Lotte Lenya Singing "Seeräuber Jenny" (Pirate Jenny)

[ikebanaJc]

I like the Nina Simone version better, she sounded more psycho and demented.

[upupaepops1988]

Und, und, und! Must every line begin with 'und'?! If you must use conjunctions so much, as least throw in a few different ones!

[IPust]

@upupaepops1988 I'm not much a German speaker so I can't be sure it's what I should be hearing, but my impression is that pattern gives it a kind of manic feel that fits quite well with the content. I'd guess it's intentional.

[deeznutz757]

Ugh

[eliogabalo1953]

Perfect!

[Allotmenteer2]

Truly frightening.

[Pollewopwop]

Thank you thank you so much for uploading!!

[brickbat44]

dadaismus how i love that woman she should have a statue made

[evarlam]

This movie by Georg W. Pabst, although has differences from the stage musical, gives us the most closely related and reliable picture of the performing style and mood of the original 1928 stage performance.

[phookadude]

humm the black freighter...

[DieStolzeOghuzin]

SO TOLL DANKE!! <3

[onebaud]

Help! I cannot get this song out of my head. I go around all day singing un a ship with ocht sails, und fifty cannonen. It just keeps going on and on. Make it stop!

[onebaud]

I would say Lotte Lenya is right on a par with Marlene Dietrich although Lenya preceded her.

[Arkasea]

die drei groschen oper is einfach genial! super story

[PONSR500]

Muchas gracias, que hermosa voz.

[envanje]

I'd be gratefull if you could tell me the plot in just a few words.

[envanje]

Seems a very dark song to me. Somebody opressed by servitude and small wages dreams about a ship to come to destroy the town and which crew obeys her wishes to kill all.

A profound hatred to the society she lives in.

Somehow maybe comprehensable but not a good attitude towards life (I think).

[rosiichanii]

@envanje Except in the play it ACTUALLY happened...

[envanje]

@rosiichanii

????? how do you mean ?

[rosiichanii]

@envanje Have you seen threepenny opera?

[envanje]

@rosiichanii

No, maybe they still play in it Germany and the US but not in my country.

Though I know this song for it was many times on the radio when I was young, some 40 ys. ago.

[rosiichanii]

@envanje Oh, well I saw it about a week ago and this is her telling a story, an actual story from her past. Not that your point isn't valid- it's just not completely correct.

[diepiriye]

Just performed to Nina Simone's version to night. It's very interesting the ways that we are introduced to this music. For me it represents the American dream, through it's nightmare- that all the trampled upon will eventually just rise up & start cuttin' people's throats. Think about how Nat Turner's revolt is portrayed. Remember Haiti. Rebels are punished, because we know that our exuberant lifestyle has only so flourished because we've annihilated native populations, degrade the planet, etc.

[dramusic]

What a sensuous lady! She had that pureness of sexuality. She was one of those women that when you glance at her, you see nothing special, or particularly attractive. But the more you become involved with her, she entraps you in her ultimate feminine essence. This was a woman that would have been easy to love.

[Villerembert]

Tijdloos en Geniaal!

[djmusicjac]

I love Dark Cabaret from Berlin in 1920's to 1930s, WEIMAR GERMANY, German Kabarett

[amerikanprincess]

Wow...after reading Patti Smith's autobiography I can see why she liked this so much. Yes, it is subtle, sweet and shudder-inducing. And anyone who grows up ridiculed could probably relate to it.

[Jojoseahorse]

@amerikanprincess I had the honor of hearing Patti sing this herself, at the Bowery Ballroom in 2002. It was one of the best moments of any concert of hers that I have attended. Soooooo sexy :)

[borgwin2]

Lotte Lenya ist für mich eine der besten Brecht-Schauspielerinnen. Und sie war auch sehr "undogmatisch", sprach von "epischem Zeugs" von Brecht. Aber setzte es dann doch fantastisch um.

[sanjmbj]

epic!

[musicalsuicide17]

This=awesome <3

[r3zzn0rk1d]

5 people are totally FUBAR.

[Chizpurfle52595]

The disconnect between her sweet high voice and the song's subject matter is really disconcerting.

[tjustman]

That's some low-down shiat she's planning. Dang.

[cosycleaner]

the unsurpassed Lotte Lenya completely encapusates the meaning of 'haunting music' - excellent.

[Hoplamusique]

très émouvant... froid dans le dos....

[LibraryPervert]

This is like The Crystal Ship, by Jim Morison & The Doors -- but this is even more haunting and lyrically deeper. How can that be, it's not even from the 'rock era'!

