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Post new topic Die Dreigroschenoper
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Author Topic:  Die Dreigroschenoper
Jeff Au Hoy


From:
Honolulu, Hawai'i
Post  Posted 16 Apr 2005 8:02 pm    
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For most of last week I got to be a Roy Smeck wannabe in the local production of Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera" which to my surprise, contained a Hawaii-Gitarre part.

I spent most of the show manning the tenor banjo (the part was hell at first, I might add, as the chords were written note-for-note rather than as symbols) but two numbers called for steel.

Since the opera dates back to 1928, I figured the part would call for a zingy acoustic sound... and boy did it. The conductor insisted I play this harsh trebly whine with wreckless attack. I only had my frypan with me... my picking was just about scraping up against the horseshoe magnet, I was trying to play as close as possible to the bridge to get a twang out of it. I really should have used a wooden bar too. In any case, David Keli'i emulation was out of the question.

Anybody else played steel in this show? What a bizarre experience.
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Jon Light


From:
Saugerties, NY
Post  Posted 16 Apr 2005 8:10 pm    
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I had forgotten about this but yeah, my good friend in Boston who does a bunch of the Patsy and Whorehouse shows in the region had told me this a few years ago. I haven't heard the score in so long--certainly not since I had an awareness of the steel guitar.
Weill uses some really unique instrumentation and harmonies and voicings. Three Penny Opera with Lotte Lenya was an album I sort of grew up with and I could never put my finger on why it seemed so unsettling. Still can't but it sure isn't Oklahoma.
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Gerald Ross


From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Post  Posted 17 Apr 2005 7:01 am    
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When I was 23 or 24 I played guitar and banjo in a production of Three Penny Opera put on by the theatre department at Michigan State University.

Talk about a hard score . These were not your typical 1-4-5 songs. The only tune close to 1-4-5 was "Mack The Knife" and even that one was nothing like the Bobby Darin version.

Didn't play an H steel in the production though.

I was glad when that gig was over. Tough music to play that had to be played the same way night after night.

------------------
Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association
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Jon Light


From:
Saugerties, NY
Post  Posted 19 Apr 2005 11:51 am    
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I asked my friend Carl Phillips to tell me all he knew and he came thru:

quote:
The original 1920's, Blitzstein (50's Lotte Lenya), and '96 Donmar Warehouse scores all call for "Guitarre Hawaiianne" to be played by the person who also plays steel string, classical guitar, banjo, and squeezebox (for the two tangos). This lap-steel is used on 2 numbers "The British Army" Song and a solo in the finale chorus of "Knocking Shop Tango." I faithfully played steel on those in the Donmar-based production I was lucky enuf to do last year. However with the rarity of steel players being what it is, and the pervasive "the audience wouldn't know the difference anyway" attitude....even the Donmar Warehuse CD recording has other instruments "covering" the steel parts.
Hawaiian sounding instruments- lap steels, dobros, Nationals, and other like
sounding instruments were all the rage back then in the 20's and 30's.....As always the original instrumentation does sound the best (not that I'm biased or anything!).....

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