Bristol’s St George’s is full tonight, parking was a more challenging than usual, and there’s barely room to move as people queue to enter the auditorium. It’s so full in fact, sold-out, that our seats have been given to someone else and we have to perch on the bench at the very back of the hall (thanks Joe on the auditorium door, and the box office staff for doing everything possible to get us seated)

Everyone is here to see Ute Lemper, actor, star of musicals, and chanteuse perform her ‘Last Tango in Berlin – The Best of Ute’ not something I might normally get excited about, but it would be silly to miss a singer of this quality in our own backyard.

If you were asked to imagine a German cabaret singer you’d almost certainly have a picture of Ute Lemper in mind, both my plus one and myself couldn’t help but compare her appearance tonight to that of Jessica Rabbit, just much less rabbity. Dressed in a long split dress she looks every inch the classic cabaret act. I was in Berlin in the mid ’80s as a 17 year-old, I didn’t see anything like this – I didn’t try hard enough!

I’ve previously criticised the venue for being too brightly lit but it works very well tonight to show off Ute & her supporting musicians perfectly.

The music is a mix of songs in French, German and English, and it’s obvious that Ute is fluent in all three. I favour the songs sung in German, my companion loved those in French, a lot to do with those being the languages we speak, respectively. The songs invariably lose a little in translation – the meaning comes through, mostly but some of the word play suffers. The Moritat von Mackie Messer just sounds so much better, how Brecht intended it, than any version I’ve ever heard translated to English.
I am aware that I’ve learned quite a bit about the origins of the songs we heard, and what they mean to Ute as she schools the audience as she introduces each song. It certainly doesn’t detract from the experience; it’s great to be able to understand the context of what we hear, although sat so far back, behind the audience, it was difficult to hear Ute’s softly-spoken commentary, pitched perfectly, as it was, for those in the paying seats.

Ute sings playfully at times, her jazz improvisation is stunning, mesmerising; in fact I struggled to remember any detail as the performance came to a close as I seemed to go into a bit of a trance, enjoying the moment rather than trying to analyse it in any meaningful way.

I know that I smiled for most of the performance, and left with a new appreciation for a genre I’d not normally seek out.

Peter Dennis authored a great review of Ute’s recent Cadogan Hall performance forn Pulse-Alternative Magazine.

“Ute Lemper brings her latest project, the 9 Secrets, to The Cadogan Hall in the heart of Chelsea. Based upon the novel ‘Manuscript Found in Accra’ by Paul Coehlo, this ‘lost’ text laid undiscovered for 700 years and is an echo from history bringing a message for modern humanity. A bible without religion that offers 9 secrets, or commandments, for a more wholesome, peaceable life…”

Click here to read the full review!

By PETER DENNIS
Pulse-Alternative Magazine

Ute Lemper brings her latest project, the 9 Secrets, to The Cadogan Hall in the heart of Chelsea. Based upon the novel ‘Manuscript Found in Accra’ by Paul Coehlo, this ‘lost’ text laid undiscovered for 700 years and is an echo from history bringing a message for modern humanity. A bible without religion that offers 9 secrets, or commandments, for a more wholesome, peaceable life.

In an impressive venue that is more associated with choral and classical music it is nevertheless the perfect location for Ms Lemper with its high ceiling that offers great acoustics for her truly international band. Backed by a six piece ensemble who share a telepathy with Ute and understand her vocal nuances a band, especially pianist and accordionist, who act as a sea upon which the vocals gently float.

A musical chameleon whose work is pleasantly hard to categorise Ute’s 9 Secrets cycle draws from a wide range of influences. Opening with ‘Solitude’ and then ‘Beauty’ which explores jazz and middle eastern rhythms to ‘Love’ in which we can hear the pull of Kurt Weill (a friendly ghost which haunts much of Ute’s work). Despite all these disparate influences what holds the whole work together is the marriage of music and text. ‘Success’ poses the question: ‘What is success?’ To which is answered: ‘It is being able to go to bed at night with your soul at peace.’ A message that is diametrically opposed to the ideals of our modern society. It is a great credit to Ute and band that they bring a real colour to Coehlo’s words. The music evokes warm golden reds, bold greens and soft yellow hues which transport the audience from a rainy Chelsea to the sun drenched ruins of Accra.

When, in a slight departure from the 9 Secrets, Ute performs Alberstein’s ‘Stiller Abend’ (from 2012’s Paris Days and Berlin Nights) it doesn’t seem out of place at all. This piece of klezmer transports us to another lost world (this time to a vanished eastern Europe) and is performed with a real joy de vivre that expresses both bliss and sorrow in equal measure, again evoking vivid warm textures, and is greeted with thunderous applause.

Despite the obvious difficulties in interpreting others’ words and setting them to music the 9 Secrets is a real success. Perhaps even more so in a live environment where an earthy, organic sound adds an extra third dimension to the text. The 9 Secrets touches upon all three major Abrahamic religions aiming to create a unity in this age of fragmentation and that is something we should all celebrate.

Click here to read online

World renowned chanteuse Ute Lemper makes a welcome return to the UK stage performing her celebrated show Last Tango in Berlin – The Best of Ute.

The journey starts in Berlin with Ute’s root repertoire of Brecht and Weill and the Berlin Cabaret songs. It continues into the poetic universe of the French chansons by Brel, Piaf, Ferre and further to the Argentinian world of Tango by Astor Piazzolla.

Ute walks through the backstreets of Paris, Berlin, New York and Buenos Aires and lets ancient ghosts with new faces tell the stories of the lost, of love, survival, passion, dreams, societies, the past and the future.

Ute also performs her own songs to connect the yesterday with the today through her own stories about these places and about life.

Click here to see the page with a video medley of ‘Mackie Messer’, along with ticket sales information.