[upupaepops1988]

@LibraryPervert the 'rock era' has some of the most profoundly un-haunting and lyrically banal music there is.

'I am the walrus, I am the eggman, koo-koo-ka-choo' - John Lennon.

quite...

[CriticaLxThoughX]

Diese Version raubt mir jedes Mal den Atem...Die Rachelust, die leise in einem unscheinbaren, belächelten Menschen schlummert...Perfekt rübergebracht...

[CriticaLxThoughX]

Diese Version raubt mir jedes Mal den Atem...Die Rachelust, die leise in einem unscheinbaren, belächelten Menschen schlummert...Perfekt rübergebracht...

[Aepsilonm]

Ausgezeichnet!

Frau Lotte Lenya ist meiner Meinung nach eine der besten Künstler aller Zeiten.

[hillevifan]

Wow this is the fastest I've heard the it taken. I like it! And, of course, Lenya is her usual fabulous self, no matter what age she's singing at!

[GanarfGeorgie]

Lotte rules!

[arasharfa]

this song is supposed to be in german. the crisp nature of german fits the music box like composition of weill's music.

[bengunnsociety]

This translation is closer to the source than any other English version and it actually rhymes and has the right number of syllables. You could sing it if you were so inclined.

[Ashantiaih1]

Beautiful song, although the translation is very bad. In many places words were omitted to translate or translated wrongly. Nevertheless, it is possible to get the idea of the song by reading the English translation.

There is a very beautiful version of this song by Esther and Abi Ofarim. Unfortunately, I did not find it in the internet yet.

[DonBelial]

everytime i hear her sing this i get tears in my eyes

[joleen37]

the movie is directed by pabst

[Moondye7]

The translation is very rough but I guess that it's pretty hard to translate the German sentences

[CulchaQueen]

deutschunterricht hat traumatisierende folgen :)

[ichschlafegern]

Großartig.

[hhoward14]

Chilling... But compelling.

[Letitbebetter]

if u have nothing to say, dont say it

and dont quoete those who are bigger.

hoppLA

[kekepol]

excellent i've been searching for this movie i finally found it, but the one that i want the most its the mack the knife, in this movie was sung by an actor dont remember his name but he sung in french, any clues where to find it?

[mcasual]

if you google-search for :

wikipedia L'opera de quat' sous

you'll find the details

they filmed the German and French versions together in 1931, same sets.

the Mack song in french becomes

"Mackie le surineur"

[kekepol]

hey thanx man for the reference, thank you very much

[kokoleese]

Same here! i saw them both on this performing arts tv special. And i went looking for both, but i only foud this 1 in its original state.

[kekepol]

@kokoleese i saw that same show and i finally found the version of mackie the knife i was looking for unfortunadtely i didnt save it now its lost again when i found it again i let u know the link

[kekepol]

@kokoleese i found w w w (.) youtube (.) com /watch?v=onTjlOK-mmE there's the french version of mackie i saw then they played this one of jenny the pirate after that thanx all for the references

[HopingForFreedom]

I'm not sure it was mentioned, but the original text is from Bertolt Brecht and a little longer. He wrote it 1927, without any thoughts of the "3 Groschen Oper". But it got popular because of Kurt Weills music version, which was then used in the 3 Groschen Oper.

I'm not sure how to translate it, but Ernst Bloch wrote this about the poem: "Man muss bis zu den Gnostikern und Kirchenvätern zurück, um einer solchen Phantasmagorie von Inkognito, Rache und Auferstehung zu begegnen.

[HeinerL]

"You will have to go all the way back to the Gnostics and Early Fathers to find such a phantasmagoria of incognito, revenge and resurrection as this." Something along those lines.

[arasharfa]

she stands completely still, except for the last gesture of the pirates sailing away with her.... so incredibly intense. makes me cry every time.

[43degreessouth1]

Saw her today, that is so true!  Same feelings me.

[rolyzyl]

Die beste

The best

הכי טובה

Achsan

la mejor

[merkeleva1]

Da haben Sie ganz recht, haachi tova, vor jeder Mathematikschularbeit horte ich die Seerauberjenny, dann wars nicht mehr so schlimm! Mein Vater hatte die originalversion, ich kann die Lieder bis heute auswendig.

[karlwuerstchen]

Well folks, I hate to spoil the good mood, but I'm pretty sure that the speed of this clip is seriously wrong: it is much too fast, which also explains the Mickey Mousy voice that tristanchord85 remarked upon.

