Barbican Brel less than brill
A concert performance of songs by Jacques Brel was a right old dog’s dinner last night, with some hefty, well justified booing for Diamanda Galas, the Greek Anatolian Goth, and an anaemic opening set by oddball Scottish rocker Momus in an eye-patch that drained Brel of all drama, rhythm and poetry.
The excuse for the shindig was Brel’s eightieth birthday (he died, aged 49 in 1978) and a Francophone season at the Barbican that was launched by Nick Kenyon and Graham Sheffield at a pleasant reception beforehand.
One of the guests was Peter Straker, someone who really can sing Brel, and I tried to drum up a petition in the interval for him to take over the second half of the show.
The second half, as it turned out, was infinitely better than the first, with the Irish (half French) cabaret singer Camille O’Sullivan laying down an acapella version of “Marieke” in Flemish with perfect enunciation and vocal vibrato.
Things flopped a bit with the arrival of a washed out looking Belgian rocker called Arno who sat on a chair and waggled his legs about, but Marc Almond did a fair, if too tidy trio of songs ending with a “Carousel” that caught the speed and the hurdygurdy of the song without really its dark heart and bitterness.
All of these singers, apart from Camille, were getting off on their own empathy with the great troubadour, as if their expression of that was a sufficient qualification to perform his songs.
It was the 1968 Greenwich Village show — Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris — that popularised the singer in the theatre community at least, and the original cast recording wore out several needles on my old gramophone.
Devoted Brellians are sniffy about that cabaret, and Mort Schuman’s translations, but very little in the Barbican evening rivalled the energy and passion of that recording.
There was something infinitely absurd about the French singer Arthur H declaring “Je Suis Un Soir D’Ete” as if possessed by the broken spirit of Tom Waits’s old grandad.
But nothing matched the sheer horror of Diamanda Galas — part Valkyrie, part Addams family — swallowing her own voice and misreading her own piano music as she thumped and screamed her way through the port of Amsterdam.
David Coulter, the concert organiser and musical director, thanked the Barbican for “letting us do this event.”
Which gave the impression that it was a sort of room for hire arrangement.
Jacques Brel is far too important an artist to be thrown at this lot. Where was the quality control? Why hadn’t Diamanda Galas been asked to leave the building? Why was the onstage orchestra so poor and the amplification system so dreadful?
The Barbican should make amends by announcing, and planning properly, a season of French chansonniers in appropriate musical settings: Juliette Greco, Brel, Serge Gainsborough and Charles Trenet would be a good start…
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Good review. Despite the audience’s appreciation, I though the evening totally lacking in integrity.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
This is a fairly accurate review although from where we were sitting the wretched Galas woman seemed to mystifyingly bring the house down for a fair proportion of the audience. The phrase “Emperor’s New Clothes” springs very much to mind. As does “The sound of a goose being strangled in slow motion”.
Sound mix was very poor early on and I thought Momus suffered more than most. Would have been interesting to compare English/French translations of the same songs. There was far too much kept in the original dialogue to be properly enjoyable for any newcomers or those less familiar with the entire canon of work which presented another barrier.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
The cardinal sin of this production was to ignore what Brel said: “listen to my words, not the music”. And how could anyone: when the songs were sung in English the words were drowned out by the orchestra. When songs were sung in French, unless people knew them, they were, if audible, meaningless anyway. For Coulter to put on a show in which Brel’s poetry (two artists alluded to this) was not given centrality is, unfortunately, to miss the point entirely. As for the artists, of Ms Galas, the less said the better. Hers was a performance of such utter self indulgence that it was only her sheer chutzpah that propelled her through it. Ghastly! Unlike many others, I did not particularly like Camille O’Sullivan’s acapella version of Marieke. Her repeated gestures were irritating, but while her voice is nice enough, I did not feel that she MEANT anything in that song. Did she understand it? Where’s the longing? Her “Old Folks” was good (though too much of that nursery-school-sounding vibraphone (or whatever) showed a lack of understanding on the part of the arranger), but “Next” was too loud and too big. There should be anger, yes, bitterness, yes, but more than that Brel’s sardonic recognition of the inherent humour of the situation. This was completely missing — and O’Sullivan is one of the better performers! Almond’s performance was too over-wrought. I enjoyed “Carousel” but it was one-dimensional. Where was the fear, the impending threat? The man is a overhyped — his performace a bit like warming up yesterday’s cottage pie — albeit that it was a well seasoned one when it was first made. Arno? Performance by rote for the most part (what was happening to his legs, St Vitus’s dance?) though I did enjoy his “Voir un ami pleurer” — though again, non-French speakers could not have known what he was on about.
