.11.11111 %ow BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC ABRAHAM VI X C VI SEQUINS! STIR I CIVIC FOR GLITTER GALS! 'qw-;76 Sequins.., hack and more beguiling than f ever because they're in today's blazers, tiny-topped dresses and slouchy sensational cardigan jackets! NOVEMBER, 1971 / BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC / 3 THE BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC presents Gisela May Star of the Berliner Ensemble from the D.D.R. November 2-7, 1971 Accompanied by Henry Krischil Artistic Consultant: Wolfgang Roth Dagar Brothers Raga Singers of India November 11-14, 1971 NASIR AMINUDDIN DAGAR ZIA FARIDUDDIN DAGAR ACCOMPANISTS: MME. SURAIYA DAGAR MADEMOISELLE ALAKA NANDY MR. RAJA CHATRAPATI SINGH Produced in association with Mel Howard Productions and Madame Ninon Tallon Karlweis. The Brooklyn Academy of Music wishes to thank the National Endowment on the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts for their support. Baldwin is the official piano of the Brook lyln Academy of Music. The unauthorized use of cameras or recording equipment is strictly prohibited during performances. 4 / BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC / NOVEMBER, 1971 The Brooklyn Academy of Music The St. Felix Street Corporation Administrative Staff Board of Directors: Harvey Lichtenstein, Director Seth S. Faison, Chairman Donald M. Blinken, President Becky Hannum, Assistant to the Director John V. Lindsay, Honorary Chairman Sylvia Rodin, Administrative Assistant Martin P. Carter Barbara lee Diamonstein Lewis L. Lloyd, General Manager Mrs. Henry Epstein Charles Hammock, Asst. General Manager Hon. August Heckscher, Ex-officio Richard M. Hexter David Midland, Production Manager Peter C. R. Huang Michele Kelsey, Administrative Secretary Gilbert Kaplan Hon. Sebastian Leone, Ex-officio Thomas Kerrigan, Assistant to the Director Harvey Lichtenstein Alan J. Patricof Ruth Lipton, Associate Press Representative David Picker Diane Oliver, Assistant Press Representative Richard C. Sachs Adele Allen, Secretary to the Press Office William Tobey Jane Biral, Manager of The St. Felix Street Corporation is responsible for programming at the Brooklyn Academy Audience and Community Development of Music. Jan Hash, Assistant Manager of Audience House Staff and Community Development Alfredo Saimaggi, Jr., House Manager Jane Yockel, Comptroller James Hillary, Box Office Treasurer Frances M. Seidenburg, Financial Secretary Bill Griffith, Assistant Treasurer Robert Blum, Assistant Treasurer Pearl Light, Administrative Assistant John Cooney, Stage Crew Chief Betty Rosendorn, Administrator, Education Program John Van Buskirk, Master Carpenter Sarah Walder, Education Program Edward Cooney, Assistant Carpenter Evelyn August, Staff Assistant Donald Beck, Master Electrician Joseph Moseley, Staff Assistant Louis Beck, Assistant Electrician Thomas Loughlin, Master of Properties Debby Shaw, Dance Center Registrar Peta Ullmann, Wardrobe Supervisor Mimi Johnson, Stage Translator Charles Brette, Custodian Joseph Moseley, Staff Assistant We are pleased to extend this invitation to you to become a Friend. Friends of the Brooklyn Academy of Music are people who Believe in the need for quality programs at low box office prices Offer assistance to the educational services provided by the Academy Inform the community of the variety of programs the Academy offers Help bridge the gap between costs and receipts $10 Contributor $25 Sponsor $100 Donor $15 Supporting Contributor $50 Patron $500 Benefactor Make checks payable to Friends of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. All contributions are tax deductible. m NOVEMBER, 1971 / BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC / 5 GISELA MAY: Sing Along With Bertolt Brecht Were she French, you'd call her Giselle. America with some of its productions - But she's not; she's German - and one of especially since some Broadway and Off- the stars of the Berliner Ensemble. So, Broadway versions had met with disaster. although her first name is Gisela, what one hears Now, however, through the auspices of the are both names, first and family, Brooklyn Academy of Music, welded together like a slogan: "Gisela Americans May!" can come to know the artistry and person- ality of Gisela May. Some of her person- "Do you want to hear my Gisela May ality shines through even in an interview, records?" That was one of the first questions and her comments on Brecht and his com- asked me on a recent visit to Hungary. "Are posers certainly can give an idea of her you coming to the Gisela May Concert?" understanding as an artist. And what, now Almost the first question on an even more that an American trip for Miss May is a recent visit to Denmark. And, when I reality, does Miss May think about it? visited East Berlin last summer and asked "I'd love to visit America. my own Gisela May question Love it . ." - "Do you Miss May pauses, a bit uncertain of the have any Gisela May records for sale?"