[HeinerL]

The clip is an excerpt from the original film. She indeed sounded like that. Her voice became deeper as she grew older, as is often the case (consider Marianne Faithful). If there were a problem with the clip speed, the movements of the characters would also be faster, which they obviously are not.

[newts2usatiera]

Yes Yes YES ! Truly THE definitive version ! Nothing else compares !

[lascosasquemegustan]

extracto de la película "Die 3 Groschen-Oper" dirección: Georg Wilhelm Pabst escrita por: Bertolt Brecht estrenada en 1932 Lotte Lenya Seeräuber Jenny

[tristanchord85]

She sounds nothing like she did in the off-broadway version. Here she is a soprano, there she is a baritone!

[HeinerL]

Surely not? Mezzo-soprano or alto perhaps, but a baritone?

[tristanchord85]

I don't know what key she sang in, I was just making a joke because she sounds SO LOW and throaty!

[haroldvirginia]

truly the definitive version, so sweet and so angry.

[ObviousSockPuppet23]

I wish that it _were_ this dangerous to ignore and dismiss the lowly.

[TreblePop]

Whoa. I hadn't thought of that. Excellent point! Every now and again, there is a revolution, though, where rich people are dragged from their beds and murdered.

You really can push people too far, and then it's bad for everyone.

[ObviousSockPuppet23]

Yup...it would be much better if there routine feedback---as in poorer people's voting, and having the Evil Big Gummint interfere with the Most Holy Free Market to make it act as if it had a conscience.

I say this out of moral necessity and out of self-interest: I describe our assets as 'Not enough to be free now, enough to get shot when the Revolution comes.'

[AgainstEmoHaircuts]

SO soll das klingen.........da kommt einfach keine andere Version ran!

[fabianfanfar]

This is so beautiful and magic that I get tears in my eyes

[MatT3431433]

Hoppla ;-)

[LucianaShadow]

I was named after her. Lotte's version is definitely one of the best.

[hallokristina]

HOOOOOOOOOW COOL !

[Equilibriumforever]

amazing

[coy0te9]

As much as I love Nina, i strongly disagree. She oversang it. Ms. L was right, but then being married to the composer may have had something to do with that.

[tristanchord85]

Miss Simones is great, but not all that rare. I found it at my local books and music store.

[oatleyr]

Great comment, Sir Cyrano. Sorry I marked it 'dislike' instead of 'like' by mistake, but that's Brecht for you.

[RheingoldxxL]

... und noch mehr "Drei Groschen-Oper" ... Lotte Lenya finde ich genial ... typical 20s.

[SirCyrano]

Subtle, sweet and terrifying -- one of the great moments in the history of musical films. Thanks for posting this.

[Aepsilonm]

Amazing Artist!

She is one of the greatest ever, in my eyes.

[neosoc]

she was in "From Russia With Love" as Rosa Klebb.

[grummeper]

Danke! Thanks!

[Georgiepoot]

The definitive version of this song! Haunting.

[nordloc]

Incredible.

For some reason the moment when she looks down at 1.50 sends shivers down my spine.

[sepio41]

try to tell this to all the younguns raised on kristin chenoweth and sutton foster!

[xXAlanCummingxX]

I'm 19 and I know who Lotte Lenya is!!

[sepio41]

it's the perfect age to discover her! i showed this film in a lecture to an american musical theater class though, and the kids hated her and carola neher, who plays polly in the film. i couldn't understand it. it hurt a little because there's a style lesson in all the great singers. they give singers options.

[xXAlanCummingxX]

Then I'm taking it you're a professor? Both I and my professor are obsessed with German lit and Lotte Lenya!! True!!

[sepio41]

yup--

i teach dance for both modern and jazz students, tap and rep at missouri state.

i don't currently have a lecture class for musical theater but i do guest lecture spots sometimes here.

great news--our dance dept is trying to produce seven deadly sins next spring. i hope we get the rights.

[xXAlanCummingxX]

THAT'S GREAT!!

[ajaxfilms]

She was Kurt Weill's wife, he wrote the music and Brect wrote the words. Whata great group!

[JanDoon]

Does anyone know where to get MP3s of this song and Lenya's version of Mackie Messer?

[moderndaechristine]

wasn't this in another place in the original script?? i though poll sang it at the wedding. i think it fits better here though, it shows Lenya's character's longing for control/ revenge in a lose-lose situation.

[Streatham1966]

Love it. I've always loved this song and only heard it on a very scratched record up to now.