The show was a wasted opportunity. So many people, a sell-out ticket-wise. But a sell-out artistically, too.
And yet … even this gross display of people getting off on their own supposed emotional resonance to and with the material … was not completely awful. Because Brel did manage, in spite of all, to shine through. Although sometimes too loud and overpowering, Mike Smith’s arrangements were intelligent and pleasing. In fact, all told, he was the star of last night’s show, though “star” is possibly overstating it by a massive amount of candlepower!
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
This show represented in its “arty” form, everything that Jacques Brel stood against. Anybody who saw that fantastic Peter Straker show “Straker Sings Brel” at the King’s Head will be aghast that Arts Council funding can put on a show like this at the Barbican when a show with genuine commercial potential, ie Straker’s show, hasn’t been seen since. Thank you Michael for drawing attention to the differential; but let’s get producers motivated to get Straker’s show on for a wider audience. I live in France and it would go down a storm here; they adore him (ignoring his (Brel’s…..) Belgian heritage of course) and would go wild for Straker’s unique interpretation.
PS Glad to see from the review that Straker is still alive.
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I largely agree with the previous reviews, although I found Camille O’Sullivan and Marc Almond rather delightful and exciting. Yes, Marieke didn’t work, but a good effort. Momus died a tepid death - poor fella. The French lads gave a hearty, but rather indiferent bash.
But goodness, my teeth hurt when that dreadful Goth woman strarted shrieking. I would have thought it hard to shriek pompously, but she managed it. And to massacre “Amsterdam” as well. Why on earth was she allowed near the stage? Rather like a bad drag act with the voice that reminded me of the sound the Tradis makes when it disappaears. Her piano playing was enjoyable though.
I would have loved a show, just split between O’Sullivan and Almond. I would have loved Scott Walker to walk on for an encore.
But the muscial arrangements were fantatsic. Re-work the show and get rid of the dross.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:22 pm
am afraid we left at the interval it was so appalling. Just could not bear any more. Have not walked out of anything for 25 years!! The orchestra just so loud. That woman-well enough said. A total joke that the Barbican should be ashamed of.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Agree with the above! Peter Straker’s is a more mature interpretation to be sure, but too solipsistic for my taste. When he sings Brel you always know it is Straker first, Brel second. That said, he’s a fine performer; I saw him in something called Hart to Hart and he was excellent in that.
Like Julie, I wanted to leave at interval, but husband didn’t. Glad we stayed though because it got better. It was that woman in the first half, shrieking her head off and strangling the words, that spoiled it. Unaccountably, there were some cheers from the audience. What were they thinking?
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Jean’s spot on, but struggling to remember which role Straker played in Hart to Hart. Was it wizened old Max, who looked after Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers and took care of the both of them (because when they got together, it was murder…)? Or was it the role of Freeway the dog? Forgive the flippancy; it could have been From the Hart at the Hampstead, another great show which inexplicably failed to make a West End transfer.
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:13 pm
So I made a mistake, Richard. Does that mean you have to make fun of me? Shame on you.
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
by and large also disappointed by show. anthony’s review v/good and on the money but i’d go further & say that if singers sing the songs in french there should be translations available (subtitles maybe?) momus should have sung in English only esp. if the opening act. its the lyrics, stupid!
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Diamanda Galas doing “Amsterdam” was the high point of the evening. In the interval seeing the sneering disgust of the pretentious Brel-ites was the second most entertaining point of the night. The fact that people were moved to boo Galas shows that she did a damn fine job.
Bravo Diamanda!
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 pm
“Doing” Amsterdam is right !
