Lenya: Her Complete Recordings From 1929-1975 [Box set, Import]

Lotte Lenya | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 22, 1999)
• Original Release Date: 1998
• Number of Discs: 11
• Format: Box set, Import
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Bear Family
• ASIN: B0000251AF
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,215 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost forgotten, but still breathtaking: Lenya, October 22, 1998

By 

Meik ([e-mail]) (Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenya (Audio CD)

Lotte Lenya, the Austrian born actress and singer, was much more than only "Kurt Weill's wife". This 11 CD box brings Lenya's greatest performances back to our minds, but it also contains rare material like Lenya reading Kafka, Lenya reading Brecht, Lenya reading German poetry. Of course, her songs from "Three Penny Opera" and "Mahagonny" are featured as well as songs recorded during World War II, like "Ballad of the Soldier's Wife" and "Lied einer deutschen Mutter". Lenya, with her Viennese accent and her extraordinary voice (which was not beautiful at all, but fascinating and so full of character) is one of the most amazing figures in 20th century's music theatre. Strangely enough, she seems to be almost forgotten nowadays. Maybe this great CD box which also contains a very interesting book with many impressive pictures and a LP recording of "Mahagonny" will help that Lenya will not be completely forgotten ...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, July 3, 2006

By 

John Ellis "jonthes" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lenya (Audio CD)

This box set on the great Austrian born, German and later Broadway star Lotte Lenya collects almost everything she ever did in front of a microphone. From the first recordings she made of the iconic "Threepenny Opera" ("Die Dreigroshenoper") to the erzatz James Bond theme song "Youngblood", and even her appearance on Dick Cavett (commenting on his attire as "you look like a pimp") where she sang "I'm A Stranger Here Myself" arranged down to a three note range. Besides the 11 CDs with many very rare or unreleased recordings, the box includes a book with extraordinary photographs (particularly the set shot on the docks in postwar Germany, one of which was used for the German "Happy End" LP cover, stunning). Particularly welcome is the score of "Mother Courage" extracted from a television production. Lenya as she depreciated herself had a limited instrument yet always did unforgettable things with it. As a record of her extraordinary role in reviving her late husband's reputation, her part in the great theater of the Weimar republic and her later role in bringing its influences into the work of Kander and Ebb via "Cabaret" and American theater, this is a monumental edition. About the only thing left out (naturally) is her stellar performances in such films as "From Russia With Love", "The Appointment" and "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone". That she ended her career playing a Rolfing therapist treating the backside of Burt Reynolds through unconventional means is a joke she probably enjoyed a lot. Anyone who is completely smitten with "Threepenny" should love this, however steep the price. Note: one of her friends assures me her most Lenya-like performance is on the DVD of the television production of Tennessee Williams' "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real", the first drama PBS ever produced.