Pia Colombo - Chante Bertolt Brecht Et Kurt Weill (2002)

With the help of several translators, Pia Colombo takes some of the better-known songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht to France on this collection, which demonstrates that those songs can be made to fit in well with the French chanson tradition. Colombo, possessed of a penetrating alto and a good sense of rhythm (which any singer needs to get all those words out), is not as emotionally involved as some singers of these songs. Her "La Fiancée du Pirate" (aka "Pirate Jenny") doesn't have the savage bite that some others have given this dark fantasy of revenge, and her "Surabaya-Johnny" is not nearly as bitterly victimized as it can be. She is wise to include some tunes that are not as well known, such as "Avez-vous Pensé, Mr Jacob Schmidt..." from Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and "Tango des Matelots" from Happy End, which she is able to make her own. There are many recordings of the Weill/Brecht repertoire; this one shows that the material can work just as well in French as it does in the original German.