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I enjoyed the show of course but with some reservations -
- I thought the sound didnt do the show justice, the lyrics are so important that the words have to come through, they should not get buried in the sound of the orchestra, which they did sometime
- I thought the lights were perfunctory
- I suppose almost no-one in the audience could understand the content of Arthur H’s and Arno’s songs, not only did they sing in French but also a particularly mangled version of French; surtitles for those songs would have been appropriat
- the singers:
Momus - for me he was sweet and sweetly ungainly, better than I expected, and it worked fine as an introduction to the evening
Arthur H - I like his voice but he suffered a bit in the mix and the words were lost completely
Diamanda Galas - she rather destroys the songs but not necessarily in a bad way, she is certainly remarkable; I’ve heard her being better (when more focused on the song and less on her rendition of it) and worse (when completely self-indulgent); so this was in the middle for me for her
Camille O’Sullivan - quite nice, I expected to dislike her as I expected more Jazz, but she did the songs more or less straight and it worked though I thought it was a bit unremarkable - almost she is too young (that sounds terrible); she was on the edge of not getting away with the acapella version of Marieke I thought but she pulled it off and it was a nice touch in the programme to have an acapella song
Arno - similar comment to Arthur H; he’s quite a bull, reminded me a bit of the late Kevin Coyne, all growls and Belgian beer-belly; he brings a lot of character and because he’s both Flemish, and usually performs in French, there is a parallel with Brel which is no bad thing
Marc Almond - I’ve seen Marc’s versions of Brel come over better when the arrangements have left his voice more space, he doesnt have such a strong voice (a bit reedy) and there was a bit of a fight with the orchestra I thought; but he’s a pro and a great showman so it was goo
Graham Coulter and the band - a classy selection of musician-individuals so no complaints, far from a bunch of jobbing musos, still I thought the arrangements could have had more contrast, less necessity to use all the musicians in every song (Galas’s solo piano accompaniment and O’Sullivan’s acapella song apart); I think I would have preferred Coulter to be more upfront, more obviously a conductor rather than just a band-leader in the shadows; and I thought accordion would have been a good addition to the palette; still, given that Arthur H and Arno are mumblers and growlers, I felt the rather classical orchestral arrangements, werent quite the right thing - and a more, say, Tom Waitsian approach to arranging would have been more interesting; probably Momus would have benefited from softer arranging, and O’Sullivan and Almond from sparser arrangements; I also thought that the individual characters of the musicians hardly had any place to emerge from the arrangements - one very fine sax solo and some some of the (little) trumpeting excepted
choice of songs - you cant really go wrong of course, but overall I felt I missed both the darker and sentimental sides of Brel, they were both certainly there but seemed a bit swallowed by the boisterous side
October 24th, 2009 at 10:28 am
An interesting idea that failed to ignite, lucky Marc & Camille were there to avert a total disaster!
Unfortunately the sound man had a bad day at the mixing desk, I should know something about this as an ex-roadie. The essence of Brel is mainly in his lyrics, it was a pity that they were constantly drowned out by the orchestra (which probably had 6 people too many in it!).
Momus - interesting interpretation of the lyrics - pity he couldn’t sing
Arno - is it me or was he drunk? or should I have been to listen to him?
Diamanda - Totally mullered Amsterdam but interesting nonetheless.
Arthur H - Mumbled and drowned out for the most part
Camille - a shining light, but the orchestra killed off Next (BTW - I think that should really be sung by a man)
Marc - Charisma personified, but again Carousel overrun by the orchestra.
Why did they all dress in black - it was not a wake but a celebration of the great man’s songs…
All in all - too luvvie. I think it was done for David Coulter, disappearing up his own backside, instead of for the paying audience!!
October 24th, 2009 at 11:20 am
would be interesting to know if friday’s show was any better. anybody see it? btw - good one, crazy horse.
October 25th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Not sure we went to the same show - I loved the different interpretations of the songs, I thought Momus’ lyrics for “Les Bourgeois” were inspired, Arno’s renditions of the songs as rock anthems worked well, and Diamanda’s gutteral interpretation of Amsterdam was excellent, this is not a genteel song. I also totally enjoyed all the others’ renditions. I wonder if its just that lots of people don’t like Brel being sung differently? For me it was a feast of experimentation.
