Ziegler’s warmth and scintillating diction brought to life a couple of numbers from another show that deserves reviving: One Touch of Venus, with memorable lyrics by Ogden Nash including the ironic “I’m a Stranger Here Myself” and the haunting, Shakespearean “Speak Low” (“Love is so old, and Time so brief/Love is pure gold, and Time a thief”).
Weill also collaborated with Langston Hughes (“Lost in the Stars”), Maxwell Anderson (“September Song”), and Alan Jay Lerner. We got juicy excerpts from such forgotten scores as The Firebrand of Florence (a flop about the love life of Benvenuto Cellini — Ira Gershwin again), the experimental Love Life (Lerner), and the unfinished Huckleberry Finn (Anderson).
Baritone Philip Lima served up a devilish mock-innocent “Mack the Knife” in Mark Blitzstein’s chilling translation for the famous 1954 Off Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera. Conrad gave us an affecting “September Song.” The other women — sopranos Ellen Chickering and Ruth Hartt, and sly, stylish mezzo-soprano Laura Chritton — out-sang and out-acted tenors Craig Hanson and Elias Rosenberg, but the guys made a terrific back-up chorus. Pianists Beverly Orlove, John Greer, and William Merrill were indispensable in more ways than one.
Related:
Diva-gations, Beloved of God, Here comes the bride, More 
- Diva-gations
Last week's Boston Symphony concert was a snaggle of contradictions. British guest conductor Mark Wigglesworth was substituting for the exciting but erratic Russian maestro Yuri Termirkanov, who'd cancelled all his American appearances.
- Beloved of God
One of my most profound musical experiences took place when I was still a graduate student.
- Here comes the bride
It's been a long time since Bostonians had the chance to see the most popular Czech opera, Bedrich Smetana's The Bartered Bride , but Opera Boston followed its electrifying run of Shostakovich's The Nose with this tuneful folk opera and gave it a sweet and very likable production.
- Baroque and beyond
Ten-best lists usually come at the end of the season, but this year the Phoenix has asked its critics to provide a calendar of 10 events that, at least on paper, might wind up on an end-of-season Top 10. Boston, in case you didn't know it, is a great city for classical music, so it's not easy to keep the list short. But here goes.
- Mixed blessings
The Boston Symphony Orchestra began the new year with one of its most disappointing concerts since music director James Levine took over.
- Contertizing
Boston Lyric Opera follows up Dvorák’s moonstruck Rusalka, with Christopher Schaldebrand in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the BSO and much more.
- Like riding a bike
Last week, glimpses of spring made me eager for the days when I can hop on my bike and go for a long ride without worrying about getting hypothermia or skidding out on salty, slushy roads.
- From your biggest fan
I e-mailed but you're still not calling. (I left my cell, my office, and my home number at the bottom.) You must not have got 'em; there must have been a problem with your servers or something.
- Resurrections
Back in pre-history (1964), a brilliant young Brit, a cellist (student of Benjamin Britten) and conductor, came to town and shook up the local classical-music scene.
- Win tickets to see Watchmen at the IMAX
Win tickets to see Watchmen at Jordan’s IMAX Theatre.
- Kelly Clarkson | All I Ever Wanted
Of all of the myths propagated in rock and roll, "it's the singer not the song" must be the most disingenuous.
- Less
Topics:
Classical
, Entertainment, Music, Langston Hughes, More
, Entertainment, Music, Langston Hughes, Maxwell Anderson, Modest Mussorgsky, Killian Hall, Symphony Hall, Huckleberry Finn, Kenneth Radnovsky, Ellen Chickering, Less
