent EVER. I couldn't believe this was her as Jenny when I heard the recording either. There isn't a trace of glamour--she sounds as though half her teeth have been knocked out, and the fury and sorrow she brings to "Solomon's Song" may be beyond what even Brecht had in mind. Stunning.

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 2:33pm

So glad to finally have this recording after years of searching!

[djb]

Posted: 1/17/08 at 11:38pm

This is absolutely spectacular. The highlight of my week.