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| Ute Lempe (Photo: Steffen Thalemann) |
Ute Lemper: Berlin Cabaret; Ute Lempe, conductor: Robert Ziegler; Cambridge Music Festival at Cambridge Corn Exchange
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 5 March 2026
As part of the Cambridge Music Festival, Ute Lemper wowed a full house at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in a lovely and inviting programme of Berlin cabaret songs from the era of the Weimar Republic.
As a teenager, Ute Lemper (who, incidentally, trained at the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in Vienna) fronted the punk-rock group, Panama Drive Band, at the age of 16. As her career blossomed, she established herself as a leading interpreter of Weimar Republic cabaret songs with Kurt Weill at the forefront of her expansive repertoire.
An ambitious and adventurous performer, Lemper (born in Munster, Germany but now resides in New York City) enjoys a prolific career in musical theatre, too. For instance, she played Sally Bowles in the original Paris production by Jerome Savary of Cabaret for which she won the 1987 Molière Award for Best Newcomer as well as taking on the role of Velma Kelly in the revival of Chicago on Broadway and in the West End which duly won her the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
She also appeared in the original Viennese production of Cats (playing the roles of Grizabella and Bombalurina) and the title role in Peter Pan as well as recreating the Marlene Dietrich role of Lola in The Blue Angel directed by Peter Zadek.
Furthermore, she dubbed the singing voices of Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame for German-speaking audiences while the Marseille-born dancer, choreographer and opera director, Maurice Bejart, created a ballet for her, La Mort Subite, premièred at the Palais des Congrès, Paris, in 1991.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise to learn that Lemper was named Billboard’s ‘Crossover Artist of the Year’ in 1993 being such a prolific and diverse singer. Her extensive discography includes excellent interpretations of Kurt Weill’s compositions from the late 1980s in addition to German cabaret songs sung by Marlene Dietrich and, indeed, those by Parisian singer, Edith Piaf, which were politically motivated and sung in underground locations in 1930s Berlin.
Currently, she dedicates most of her concert tours to the theatrical show Rendezvous with Marlene, telling Marlene Dietrich’s true story in words and music. A hugely popular show, performances pop up the world over. In fact, Lemper’s latest album, appropriately named Rendezvous with Marlene, features 20 of the most beloved songs that she sang but, of course, reinvented by Lemper.
But for her show at the Cambridge Corn Exchange (forming part of the Cambridge Music Festival) Lemper treated an admiring and eager audience to her 1930s Berlin cabaret show working alongside an eight-piece band directed by Robert Ziegler comprising Karen Street (saxophones, clarinet, accordion), Andy Tweed (saxophones, clarinet), Noel Langley (trumpet), Joel Knee (trombone), Mitch Dalton (guitar), Andy Massey (piano), Steve Pearce (bass) and Ralph Salmins (drums). A brilliant bunch of musicians, you wouldn’t getter better.
Featuring iconic works including works by Kurt Weill, Mischa Spoliansky, Friedrich Holländer and George Gershwin, the show depicted songs from the era of the fragile and shaky Weimar Republic (active from 1918 to 1933) plagued by extreme political violence and a crippling economic crises with its systemic flaws, proportional representation and the like causing weak coalitions thus allowing radical right-wing parties, particularly the Nazis, to exploit public despair and dismantle the republic from within.
Therefore, in Lemper’s all-inspiring and entertaining show, she included relevant numbers from this delectable trio of shows with the first offering falling to one of Weill’s best-known songs Alabama Song written for the full-length opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, the lyrics depicting a nihilistic search for hedonistic pursuit of base desires - specifically alcohol, money and sex - reflecting thereby themes of materialism, desperation and moral decay serving as a critique of a capitalist, hedonistic society where love can be bought and where half the people feast while the other half starve.
A socialist critique of capitalism and the excesses of the Weimar Republic, Brecht’s acid and satirical lyrics to Mahagonny are well matched by Weill’s invigorating electric score fusing classical music with popular musical styles of the 1920s - jazz, cabaret and ragtime - thus making Mahagonny a richly pleasurable and entertaining work.
In fact, I recently attended a stunning new production of Mahagonny by English National Opera at the London Coliseum [see Robert's review] directed by Jamie Manton starring Danielle de Niese who took on the pivotal role of sex worker, Jenny Smith, delivering a brilliant and fascinating rendering of the seemingly immortal number Alabama Song while Lemper , widely regarded as a modern icon of Berlin cabaret songs, utilised the technique of ‘sprechstimme’ in this most sacred of Berlin cabaret songs thus allowing the words to override the music for dramatic effect.
Therefore, if Weill and Brecht were admired and plauded for Mahagonny, they were equally fêted for their 1928 masterpiece The Threepenny Opera, too, and Lemper graciously included in her well-planned programme the work’s renowned dark and moody song Pirate Jenny sung dramatically with power and verve that is, I feel, Lemper’s trademark.
The scenario depicts a maid who endures abuse while working in a rat-infested waterfront hotel fantasizing about the arrival of the pirate ship Black Freighter coming to her aid murdering her tormentors while whisking her away to a new life.
