Lustucru: From Severed Heads to Ready-Made Meals
Jé Wilson charts the migration of the Lustucru figure through the French cultural imagination — from misogynistic blacksmith bent on curbing female empowerment, to child-stealing bogeyman, to jolly purveyor of packaged pasta.
▻https://publicdomainreview.org/2019/06/13/lustucru-from-severed-heads-to-ready-made-meals
via ▻https://www.metafilter.com/181455/Lustucru-From-Severed-Heads-to-Ready-Made-Meals
Colette Magny - Le Grand Lustucru (Berceuses du monde entier)
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pPP9ns5QUE
et, bien sûr, Kurt Weill, nombreuses versions, je garde celle-ci pour la scie musicale,…
Le Grand Lustucru, Luxtucru Orchestra
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkkU0y_h_oQ
Wahoo quelle histoire !
The sign of the shop, hanging at upper left, displays a decapitated woman’s body above the words “Tout en est bon”, from the saying, “Une femme sans tête: tout en est bon”, meaning “A woman without a head: everything is good”. To make the message absolutely clear, the block of text encourages men to bring their difficult wives to this head doctor, where their brains will be reforged and purged of all screechy, angry, lunatic, obstinate, rebellious, willful, and lazy ways. Any woman with a mind of her own is guaranteed a graphically brutal straightening out.
As sexist satire goes, this is dark. Even darker is the fact that, as soon as the image appeared, the head-pounding blacksmith “became all the rage” in France.2 Publishers began to churn out stand-alone broadsheets of his image in order to feed a demand for cheap copies, and versions of him in his forge spread from France to Germany and Italy.3 An entire almanac calendar for 1660 was dedicated to Lustucru.4 He was written into the latest comic plays and poems, and his image was even stamped on tokens or “jetons” (metal coins used mainly as counters in the age before calculators). In today’s terms, he went viral.
His name, Lustucru, comes from a slurring of “L’eusses-tu-cru?”, a stock phrase used in that period by theatrical fools, which meant, “Would you have believed it?” or in this case, “Would you have thought a woman’s head could be fixed?” According to the seventeenth-century French writer Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux, Lustucru was born from a desire for male revenge.
Je me demande bien de quelle revenche contre les femmes auraient les hommes de cette époque et dont parle ce Gédéon Tallemant.
Male anxiety regarding the growing influence and power of women was generally on the rise in France during the 1650s. Women had begun to gain some standing in the literary arts and were established enough to have been satirized as “les précieuses”, a type of clever woman who frequented Parisian salons, wrote books, and favored an elegantly refined (or, to other minds, affected and pretentious) speaking and writing style.
Les femmes n’ont pas gagné en puissance vers 1650, c’est même tout l’inverse, c’est la période de la création de l’académie française, institution dont le but principale est de baillonner les femmes et excisé la langue de toute trace de féminin qui ne soit pas humiliant. C’est aussi la période de la chasse aux sorcière, des interdictions de reprendre le commerce familial en cas de veuvage,
#séduction_à_la_française #inversion_patriarcale #blâmer_la_victime #misogynie #féminicide #domination_masculine #mégèrisme #histoire #marque #cannibalisme #lobotomie #hystérie #femmes #guerre_des_sexes #couple #amour #hétérosexualité #domination_masculine #chirurgie #violences_médicale #patriarcat #matriarcat
Kurt Weill opera silenced by Nazis to be heard again after 80 years | Stage | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/apr/27/kurt-weill-opera-the-tsar-wants-his-photograph-taken-revived-quashed-na
Il y a quand même, parfois des bonnes nouvelles : Le grand Kurt Weill avec “le Tsar qui voulait sa photo” !
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9054675fc1398644a213c0ba2c7ba8c967a41e35/0_0_480_480/master/480.jpg?width=380&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0d1db663b7adac6da095bb040fc2b67c 
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2868682dd77aa43324fd9b94b86c9f2012911965/0_142_1988_2484/master/1988.jpg?width=380&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=85ead5db1cf5d37926cb413691623ec8 
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8766ae953463ec5a6abc6f6b82fa2fd7ac85c12a/0_357_6016_3608/master/6016.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&s=d189b445d1954bb521ebb39a047a076e 
German composer Kurt Weill is ranked high among the best of the 20th century and his music remains popular outside the classical world, from the enduring jazz standard Mack the Knife in his Threepenny Opera, to the Alabama Song covered by the Doors and David Bowie. But not all of Weill’s melodies survived the Nazi clampdown on Jewish culture.
Now, thanks to the work of an academic at University College London, a suppressed Weill stage hit that posed a puzzle for modern musicians is to be revived and performed in a fresh translation. The research of Michael Berkowitz, professor of Jewish history at UCL, in collaboration with the show’s new translator and director, Leo Doulton, has unlocked the mystery of The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken and made it clear why this satirical work of 1927 was once so heavily suppressed. A performance on 4 May, the first with a full professional cast and orchestra for almost 40 years, will at last set the opera in its proper context, after 80 years of being largely ignored both in Germany and elsewhere.
Hear a Newly Found #Kurt_Weill Song That Surprised Experts - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/arts/music/kurt-weill-song-of-the-white-cheese-discovered.html
Merveille signalée par Irène (merci Irène B.)
A previously unknown song by Kurt Weill, the composer best known for “The Threepenny Opera,” has been discovered in Berlin and taken some of the world’s pre-eminent Weill experts by total surprise.
The piece, “Lied vom weissen Käse” (“Song of the White Cheese”) — which was written for a Weimar-era musical revue and sung by the actress Lotte Lenya, Weill’s wife — was recently found in an archive unrelated to Weill at the Free University of Berlin and is the most significant discovery of the composer’s music since the early 1980s. The song previously existed only in Lenya’s memory and was written off as chimerical.
