This Thursday, 29 January, the Brno Contemporary Orchestra (BCO) will present the Vavřínový věneček (‘Laurel Wreath’) concert at Cabaret Des Péchés, a bizarre cabaret evening full of surreal and irreverent humour, marking the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials.
The off-beat program includes hits, operetta arias, duets, waltzes by Jewish composers in contemporary arrangements, and ‘Marches to Lost Victory’ by Mauricio Kagel, as well as music, lights, eroticism, an entertainer, confetti, an open bar, and everything else that belongs to a cabaret. However, the show will also have more serious, historical overtones, reminding us to learn from history in order to not repeat it.
“In January 1936, the Hungarian musical comedy The Four and a Half Musketeers was performed at Bio Moderna, where Cabaret Des Péchés now operates,” says BCO dramaturg Viktor Pantůček. “Two of the musketeers were murdered in a concentration camp, one died in 1944 in Budapest, and the one and a half managed to escape to Britain and the United States. The composer of the music, Nicolas Brodszky, who was born into a Jewish family in Odessa, also ran his whole life, first from the Soviets, then from the Nazis, and finally from the Communists. Today he would run again. The same is true of the authors of the couplets and songs that we have selected for today’s cabaret. Most of them did not live to a ripe old age, but they knew how to have a great time before they were marked with a yellow star.”
The concert will feature compositions by composers whose destinies were torn between cabaret, operetta, avant-garde and the catastrophes of the 20th century. The concert will feature a selection from ‘Ten Marches to Lost Victory’ by Argentine provocateur Mauricio Kagel, Fritz Grünbaum’s cabaret song ‘I Saw Helena in the Pool’ arranged by Petr Kofroňa, Schulhoff’s infamous (and compositionally brilliant) ‘Sonata erotica’, operetta numbers by Jean Gilbert and Robert Stolz in new arrangements, excerpts from Weinberger’s ‘People from Pokerflat’, a song by Pavel Haas and “meta-arrangements” of Straussiana by Korngold arranged by Trevor Grahl.
The combined program is entertaining, with elements of farce, but also doubles as a statement about the monstrosities that humanity was capable of.
“It would be best if we could go back in time about 90 years and have no idea what will happen next,” said BCO chief conductor Pavel Šnajdr. “But unfortunately that is not possible, so even if it is fun, the tragic subtext cannot be removed. Hopefully we will learn from this…”
The evening will be hosted by Pavel Čeněk Vaculík, with solos by Magdalena Hebousse (soprano) and Jan Maria Hájek (tenor). The concert will also feature the flag bearers FlagArt Mondaria, and Martin Svobodník will take care of the lighting and direction.
Vavřínový věneček is part of the BCO’s 14th season, entitled ‘OKRAJINY’, which explores the boundaries between worlds – on the border of reality and fiction, myth and everyday life, light and darkness.
The concert will take place on 29 January from 7 pm at Cabaret des Péchés. Tickets are on sale online at www.bcorchestra.cz and can also be purchased on site.