Where I’d agree with some of the above comments is that the orchestra were too loud on some of the songs which made it harder to make out the words.
October 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
There is a collection of photos from the show on my website:
http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/musicphotos/gallery/Carousel-The-Songs-Of-Jacques-Brel-Barbican-London-22nd-October-2009/G00002QpOjuhwyLE
October 25th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Very interested to read all these comments as I travelled to the Warwick Arts Centre on Friday for the show as the Barbican gig had sold out. My views largely the same. Orchestra drowned out soloists, sound -man had no sensitivity. Camille O’Sullivan’s rendition of ‘Les Vieux’ poignant and faithful to original, but wish I could have heard all her words : not her fault. Orchestral arrangements generally good. I enjoyed Marc Almond’s Carousel actually. Arthur H so Frenchy and quite - ‘ow you Eenglish say ? - ‘cute’, d’une maniere.
HOWEVER….I too nearly walked out at the interval after Diamanda Galas murdered ‘Amsterdam’ and ‘La Chanson Des Vieux Amants’. I was amazed to discover that she is only two years my senior : she looked and behaved around 20 years ditto. There was a moment’s silence in one of her numbers : I missed mine - I should have shouted ‘Get her off !’ and watched the reaction. I was that enraged I went up to someone in the interval and said ‘ What did you think of that woman ?’
‘Diamanda Galas ? ‘ she said, ‘ I’ve been following her for 10 years. She’s the reason I’m here’. …..so I guess she enjoyed the racket. Whole concert worth the trip nonetheless.
October 25th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
“the dark satanic Mrs Mills”
that’s what we were calling Diamanda Galas during the interval.
It was a very patchy evening and pretty disappointing. The sound quality was rubbish all night. I was with 7 other people and we were pretty unanimous that only a 3rd of the evening was successful and about a 3rd of it was downright ghastly.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:38 am
my take on the galas woman is that she was interesting, quite entertaining even, but not suited to brel’s material where the emphasis is not on the performer or their ego. would be like putting the hammiest, least experienced but enthusiastic chap from the local amateur dramatics society on stage at the RSC opposite judi dench in antony &cleopatra.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Nuff said?
October 26th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I saw the show on Friday at Warwick and was entranced by all - especially Diamanda. Marc Almond turning up was an unnanounced bonus. A great evening.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Having read more of the comments, I must say that I wasn’t a fan of the Peter Straker interpretation of Brel, which I saw in a pub in Islington. He was OK, but lacked the pain and anger and darkness needed to interpret Brel’s songs.
I’m also astonished at the people who enjoyed the The Gurgling Greek Galas. I’m trying hard not not be facetious and ignite petty playground ripostes, but she was upsettingly bad. When she first auditioned, didn’t someone , simply say, “Oh no … no, no, no. Oh dear me no!”?
When BSE talks at the “sneering disgust of the pretentious Brel-ites” it bemuses me. Yes I certainly sneered. Not sure I was “disgusted” I think i was more “appalled” than “disgusted”, but let’s not fall out over such words. But surely someone who argues that the Galas performance was “the highlight” of the evening should think a bit more carefully before levelling the term “pretentious” at other people? Pot calling the kettle black and all that? And how can the fact that people booed Galas be seen as showing she did “a damn fine job”? What a strange critical position to take!
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:38 pm
ya, i’d have to agree with BSE.
diamanda is a force to be reckoned with.
if you don’t like her style, that’s one thing.
but she is an extremely accomplished visionary; a genius
if you don’t ‘get it’, that’s your problem.
i guess most people are just boring, used to boring musicians, singing and playing in a tired style, who then heckle anyone who dares defy their snoring hedgemony. you just don’t want to hear anything different.
diamanda has enough deserved accolades, awards, and admirers and yes, talent, that she will live on just as long as brel, and give him a run for his money.
the innovators live on.
so take your ‘disgust’ and go buy an adult contemporary album or something that won’t offend you.
.. .. i’d be afraid to hear what some of these reviewers think of modern/contemporary art styles.. ..
“it offended the sensibility of my beige! how dare!”
November 9th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Oh Joel, Joel, Joel, Joel.
What are we going to do with you, eh?