[youngfreak32]

The way her voice sounds so innocent lends a sense of eeriness to the song itself.

[crockyoshighty]

Does anything have real existence? We may all find out in the end. I think it does though, just not in the way we perceive it. There are stranger things in heaven and earth then in the minds / hearts of man.

:o)  & )o: "Cogito, ergo sum" Vielen danke für alles.

[moderndaechristine]

you should read Twain's Mysterious Stranger.

[RinkaTinkaMusic]

oh mein gott *gänsehaut* ich habe es noch nie schöner gehört als von lotte

[worotan]

This is about the most nilistic song I've ever heard. Chilling, and what a demonstration of the dark vivacity that the Nazis latched onto. And how amazing in the film, when Mackie drags her back to laughing afterwards.

[Straaasse]

the English subtitles are fine but as it is with any song/movie u should get to listen to the OV and understand it - much more "nihilistic" than the English subtitles...really the best together with "Ballade v d sexuellen Hörigkeit" and the cry from the crypt

[worotan]

I am listening to the OV when it plays here?!

[princeandrey]

Yes, great comment: "Dark vivacity", indeed!  By the way, the Nazis included Dreigroschenopfer in their Exhibit of Banned Art, and it was such an overwhelming popular one that they banned it from the Banned Art Exhibit!

[princeandrey]

Correction: The show was an Exhibit of Decadent Art! My mistake.

[dividendrama]

ganz meine meinung

[AxmxZ]

My favorite of all the versions.

[themonacco]

die beste Version ,die ich kenne.

[FiPSiLicksLollipops]

ich finde auch das das die beste musikalische umsetzung ist die ich bis jetzt gesehen habe.....

[coryisawake]

ich stimme zu. sie erstellt einen Traum.

[aaliyahlegacy]

hör dir mal nina simone's version an. :)

[johnstum]

this was the best part of the movie for me

[zepoe]

ps sorry actors, not acrtors or arctors ;-)

[zepoe]

Interesting that the acrtors hardly move.

[Longfellow10]

Pretty wonderful. Thank you.

[Electricgirl]

i always wonder how many foreign brecht/weill admirer prefer to listen to the original songs in german ... coz i heard to usa/uk people german is sounding kind of odd ;)

as a native speaker i really cannot tell f´course

[aerugo49]

well, i love hearing it in German. but i love German, and can read German. this required a lot of work as i was not even offered another language in school and started late on it. Germans have a much superior education compared to north americans. you are very fortunate that way!

[Electricgirl]

very interesting i havent expected this :) maybe the education is different and in some cases superior ..siiiighs but on the other hand this "guilty thing" even my grandparents were in the social democratic party back then ..but its no use at all . everytime i say : "I´m german" i feel this sting in me ,not necessarily -oh sorry! but i guess when you are brought up in "shame-on-you" this programming succeeds very strange, maybe one day when all the people from this generation r gone it ll end

[Electricgirl]

... i remember when i got in school there was this strange feeling in history class or even until today the tv is packed with formats of the 30ies and 40ies . childish as i was i asked my mum : but this has come to an end,right? why are we still criminals - my mum didnt reply ,just said : one day you´ll understand . it was a bit of an negative epiphany like: oooh something very horrible is on the run -what could that be? so i did some research when i was older and believe me it was no fun at all

[Electricgirl]

.. i better stop with this , who knows what the future holds . the distinction between talking about this time and not to put too much damage on yourself is uncomfortably narrow. blah anyway this video is fab ;)

[aerugo49]

yes, i have watched this over and over!! love it.:) and as far as German guilt i wouldn't worry about. i feel bad about what happened too. but now look at the atrocities the Israeli government commits daily towards the Palestinians. it's just a human disease. it has nothing to do with a nation, race or religion. anyway, i love German culture. i'm not going to get caught up in accusing people for something their parents and grandparents were a part of. it was just hysteria.

[aghneyya]

Guilt is out of control among some groups in Germany, but that doesn't mean there's no guilt to be had... You meet some uptight older Germans still today and you can think... yup, these people's parents were Nazis.

That said, Germany also has a great socialist tradition (see: Marx, Karl). The communists fought Hitler to the death and went either abroad or into the concentration camps. This music was made by socialists.

[Guzzaro]

Very nice to see/hear. I only have the CD that is a recording from 1958 where she sings. But she has a much different voice there than here, of course. This is great. Thanks for sharing!

[Lilandrah]

Perfect song, perfect voice... I love Lenya :) And 3penny opera :)