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Dunstan
Playhouse.
Adelaide
Cabaret Festival – 15th June 2017.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens OAM
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| Peter Coleman-Wright |
It may have
seemed like a curious combination, a singer and four saxophones, but in reality
it proved to be a match made in heaven. The singer was Peter Coleman-Wright,
and the four saxophonists were the virtuoso Nexas Quartet. Their show, “Composers in Exile” focussed on
the careers of a handful of composers who fled Germany during the Weimar
period, provided a mini-history lesson of the events which gave birth to
cabaret.
“Composers
in Exile” was presented, documentary style, on a stage bare except for five
stools, a grand piano, and a screen overhead on which images were projected of the
composers, the Jewish persecutions from which they fled, posters, contemporary newspaper
reports and cabaret venues of the time.
A
pre-recorded female voice-over set the mood before each of the five performers
assumed the role of a different composer. Coleman –Wright was Kurt Weill. Michael Duke was Robert Stolz. Andrew Smith portrayed Bertold Brecht, Nathan
Henshaw was Franz Schreker, and Jay Burns was Hans Eisler. They took turns addressing the audience.
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| NEXAS QUARTET Nathan Henshaw - Michael Duke - Jay Byrnes - Andew Smith |
As
Coleman-Wright sang the songs and the musicians played, they occasionally stamped
their feet in unison, swayed to the music, sat together on the stools, or
simply grouped around him when at one point he played the piano and sang a Robert Stolz
song, “I’ve fallen in Love a Thousand Times”. It was simple staging, but its
Brechtian overtones worked perfectly to provide an absorbing context for the
music, all of which was performed without reference to sheet music.
Most of the
songs were sung in German. Coleman-Wright drew on his considerable operatic
experience to colour his rich, baritone for his portrayals of protesting miners,
seedy lowlifes, or cabaret performers about whom the songs were written. He was
equally effective with the more sentimental love-songs, especially Weill’s
lovely “September Song” which drew tears from more than a few of his rapt audience.
Songs by
Hans Eisler, Robert Stolz, Erich Korngold and Franz Schreker were all included,
but it was those by Kurt Weill which dominated, both from his collaboration
with Berthold Brecht and others written later in America. “The Threepenny
Opera” scored both an instrumental medley from the quartet, and a stirring
rendition of “Mack the Knife” from Coleman-Wright.
It could
have been heavy going, but the brilliance of the five performers, their easy
charm and obvious affection and enthusiasm for the material, proved a seductive
combination in a presentation which informed the mind while pleasuring the
soul. Quite an achievement.
This review first published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au