INTERVIEW: Adrienne Haan brings ‘Between Fire & Ice’ to NYC
Photo: Adrienne Haan’s new show is called Between Fire & Ice. Photo courtesy of Jack Denver / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
Between Fire & Ice is the new show from acclaimed singer Adrienne Haan. The special concert will be presented Sept. 21 and Sept. 25 at the Triad Theater on West 72nd Street in New York City, with Richard Danley on piano.
Between Fire & Ice is billed as a celebration of 1,700 years of Jewish life in German-speaking lands, and it will include many selections from the days of the Weimar Republic in 1920s and 1930s Germany. The work of Jewish composers will be showcased, with lyrics focused on everything from feminism to experimentation to creativity.
Haan is a cherished concert artist who has made an international name for herself. She has built evenings focused on many different musical styles, including French Chanson, the American Songbook and Broadway show tunes, according to her official biography. She can sing fluently in 11 languages, and these linguistic skills were on full display in 2015 when she premiered her Holocaust remembrance concert in German, Yiddish and Hebrew at Carnegie Hall.
“We are celebrating 1,700 years of Jewish life in German-speaking lands (321-2021), and my soirée Between Fire & Ice is a diabolical Weimar Berlin Kabarett depicting Berlin during the 1920s — a time of change, challenge, experiments, and when traditions were going down the drain,” Haan wrote in a recent email interview. “With the First World War lost and the Kaiser in exile, Germany began to experiment with a new form of government. The Weimar Republic was born and with it a nation longing for latitude, until the Nazis marched in, ending the freewheeling celebration.”
Haan described this time period as a “dance on the volcano between two world wars,” a true time for creativity, art, music and culture. There were also advancements as far as the women’s movement and gay liberation. To remember this time period, and the generations that came before, Haan has put together a show featuring songs by Jewish composers and lyricists (Bertolt Brecht is one exception). Most of the program will be sung in English, with some German as well.
“There is a lot of material to cover,” Haan stated. “During the Weimar Republic, masses of art and music were created, and Jewish culture was at its peak. It was the beginning of a new era. People were hungry for culture after the horrors and the humiliation of the loss of the Great War. The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) was Germany’s first democracy that had to face many challenges from the beginning that finally led to its downfall. Politically, there was even more happening, so you can imagine it is hard to fit everything into an hour-and-a-half show.”
Haan stated that the songs, although historic in nature, still apply to today’s world. To her, they feel fresh and current, featuring beautiful melodies and expressionist styles. She called the lyrics great and the songs alive and vivid.
“Some songs are purely funny or sexual, yet they always convey a message,” she stated. “Others are very political, and yet others express longing or gentleness, but again, using language. At the time people were not used to talking about sex, homosexuality, women’s rights or abortion. These topics were taboo! The composers of the Weimar era threw all the old rigid attitudes and stiffness of the ‘Kaiser’ era overboard and created something totally new and exciting, shocking even.”
Haan stated that during the Weimar era there was a cabaret style for anyone’s diverse tastes. Sometimes people wanted to dine out, pop a bottle of Champagne, and enjoy some jazz or swing music. Other times the scene was more of the sex romp depicted in the movie Cabaret, with scantily-dressed performers dropping the fourth wall with the audience.
“The cabarets were no bordellos, but rather places of experimentation, meeting places for everyone who wanted to forget the hardships of the time, find love for one night, or sex with same-sex partners,” Haan stated. “Nothing was impossible, and everyone could mingle. Severe drug use, smoking and drinking was normal as well, so you can’t compare today’s clean and civilized theaters at all with what was happening then.”
When the Nazis came to power in the mid-1930s, the Weimar Republic came to an end. Several of the songs of that time period, which are included in Haan’s show, depict the rise of fascism and the persecution taking place.
“Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollaender and Rudolf Nelson (all Jewish) were writing songs by either making fun of Hitler (Rudolf Nelson’s song ‘Attila, The Hun’ or Kurt Weill’s ‘Caesar’s Death’), setting a warning of the rise of Nazism (Kurt Weill’s Mack, The Knife’) or writing parodies about what was going on politically (‘Everything is The Jews’ Fault’ — a parody couplet written by Friedrich Hollaender in 1931),” she stated. “Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht wrote ‘Abortion is Illegal,’ a song describing the abatement of paragraph 218 in the Nazis penal code. The song is hard on the ear and is a conversation between a woman wanting to abort because she is poor, has no place to live and can’t bring up a child, while the doctor shoots words at her in the style of a machine gun (brilliantly composed by Hanns Eisler), telling her she will have to have the baby because women are birth machines for Hitler’s soldiers and Germany needs cannon fodder. It’s a very tough song that I am performing in this show as well, transforming from the woman back to the doctor and again to the woman. It’s an exhausting piece to portray.”
Haan will be performing in New York City while the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging in the world. These past two years have been difficult for the singer. She has been away from her live audience for quite some time and had to cancel many live gigs.
“It was very hard at first because we had no idea what was going to happen for a long time,” Haan stated. “I was at the peak of my career traveling the world in 2019, working on all five continents. I had yet another full year ahead of me. My schedule in 2020 was insanely filled, but, of course, came to an abrupt halt. Like everyone else I went through phases of fear, sadness, anger, depression, but also through a transition. I learned how to be more patient and realized what was truly important in life.”
She added: “I cleaned up around me and only focused on people that really meant a lot to me and ‘got rid’ of those who would not bring anything to the table. I was also lucky to travel to Germany and Luxembourg where I grew up, something I had not done to that extent before because I usually only travel to exotic places for work and leisure. I also saw more of my European friends and family than ever before, so not everything was bad.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Between Fire & Ice, performed by Adrienne Haan, will play Sept. 21 and Sept. 25 at the Triad Theater in New York City. Click here for more information on Haan. Click here for more information on tickets.
