The Herald-Palladium, 9/9/2010

Weill, Brel alive and well

Opera at The Acorn finale celebrates 20th century composers

By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO
H-P Features Writer

THREE OAKS — Robert Swan is waiting for his coffin to arrive.

“I can’t wait to try it out,” he says by telephone from his home in Rolling Prairie, Ind. “It’s being built to my own specifications by a local guy who does cabinets.”

Swan will sing Jacques Brel’s “Funeral Tango” from inside that coffin while tango dancers mock him during “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Three Oaks,” Saturday’s season finale of his opera series at The Acorn Theater.

Swan, an operatic bass and founder of Opera at The Acorn, recruited soprano Martha Cares, director Arnie Saks, accordion player Don Stille and folk singer Bonnie Koloc to bring the songs of Brel and fellow 20th century composer Kurt Weill to life in a staged setting complete with musicians, costume changes, props and, yes, even tango dancers.

“We were talking about the songs early on, and I sort of jokingly mentioned to Bob, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring out tango dancers?’” Cares says about the Weill-penned song “Youkali,” which she will sing Saturday. “The next thing I know, Bob actually found tango dancers for the performance.”

Swan also couldn’t resist titling the show after “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” the 1968 play that introduced the Belgian’s songs to English-speaking audiences, even though Weill’s music makes up half of the program.

“We talked about doing all of ‘Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris’ but it’s pretty demanding,” he says. “When they did it on Broadway, they used four people and there was a reason for that.”

Swan credits friend Gail Isaacson, who has served as the production’s dramaturgy, for suggesting the Brel-Weill pairing, but, he adds, he also took a cue from his solo concert last year that featured classic songs by The Beatles and Franz Schubert, an ode to the famous Leonard Bernstein comparison.

“It’s sort of the same idea,” Swan says. “Both Brel and Weill are amazing songwriters. Both comment on the human condition. They both speak of human needs and wants. They are both political. Where they are different is Brel was his own poet and Weill used the poetry of others.”

Brel composed almost exclusively in French, but English versions of his songs have been recorded by a variety of artists. Canadian Terry Jacks’ version of “Seasons in the Sun” became a pop hit in 1974. David Bowie sang Brel’s “Amsterdam” at a BBC session with John Peel (eventually released in 2000 on “Bowie at the Beeb”). And “Ne me quitte pas” (“Don’t Leave Me”) has been covered by everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Belinda Carlisle.

Cares, who will put her own spin on it Saturday, says the song is simply an emotional juggernaut.

“There’s just so much that comes from the heart when you sing that song,” she says. “I think that’s why it’s different every time I sing it.”

Cares, a grand prize winner of the international Bel Canto Opera competition, spent three years playing Confidante in the Broadway production of “Phantom of the Opera,” directed by Hal Prince. She is now returning to the stage after taking a break to work with husband, sculptor Fritz Olson, at their Olson Gallery in Sawyer.

“I did eight shows a week for three years on Broadway,” Cares says. “So I needed a break. But when Bob called, I was intrigued because it was all new music to me. Then, the more layers I uncovered the more excited I became.”

Weill, a German composer, active from the 1920s, is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. It was with Brecht that Weill developed 1928’s “The Threepenny Opera,” a Marxist critique of capitalism, which included the ballad “Mack the Knife,” a song introduced to American audiences by Louis Armstrong in 1956 but most closely associated with Bobby Darin’s 1959 pop hit. Swan’s own interpretation of the song is designed to fit closer to the gritty spirit Weill had originally intended. That’s not to say Saturday’s production won’t have its share of light moments.

To help the visual impact of each song, Saks, Cares and Swan have created a series of vignettes complete with brief blackouts for prop, scenery and costume changes that includes Swan donning a black wig and mustache for Brel’s “Jacky.”

“I wanted to look like a lounge lizard because that’s who this guy is,” Swan says. “I’m also wearing a trench coat and a fedora under a street lamp al a ‘Singing in the Rain’ and a navy pea coat for ‘Amsterdam.’ We wanted to incorporate these scenes that set up the song. We’re getting in and out of clothes a lot.”

Other songs on the program include Weill’s “September Song,” “Lost in the Stars” and Brel’s anthem “If We Only Have Love.” Chicago’s Koloc, who was joined onstage by Swan during her concert last month at The Acorn, will return the favor Saturday to sing Weill’s “My Ship.” But of the 19 songs on the program, Swan will be singing on all but five selections either in solo or duet.

It’s the first time he’s had the stamina to do so since being diagnosed with lymphoma last September. Because of his illness, Swan took a limited role in the fifth annual Christmas at The Acorn concert in December, and while he received word he was cancer-free in May, he only sang a handful of selections during June’s fourth opera series opener, “From Russia With Love.”

Swan says, in many ways, he feels like Saturday’s concert marks his own comeback.

“It does feel like a celebration for me,” he says. “This is like a welcome back to myself. I’ve got my energy back. I’m able to memorize all these songs. I think I’m singing better than I ever have, which is good because with Martha I’m going to have to or I’ll look like an idiot.”

And about that coffin?

“Don’t worry,” Swan says. “I told the guy to put a few air holes in there just in case.”

jbonfiglio@TheH-P.com