UTE LEMPER
July 11, 2012 - 8:30 pm

Ute Lemper is the quintessential Femme Fatale. Universally praised for her interpretations of cabaret songs, the German diva’s latest show – Ultimo Tango – is a homage to Astor Piazzolla. In this unique collaboration with virtuoso musicians from Buenos Aires, this multi -talented singer embraces the passion of Argentinian culture and makes this vibrant repertoire her own. Her magnetic stage presence will mesmerize her Lebanese audience!

BIOGRAPHY

Ute Lemper was born in Münster, Germany in 1963. After graduating from the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in Vienna, she started performing in Stuttgart with roles in plays by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and others. She went on to dazzle audiences in Europe and worldwide in musical theatre roles – Velma Kelly in “Chicago” (London, New York, Las Vegas), Lola in “The Blue Angel”, Peter in “Peter Pan” (both in Berlin), “Cats” in Vienna and Sally Bowles in Jérôme Savary’s Paris production of “Cabaret”. Yet she has returned again and again to the dark, complex and powerfully creative German past, in solo concerts like Kurt Weill Recital and Berlin Cabaret Evening; in symphony concerts, including “The Seven Deadly Sins” and “Songs from Kurt Weill”; in Pina Bausch’s “Kurt Weill Revue”; and on the discs Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill (Vols. I & II), The Threepenny Opera, The Seven Deadly Sins, Mahagonny Songspiel, and Berlin Cabaret Songs.

Ute’s edgy aesthetic and repertoire also reach far beyond Germany. In order fully to explore and comprehend the history she inherited, Ute has naturally and with brilliant success taken up material from other European traditions and from the United States. She has explored the French chanson from Edith Piaf, Jacques Prévert, Joseph Kosma and Serge Gainsbourg to the Belgian poet Jacques Brel. and also the contemporary alternative rock repertoire – from Tom Waits, Elvis Costello to Nick Cave on her Punishing Kiss album – and finally created her own original material which can be heard on her album But One Day…

Ute’s solo shows also reflect these pan-European and international interests. “Songs from Piaf & Dietrich; Illusions” associates material from the French and German divas. In “Songbook” she sings the texts of Paul Celan set to Michael Nyman’s music. “City of Strangers”, includes chansons of Jacques Prévert side by side with the Broadway of Stephen Sondheim. Not surprisingly, in 1994, Ute was named Billboard magazine’s Crossover Artist of the Year, though when you listen to her, the idea of crossover melts away; it’s simply Ute’s sensibility: penetrating, adventurous, sophisticated, and charged with multiple meanings. Also on Ute’s awards shelf: A 1998 Olivier for the London production of Chicago (she can be heard on the original London cast recording) and a Molière Award for Best Actress for the Savary “Cabaret”. She also won an American Theater Award for her performance in “Chicago” on Broadway, an Italian Primo Tenco award for her recordings, and numerous other international recording awards.

In the last few years, Ute hasn’t stopped touring and creating shows, like “Nomad”, that she conceived with Robert Carsen for the Châtelet Theatre in Paris. “Nomad” takes its audience through the past century’s incidences of oppression, starting in Berlin then moving through Eastern European, Middle Eastern and South American cultures.

Ute‘s extraordinarily supple and expressive voice is not her only creative outlet. In musicals she has, of course, also danced, and Maurice Béjart created a ballet for her, “La Mort Subite”, which premiered in Paris in 1990. Her paintings have been shown at the German Consulate in New York, the Goethe Institute in Washington and in Paris, at the Théâtre de la Ville.

Ute Lemper’s latest project is “Ultimo Tango”, a unique collaboration with five virtuoso Tango experts from Buenos Aires. This show is a firework of Tango and celebrates Astor Piazzolla’s work in 6 different languages, though sung mainly in the native Argentinian tongue. Ute Lemper embraces the passion of this culture with true magic and integrity. She brings her blood and soul into every word and note of this vibrant repertoire and makes it her own. For 15 years now, she has flown to Buenos Aires twice a year, to perform and to study the Tango and the Art of living.

“Piazzolla brought the world to the tango and the tango to the world” says Ute Lemper about the Argentinian. She’ll be bringing his world to Lebanon this July: a sensual and glamorous performance that will follow Piazzolla’s rebellious path across musical and geographical boundaries.