- right word, even though I should have known she is speaking what the answer her native German. "But I have a would be. little Angst." - "Oh, I'm sorry! There's such a demand "Anxiety? for them. You are afraid of America? But let me see if I can't find Of Americans? We don't bite you one album someplace in our - except per- stock- haps in excesses of passion. Why this room." Fortunately, I got my record, and Angst?" found some more in, of all places, Vienna. She And then I had the opportunity to meet smiles disarmingly, then grows Gisela May after one serious. "We hear about the monster suc- of her exciting con- cesses of cert programs of Brecht, Weill, Eisler, Des- Broadway. Then we read the sau, and plays, and we can't understand why they other German poets and com- should posers. have any success at all . Broad- way is something The late Helene special, even for us. And Weigel, Brecht's widow whether our brittle, special way and the leader of his Berliner Ensemble, of playing had will be understood . told me the . " She leaves her company was eager to visit doubts hanging in the air. 6 / BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC / NOVEMBER, 1971 "But couldn't the Berliner Ensemble give Americans - especially New Yorkers - some idea of how Brecht thought his works should be played? After all, Mahagonny has become something of a classic in Eu- rope, while in New York last season it was more to be pitied than censured." "Oh? But did they do it as an opera? No? Ah, but it's actually written like an opera. The problem is to find opera singers who are able not only to make beautiful tones but who can also embody the charac- ters, project the text. Such performers one v must have! And then one must produce it in an opera house. It is orchestrated as an opera. And I think you must respect the wishes of a composer of Weill's stature. You can't play it with an ensemble of ten or fifteen musicians. You have to play the original arrangement." "Some critics objected that Brecht's text was either nonsense or an allegory with no reality to which it could be related." "They thought Brecht had written a tends to imagine her having really lived stupidity? Oh, no, no! Certainly not! But the events and emotions about which she one shouldn't take it too literally. It's a sings with such anguish and fury? Whatever fantasy. The Berliner Ensemble has made her past may have been, however, it has an experiment. We have played the play, not left her looking sad or hard. There is but with only a few songs taken from the a strength and attractiveness which dominate score. The large work, Die Grosse Ma- both her features and her manner. hagonny, is only for opera-stages. Our And how does an actress become a singer? It is version is called Kleine Mahagonny. "Brecht demanded singing actors. So I a play for actors, not for opera-singers. The after all that training as an actress, in began, songs are ones that can easily be done to concern myself with singing. But I came a legitimate theatre. The original can only to singing through the path of acting, be sung in an opera house." through the dramatic theatre. I studied with "The music is too difficult? Even for Hanns Eisler, who helped me very much. you?" He composed music to many of Brecht's "Oh ja! Very difficult! I can't do the works and poems. He helped me as an original. It's impossible for my vocal range. artist, as a politically engaged man, and as It demands opera-trained singers. Also, an a teacher. He was a wonderful man." excellent translation is needed when it's not "What roles do I play in the Ensemble? done in German. And who can judge if a At the moment, I'm playing in Brecht's translation is really good? I can under- Die Tage der Commune-Madame Cabet. stand that a foreign production will be We're especially pleased that last year was more like the life of the land where it is the 100th jubilee of the Paris Commune. done - and less like our German produc- Then I play the shopkeeper Kopecka in tion. That's right, but what is specially Schweik im Zweiten Weltkrieg. And in a Brecht should also survive." piece called The Messingkauf Dialogues. That Gisela May is so well known in It's not, in fact, a Brecht play, but a dia- Europe, both East and West, is due more logue he wrote. A team in our theatre pre- to her appearances as a singer of Brecht pared it for acting. It's a conversation: than to her work as an actress in his plays. a discussion among a philosopher, an ac- Yet she did not begin as a singer. She tress - that's me!, and the dramaturg began as an actress at the Deutsches Theater (literary manager) of a theatre.