1TP5Criticism Pompe: Crack in the voice

UTE LEMPER
1TP5Pompe's critique: the crack in the voiceGerman singer Ute Lemper became a global star in the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. It was then that I became aware of her, especially because agents soon realised that it was possible to market her "in-between" position, her flexibility, that she could move quickly between genres, that she could impress with lighter music (pop, musical), but that she could also quickly approach the music of the new reality with her expressiveness, i.e. especially Weill's songs, the chanson, that she was not only a singer, a dancer, a theatre performer, but also a subtle reader/storyteller.She was not only a singer, a dancer, a theatre performer.

Somehow I didn't really feel all that from the records I bought at the time - there was a typical ability to colour the voice, but it was always quite measured, so that the expressiveness was restrained, never excessively prominent, and the voice seemed even unremarkable in its basic predispositions. I was convinced, therefore, that the singer's charm lay in her stage charisma, in a kind of marriage of body and voice.

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German singer Ute Lemper became a global star in the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. (Photo: Festival Ljubljana)

All of this could be verified at this year's concert at the Ljubljana Festival (it was not the first time Ute Lemper had come to Ljubljana), but this time's print left a different feeling than the records recorded three decades ago. The crack in Ute Lemper's voice is now, however, significantly bigger. If in the 1990s the latter could be understood as a shift towards expression, a tendency towards the purely human, now the pronounced colour shift between registers can already be understood as a weariness of the voice, even a less endearing accentuated vibrato. In the middle leagues, in the narrow ambituses, her voice can still sound attractive, full of content, sensuous-emotional in the ground, but as soon as it opens up to the higher leagues and also to dramatic exuberance - and that is where the singer's personality often wants to reach - it becomes too scratchy and hoarsely tightened. Of course, such a register shift can also be interpreted as a highly interpretative note, as a rebellion, a social critique, a kind of cabaret pose, and the singer, with her timetable, especially in the first part, has tried to play on this very content. It was precisely in this, in the unforced linking of the individual songs, in which she opened up glimpses of the time of the Weimar Republic and partly also of Broadway, that she proved to be at her strongest, able to link the present topical moment with the difficult experiences of the past. But over time, when Weill stood alongside Ebb, Piazzolla and Brel - quite diverse composers, after all - the interpretative settings sounded all too similar and depended on the basic specifics and condition of the singer's voice. Ute Lemper did indeed lavish herself on the audience - in all the concert lasted almost three hours - but perhaps a shorter schedule, especially focusing on Weill where the vocal impurities can be cleverly instrumentalised, would have brought even more vocal-musical pleasures.

The singer was accompanied by the Slovenian Youth Orchestra, which did not have an enviable task - it rarely came to the fore, but had to wait patiently for its entrances and rhythmic precision. He presented himself with Bernstein's Three Dance Episodes from the musical On the Town, where perhaps Živa Ploj Peršuh's baton could have dictated more summery tempi. An additional problem was the sound system, which, as usual, revealed more problems in the orchestra's sound than the ear would otherwise have detected. Otherwise, the accompaniment was mostly solid, but at times shaky in the initial tempi. x

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MUSIC

Ute Lemper (voice), Slovenian Youth Orchestra, Živa Ploj Peršuh (conductor)

Festival Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Križanke

3/5

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It is precisely in this, in the unforced integration of the individual songs, in which she opened a glimpse into the time of the Weimar Republic and partly also Broadway, that she proved to be the strongest, able to connect the present topical moment with the difficult experiences of the past.

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The singer was accompanied by the Slovenian Youth Orchestra, which did not have an enviable task - it rarely came to the fore, but had to wait patiently for its entrances and rhythmic precision.