Ute Lemper Quotes

I don't know about the contemporary music now in Germany, but definitely throughout the centuries and, of course, more interesting for me, the beginning of this century and the Twenties (in) the literature and poetry and maybe paintings, there's always this— sehnsucht, this longing to get somewhere or to get something, or to go somewhere where it is impossible to go, you know. To look for the impossible.
Ute Lemper

His material was the beginning for me as a performer; it is my root repertoire. When I was seventeen and still in high school I did a big summer seminar in Salzburg, Austria. It was six weeks long, which was the extent of summer vacations from school in Germany at the time, and in it I learned all about Weill's compositions and was set on fire by them, especially his German repertoire as I barely spoke English at the time. It was just so fresh and revolutionary, provocative, full of spirit, aggressive and powerful, as were the characters he created with Brecht. I just loved it. 
Ute Lemper (About Kurt)

They all build on top of each other. The Weill and Berlin songs were my root repertoire. That led to my exploration of the French chanson universe while I was living in France, and then I went to London and started performing minimalist music by Michael Nyman [who wrote the music for Peter Greenaway's Propero's Books, which featured Ute as Cerces]. And when I moved to New York I started exploring contemporary songwriters like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Elvis Costello. In Blood and Feathers, I do a 'moon medley' that features songs by Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits and Sting - songs I have always wanted to sing but thought it would be silly to do so since they would be 'covers.' But to put them in a medley with a certain symbolism linking them together - the moon and temptation - then I could do them. 
Ute Lemper