A stark, haunting and intriguing song Pirate Jenny - originally sung by Weill’s wife, Lotte Lenya - moves from a humble oppressed tone to a triumphant, violent and cold finale and is widely considered one of the most famous and powerful numbers in the opera equalling that of Mack the Knife.
It seems appropriate, too, that Weill and Brecht dominated the opening songs of this welcoming concert which also included the well-known haunting number Surabaya Johnny, a dramatic monologue composed for the 1929 musical, Happy End, telling of a woman grieving her exploitative and heartless lover. The song was catapulted to popularity by Lotte Lenya, the wife of Kurt Weill.
Through their creative partnership, Weill and Brecht introduced popular music with jazz-enthused influences into theatre productions thereby creating some of the most legendary musical theatre of the era of the Weimar Republic but their personal life, though, was ridden with conflict, professional jealousy and diverging political views. Quite often, though, creative partnerships don’t click forever what reason.
Another terrific cabaret song hit the mark when Lemper launched into If I Could Wish For Something written by Friedrich Holländer (known for his cabaret and film work particularly The Blue Angel) for Robert Siodmak’s 1931 film, Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht (The Man who Searches for His Murderer) epitomizing the era of the Weimar Republic.
Balancing melancholy with a poetic and complex emotional tone, the lyrics are sung from the perspective of someone who, having experienced life’s disappointments, seeks only to be a bit happy because being, simply, ‘happy’ might lead to a longing for sadness which has become a form of refuge.
Brought to popularity by Marlene Dietrich, known for her humanitarian efforts during World War II, the song bridges the gap between cabaret, jazz and classical music and remains one of Holländer’s most enduring compositions from the period before he fled Nazi Germany for the USA.
And punctuating a festival in Berlin created by Weill and Brecht to celebrate the modernity, electricity and culture of 1920s Berlin, the deuce came up with a bright and illuminating number appropriately entitled Berlin Lights which became a smash hit highlighting the city’s vitality just before the 1929 Wall Street Crash radiating a massive display of light and electricity across Berlin in October 1928 signalling the city’s economic and cultural resurgence. It was a celebration of modernity and represented a move towards a new, urban and industrial artistic style.
The song was famously performed at the Light Ball held in Berlin’s Kroll Opera House situated in the Tiergarten district on the western edge of the Königsplatz square (Platz der Republik) facing the Reichstag.
Originally built in 1844 as an entertainment venue for the restaurant owner Joseph Kroll and redeveloped as an opera house in 1851, the building also served as the assembly hall of the Reichstag from 1933 to 1942 but severely damaged by the bombing of Berlin in World War II, it was demolished in 1951.
On special occasions Berlin Lights was performed in front of Berlin’s Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe for short), the most famous department store in Germany dating from 1907 situated on Tauentzienstraße near Wittenbergplatz and the famous Kurfürstendamm shopping street. I know it well as when attending Wagner Ring cycles at Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin my hotel is directly opposite KaDeWe and before I tuck in for the night, I make a cursory glance at the floodlighted building. Everything’s ok!
In fact, I shall be at Deutsche Oper at the end of May for the final performance of Stefan Herheim’s Ring conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles who’s bidding farewell to Deutsche Oper as General Music Director after 17 years in the pit but springing to the podium as Chief Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic.
An elegant and unhurried performer, Lemper delivered a brilliant account of Berlin Lights and, likewise, with Mischa Spoliansky’s witty and satirical cabaret number dating from 1931 It’s All A Swindle punctuated by biting lyrics courtesy of Marcellus Schiffer who truly captures the cynical and chaotic spirit rife in the rough-and-tumble world of the Weimar Republic.
Reflecting a time of economic hardship, greed, political corruption and societal dishonesty, the lyrics mock politicians as ‘magicians’ who make money disappear while portraying everyday life as a series of scams, telling of a world that’s inherently dishonest advising people to get what you can ‘swindle’ from your neighbour.
And when Leonello Casucci wrote Gigolo in 1928 with German lyrics penned by Julius Brammer, he came up with a poignant reflection on the social decay of post-World War I with the text focusing on a formerly prestigious Hussar officer reduced to working as a hired dancer to survive. In Lemper’s vocal delivery she well and truly captured the heartbreak, lost glory and loneliness of such a man living on his wits, charm and appearance in 1920s Vienna.
Furthermore, Mischa Spoliansky’s The Lavender Song of the same decade highlighted by Kurt Schwabach’s tender lyrics not only celebrated ‘queer’ pride but challenges societal repression, too, thus becoming a landmark German cabaret song and one of the earliest known LGBTQ+ anthems which was first recorded in 1921.
Written as a satirical feminist anthem advocating the removal of men from positions of power due to their vanity and mismanagement while calling for female empowerment, Friedrich Holländer’s Chuck Out the Men!, penned in the 1920s, hit the mark in more ways than one causing more than a ripple of laughter throughout the auditorium.
