Marianne Faithfull
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
RCA - 60119
visit Marianne's website
also available on Amazon
If you're looking for the angelic Marianne Faithfull of AS TEARS GO BY, or the angry diva of BROKEN ENGLISH, or the lusher but piercingly acute imagery of her work with Angelo Badalamenti, you will not find it here. What you will find though is a fully orchestrated work that she has been touring with, and selling out the house, in Europe. This is Marianne Faithfull doing the parable of commerce that is called THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, with the Vienna Radio Orchestra with Dennis Russell Davies conducting. These are the songs of Kurt Weill, composer, and Bertolt Brecht, lyricist. This work is, it would seem, is a perfect match of voice timber and the sound wished for by the composer. I can not imagine another singer being able to pull off these songs. The husky and weary voiced Miss. Faithfull does these songs as they were intended to be done. This is the perfect marriage that time sometimes allows for in this idiosyncratic world of ours. Her voice is such a beautiful match in tone and color for these songs that one wonders if they were not written for her. It is the heavy and somber tone of the music that blends so perfectly with her voice here. Weill's music tends toward a formality and somberness that shadows the concerns of the songs,. Here Brecht's lyrics tell the moribund story of a girl placed on a tour by her family to earn money for their luxury and her voice reflects the weariness that becomes the ideal vehicle for her travails and lacerations. According to the tabloids, if they are to be believed?, Marianne has spent her life researching this work, however she displays that rare intelligence that allows all 'misfortunes' to be converted to her benefit. There is a detachment that allows one to be intimately involved with,
but not consumed by this type of work. This is her best work in quite some time. She deserves all the accolades that come her way as a serious singer who can pull off the piece. A wonderful disc from one whose live presence we must count as miraculous considering what she has lived through. A brilliant light shining through the gloom.
Marianne Faithfull - voice
The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (126 pieces)
Dennis Russell Davies conductor
1. Prologue - 3:51
2. Sloth - 3:58
3. Pride - 4:51
4. Anger - 4:53
5. Gluttony - 3:33
6. Lust - 5:22
7. Covetousness - 3:03
8. Envy - 4:32
9. Epilogue - 1:26
Kurt Weill songs
10. Alabama Song - 2:55
11. Ballad of Sexual Dependency - 2:36
12. Bilbao Song - 5:05
13. Pirate Jenny - 4:35
Kurt Weill - composer
Bertolt Brecht - lyricist