Las Vegas Rhapsody - The Night they invented Champagne
Las Vegas Rhapsody
Stardust and sands float on desert lands,
Neonlights flashing,
I'll be a star out here.
Ev'rywhere you'll see my name from near and far.
There! I am famous.
I am celebrated for as long as night is day
and I pray
Dream may you never end.
To me, you've become my dearest friend
Pretending there is a star in me, to be.
Stay.
Play, where the stars will stay...
Many have managed it, and gained eternal fame: among them are the great entertainers Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, Elvis Presley, Wayne Newton and Liberace, the conjurors Siegfried and Roy, and even mafia boss Bugsy Siegel ? whose fame is perhaps of a more dubious kind. They owe their incomparable careers to Las Vegas: no other place has laid the groundwork for the world of entertainment as rigorously as this appallingly kitschy, gloriously neon-lit place ? the greatest show stage and the most heinous gambling den in the world. Not even Lourdes, Rome and Mecca together can outdo Las Vegas, or even come close; its supplicants are not seeking heavenly or divine blessing, but earthly delights. Irresistibly, Las Vegas brings mass humanity under its spell ? no religion can motivate so many pilgrims; almost forty million come, year after year, all driven out into the desert by the magic attractions of this focus for gamblers, whores, celebrities, gangsters and con-men. For a whole century, this New Gomorrah has sprinkled its damned, beautiful perfume of fame, money, sex and gigantism: one can even find an imitation of the lagoon city of Venice here, amidst the sands of Nevada. Every possible means of seduction is on offer, dream worlds of plastic, plush and gold-dust, one-armed bandits, card tables, roulette, shows, striptease and sex. The construction of the Hoover Dam, the biggest in America, puts an end to all the puritanical laws of a land whose one-dollar bill carries the sentence "In God we trust": thousands of workers, marketers and engineers are longing for diversion, entertainment, gaming, and vice. They pay out everything they earn to still their desires, and though the power plant on the Colorado River is already finished by 1935, the flow of punters and gamblers has never let up to this day. And Las Vegas also attracts many lonely, hopeless characters, aiming to end their lives amidst the frenzy of fortunate people. Las Vegas is open to one and all, and can strike with the fearsome tenderness of a praying mantis.
"Las Vegas Rhapsody" (subtitled "The Night they invented Champagne") may well appear to be one of Winter & Winter's most unusual projects: it's a musical abduction onto the great show stage of Entertainment. To celebrate 100 years of Las Vegas, the Japanese composer Fumio Yasuda has adapted and orchestrated "Out of My Dreams", "Chim Chim Cheree", "Luck be a Lady" and "My Favorite Things" (and other great show tunes) for the German-born New York singer Theo Bleckman so as to create the illusion of a star in Las Vegas. The Kammerorchester Basel "plays" the role of a gigantic salon orchestra in Nevada's "Sin City". Fumio Yasuda wrote "Las Vegas Rhapsody" specially for a symphony orchestra, so as to create entertainment music for a big ensemble ? a very unusual sonic experience these days, far removed from electronics, computer sounds and studio manipulations. With elegance and bravura, Theo Bleckmann, Fumio Yasuda and the Kammerorchester Basel carry us off into Las Vegas' world of dreams: a sonic experience of brittle beauty. The repertoire has been chosen by Theo Bleckmann, who has been noted in recent years for his work with Meredith Monk, among others, and gave his debut at New York's Carnegie Hall along with Meredith Monk in November 2005 (Bj?rk was also making an appearance in this concert). Fumio Yasuda ? the musical right hand to Japan's most famous photographer and installation artist, Nobuyoshi Araki ? is writing every adaptation, orchestration and composition for this unmistakeable singer, who sings with a cultivated, pure and deeply personal voice. Theo Bleckmann never emerges as the interpreter of the works: he becomes the song, fusing his persona, the text and the melody into a unity. The close artistic understanding between Theo Bleckmann and Fumio Yasuda is palpable in every stage of this production. The two artists got to know each other in the summer of 2004, during work on the premiere of the cabaret opera "The Chestnut Ball" (Festspiele+, Munich Opera Festival). But Fumio Yasuda's collaboration with the Kammerorchester Basel is also the result of close contact, since back in 2003 Fumio Yasuda composed an accordion concerto for the Basle Chamber Orchestra (and the virtuoso Teodoro Anzellotti), as well as a piano concerto where he was onstage himself. So here we have artists and an ensemble familiar with one other, since the conductor Bernd Ruf has already premiered works by Fumio Yasuda.
Along with songs for small, intimate ensembles ? like "You go to my Head", "You make me feel so young" and "I've got a gal in Kalamazoo" ? and a version of "Teacher's Pet" for vocal ensemble, one of the highlights of this production is "Smoke gets in your Eyes". Theo Bleckmann knows how to concoct a fascinating mix of music and text: with his voice and Fumio Yasuda's orchestration, even this composition feels completely new, as if one were experiencing it for the first time, and rediscovering its wonderful story. The two protagonists wrote the prologue and epilogue to "Las Vegas Rhapsody" together. It ends:
Dream you're my only friend
To me, you were not supposed to end
Tonight, I will see the brightest starry light
Play.
Stay, where the stars will stay.
Even amidst Las Vegas' greatest frenzies, loneliness is always there, and the wish that the song "The Night they invented Champagne" would come back, would keep coming back, becomes a craving to escape from the world.
- Stefan Winter (Producer)
Translation: Richard Toop
All About Jazz(US) - "Las Vegas Rhapsody" Review