Search - Marlene Dietrich :: Wiedersehen

Did Dietrich Approve This Album?

A. Mcintyre | 05/29/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am very pleased to finally have Dietrich's only concert album in Germany finally available on CD. As has been mentioned, this 1960 recording captures Marlene's only concert tour of her native country. I enjoyed the songs (mostly from the earliest part of her career) very much. Because every song & comment is in German, you get the feeling that you are listening to a historic event (famous at the time for the problems the singer had with fans who believed she was a traitor to Germany during WW2).



Now for the problems. The album was recorded during concerts in large venues in Munich and Cologne. Perhaps that's why the concert doesn't build from song to song to an emotional climax at the end ("I Still Have A Trunk in Berlin"). The liner notes say that Dietrich took 62 curtain calls in Munich at the end of one of the concerts. You would never know that from listening to the CD. Applause fades out quickly after every song, which may have allowed the producer to include 12 songs. Perhaps Dietrich (ever the show woman) decided to play against the drama of her German tour by issuing a detached album. Whatever the reasons listening to Wiedersehen Mit Marlene forty-nine years later, one wishes another approach had been taking."

What Becomes a Legend Most?

James Morris | Jackson Heights, NY United States | 05/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I became enchanted with Marlene Dietrich in my late teens; she was one of several glamorous actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age who held a special fascination for me, along with Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Mae West. In 1970, I elected to study German in High School, simply because my sister had married into a German family. Possibly for this reason, I soon opted to purchase one of Miss Dietrich's German language albums when I chanced upon it in a record store, and I was enchanted with her all over again. Instead this time, it was her singing rather than her acting that garnered my attention.



One of the first vocal albums of hers I acquired was Wiedersehen mit Marlene, but I did not immediately understand the significance of its place in her recorded canon. I only knew, at first, that the photo on the cover was one of the loveliest I'd ever seen of her, and that her singing of a dozen songs in her native language was quite pleasant. The original vinyl album mentioned that it had been recorded during her "triumphant" return to Germany. I later learned that it was only triumphant, if you could describe being greeted with protests as triumphant, or if you could label it "triumphant" to have a young girl one third your age spit in your face and call you a "traitor".



In 1932, Marlene Dietrich left Germany to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and in 1941, she eschewed the glamour of her adopted life to tour Europe and entertain American soldiers for the war effort. The Germans vowed to execute her if she was captured, and when later asked why she risked her life to assist the defeat of her native country, she replied simply that it was the right thing to do. Her mother reportedly never forgave her, and neither did many of her fellow Germans.



By the 1950's, with her screen career faltering, she revived her immense popularity by reinventing herself as a singer. In the 30's and 40's, she was the sultry siren of The Blue Angel and other films; in the 1950's and 1960's, the venerated actress of such landmark films as Witness For the Prosecution, Touch of Evil and Judgment at Nuremberg. Although suffering her share of screen misfires, she turned her talents to the stage of Las Vegas and later, assisted by the blossoming talent of a young composer and arranger named Burt Bacharach, she embarked in her fifties on a career as a concert entertainer, a plethora of vocal limitations camouflaged by sympathetic arrangements and her ability to use her voice to express emotion. No less a luminary than Ernest Hemingway once remarked, "...If she had nothing more than her voice, she could break your heart with it. But she also has that beautiful body, and the timeless loveliness of her face."



In 1960, Miss Dietrich faced live German audiences for the first time in 28 years. Although she was welcomed into Berlin by Mayor Willie Brandt, each appearance she made in her homeland was marred by protestors, who chanted, "Marlene, go home". In Dusseldorf, a girl of 18 got close enough to grab her coat, call her "traitor" and spit in her face. It may have been this incident which caused her to choose Paris rather than Germany for her final retirement, and it was during this tour that the selections on this CD were recorded.



Her performances here are as good as any of her late concert or studio recordings in any language. She chose for her German tour to stick mainly to her well-known early songs, such as Falling in Love Again, Lola, My Blond Baby and Peter, but she also dazzles with several pieces of newer material. As with many good singers (Edith Piaf comes to mind) one does not always have to understand the language to appreciate the emotion behind the lyrics. When she sings Allein in einer Grossen Stadt (Alone in a Big City) or Ich habe Noch einen Koffer in Berlin (I still have a trunk in Berlin), despite the limitations of her rather gruff voice, an amazing amount of feeling and tenderness come through. Even so, an English synopsis is provided for each song.



My own favorite track is the song Marie, Marie, which was written by the great French songwriter Gilbert Becaud. Miss Dietrich also recorded it in French, but I prefer her German rendition. The song is about a girl reading a letter from a prisoner. It opens rather lightheartedly, until he begs her to write more often, and as the song progresses to its climax, he realizes that she has found someone else. It just may be my favorite of the many recordings I own of her, principally because of her amazing ability to put forth the emotion behind the song, without the benefit of a particularly great singing instrument.



It was also a pleasant surprise to see the back cover of the CD and inside notes adorned with the Richard Avedon photo that became the most popular magazine ad in the series of ads done for Blackglama Minks, with the now-famous quotation, "What Becomes a Legend Most?" The photo, taken when Miss Dietrich was 73, is nothing short of stunning. And I venture to say, so is this recording. Get it."