And one of the most famous German love-songs from World War II, Lili Marleen, composed by Norbert Schultze in 1938 and set to a 1915 poem written by German soldier, Hans Leip, became a massive international hit transcending enemy lines, loved by both Axis and Allied soldiers, and with Lemper’s delicate and sensitive rendering ‘Lili’ found great favour with full and admiring house at the Cambridge Corn Exchange that Lemper turned for ‘one night only’ into the Kit Kat Club, the frivolous 1930s Berliner nightclub featured in the musical Cabaret.
First recorded by cabaret artist, Lale Andersen, in 1939, the song sold very few copies but after Marlene Dietrich’s recording it became the first big German multimillion-seller becoming a symbol of the longing for peace and home for soldiers on both sides. It has been translated into dozens of languages and recorded by so many high-profile singers not least by the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’, Dame Vera Lynn, who propelled the song’s popularity in the UK.
And in The Man I Love, a classic American jazz standard composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by his brother, Ira, originally written for the 1924 musical Lady, Be Good, became a famous song about longing for love further enhancing Lemper’s programming.
Back on the song-sheet came Friedrich Holländer’s Münchhausen - derived from the 18th-century German aristocrat, Baron Munchausen - featured lyrics highlighting the need for fairytales because truth is hard and tough as nails with the text satirizing the human need to escape the harsh, unromantic and brutal reality of daily life through tall and exaggerated stories in which to gain attention and sympathy. One of Lemper’s smash hits, the song’s featured in her acclaimed album Berlin Cabaret Songs.
I was more than pleased to see that the Czech-Jewish composer, conductor and pianist, Viktor Ullmann, on the song-sheet, too. A composer of great standing, he was a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna and later studied under Alexander von Zemlinsky in Prague thereby placing him directly within the influential Second Viennese School tradition.
Sadly, he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 but while there he continued to compose creating such notable pieces as Margarit Kelech as well as the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis which serves as a testament to resistance and cultural life under the Nazis. He was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
A cynical cabaret-style song from The Threepenny Opera came with Salomon Song featuring verses about historical/biblical figures such as Solomon and Cleopatra whose wisdom or beauty led to their downfall concluding with the character Macheath (Mack the Knife) a charming but brutal criminal leader and murderer in London representing a cynical antihero thriving in a corrupt capitalistic society. The character originates from John Gay’s 18th-century work, The Beggar’s Opera.
Immediately following a fine rendition of Salomon Song, Lemper went straight into Mack the Knife that had the audience gripped in excitement in what I consider a ‘standalone’ performance and one to chalk up.
Following the interval, it was Weill all the way home apart from one item by Hanns Eisler namely his political cabaret song of the 1930s Ballad of Marie Sanders offering lyrics by Bertolt Brecht which tells of the social hardships and political turmoil of Weimar Germany through a sombre story of a non-Jewish woman who is ostracized and persecuted for having a relationship with a Jewish man thereby highlighting the rise of anti-Semitism. The work served as a warning to other Aryan German women to avoid Jews thereby showcasing the propaganda and social pressures exerted by the Nazi régime.
An Argentine tango and Cuban habanera song with lyrics by Roger Fernay, Weill’s Youkali, dating from 1934, written as an instrumental interlude for the 1934 French musical play, Marie Galante, with book/lyrics by Jacques Deval, describes an imaginary, idyllic island representing a lost paradise or unattainable dream but the song also reflects on the bitter reality that there is no such place.
The song has become a staple of Weill’s repertoire and is most certainly a ‘favourite’ of Lemper's judging by the remarkable performance she gave leading into the well-known French song I Wait for a Ship (J’attends un navire) - another offering from Marie Galante - proved a good choice and fitted well the programme overall. The text tells of the tragic tale of a young naïve French girl who’s kidnapped and forced into prostitution in Panama before being murdered.
However, in a lighter mood, Lemper pleasantly sang Weill’s I’m A Stranger Here Myself, a well-loved song from 1943 with lyrics by Ogden Nash written for the Broadway musical, One Touch of Venus, with the female protagonist trying to navigate modern love and romance in a difficult time while a couple of iconic jazz standards Speak Low / My Ship written during Weill’s American period provided a nice ‘double-bill’ for Lemper dramatically highlighting Weill's transition from European classical theatre music to American popular music and jazz.
The ending came too soon (it always does!) and Lemper ended as she started with Weill delivering a lovely rendering of The Saga of Jenny (from Lady in the Dark) in which the text tells the humorous tale of a woman who’s too bossy and decisive thereby getting tangled up in a host of bizarre and awkward situations through a string of swift and rigid actions.
The final word went to Dietrich with an encore of Falling in Love Again leaving the audience on a high and humming the famous tune as they gently filed out into the lively Cambridge streets. What a night!
A thought-provoking programme carefully curated by Ute Lemper, a performer of standing and, indeed, understanding, propels her on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz to perform multiple concerts of her musical tribute show Songs for Eternity focusing uniquely on songs written by Jewish prisoners in the ghettos and concentration camps from 1942 to 1944 thereby honouring their artistic spirit amidst the horror and catastrophe of the Holocaust. Heartbreaking stuff! May their souls be bound in the bond of life. Amen!
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