Poetry Lovers’ Page - Rudyard Kipling : Screw-Guns
▻https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/screw_guns.html
The Screw Gun
▻http://oldbritishguns.com/the-screw-gun
The Screw Gun was the brainchild of Colonel Cecil Brook le Mesurier of the Royal Artillery in 1877. His proposal was to break the gun down into parts to be carried by pack mules. The maximum practical load at the time for a mule was 200 pounds, so the 400 pound barrel was divided into two parts, to be screwed back together for action. It took at least 5 mules for the barrel, carriage and associated bits, then more mules for ammunition and powder.
...
The gun was used all over Afghanistan and India, and was even present in the Sudan at the Battle of Abu Klea, during the relief of Khartoum. It was also well used in Africa by the West African Frontier Force and the King’s African Rifles.
RML 2.5 inch Mountain Gun
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RML_2.5_inch_Mountain_Gun
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqJmBfgXRUQ
Smokin’ my pipe on the mountings, sniffin’ the mornin’ cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o’ my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be’ind me, an’ never a beggar forgets
It’s only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets — ’Tss! ’Tss!
For you all love the screw-guns — the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we call round with a few guns, o’ course you will know what to do — hoo! hoo!
Jest send in your Chief an’ surrender — it’s worse if you fights or you runs:
You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don’t get away from the guns!
They sends us along where the roads are, but mostly we goes where they ain’t:
We’d climb up the side of a sign-board an’ trust to the stick o’ the paint:
We’ve chivied the Naga an’ Looshai, we’ve give the Afreedeeman fits,
For we fancies ourselves at two thousand, we guns that are built in two bits — ’Tss! ’Tss!
For you all love the screw-guns . . .
If a man doesn’t work, why, we drills ’im an’ teaches ’im ’ow to behave;
If a beggar can’t march, why, we kills ’im an’ rattles ’im into ’is grave.
You’ve got to stand up to our business an’ spring without snatchin’ or fuss.
D’you say that you sweat with the field-guns? By God, you must lather with us — ’Tss! ’Tss!
For you all love the screw-guns . . .
The eagles is screamin’ around us, the river’s a-moanin’ below,
We’re clear o’ the pine an’ the oak-scrub, we’re out on the rocks an’ the snow,
An’ the wind is as thin as a whip-lash what carries away to the plains
The rattle an’ stamp o’ the lead-mules — the jinglety-jink o’ the chains — ’Tss! ’Tss!
For you all love the screw-guns . . .
There’s a wheel on the Horns o’ the Mornin’, an’ a wheel on the edge o’ the Pit,
An’ a drop into nothin’ beneath you as straight as a beggar can spit:
With the sweat runnin’ out o’ your shirt-sleeves, an’ the sun off the snow in your face,
An’ ’arf o’ the men on the drag-ropes to hold the old gun in ’er place — ’Tss! ’Tss!
For you all love the screw-guns . . .
Smokin’ my pipe on the mountings, sniffin’ the mornin’ cool,
I climbs in my old brown gaiters along o’ my old brown mule.
The monkey can say what our road was — the wild-goat ’e knows where we passed.
Stand easy, you long-eared old darlin’s! Out drag-ropes! With shrapnel! Hold fast — ’Tss! ’Tss!
For you all love the screw-guns — the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we take tea with a few guns, o’ course you will know what to do — hoo! hoo!
Jest send in your Chief an’ surrender — it’s worse if you fights or you runs:
You may hide in the caves, they’ll be only your graves, but you can’t get away from the guns!
A propos du texte et de la musique de Screw Guns
▻http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_screwguns1.htm
Der Kanonen Song
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bEKU70_7E8
John war darunter und Jim war dabei
Und Georgie ist Sergeant geworden
Doch die Armee, sie fragt keinen, wer er sei
Und sie marschierte hinauf nach dem Norden.
Soldaten wohnen
Auf den Kanonen
Vom Cap bis Couch Behar.
Wenn es mal regnete
Und es begegnete
Ihnen ’ne neue Rasse’ne braune oder blasse
Da machen sie vielleicht daraus ihr Beefsteak Tartar
Johnny war der Whisky zu warm
Und Jimmy hatte nie genug Decken
Aber Georgie nahm beide beim Arm
Und sagte „Die Armee kann nicht verrecken“.
Soldaten wohnen
Auf den Kanonen
Vom Cap bis Couch Behar.
Wenn es mal regnete
Und es begegnete
Ihnen ’ne neue Rasse’ne braune oder blasse
Da machen sie vielleicht daraus ihr Beefsteak Tartar
John ist gestorben und Jim ist tot
Und Georgie ist verißt und verdorben
Aber Blut ist immer noch rot
Und für die Armee wird jetzt wieder geworben!
Soldaten wohnen
Auf den KanonenVom Cap bis Couch Behar.
Wenn es mal regneteUnd es begegnete
Ihnen ’ne neue Rasse’ne braune oder blasse
Da machen sie vielleicht daraus ihr Beefsteak Tartar
L’esprit militaire
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-commissioned_officer#United_Kingdom
Sergeant Jamie Shannon of the 105 Regiment Royal Artillery stands in the Middle Ward, Edinburgh Castle. As District Gunner, he has just supervised the firing of the One O’Clock gun, which points east over the Mills Mount Battery wall. The rest of the gunners are formed up behind the gun, to the right.
#Royaume_Uni #Allemagne #histoire #militarisme #colonialisme #impérialisme #théâtre #musique #poésie
▶ UTE LEMPER ~ German Version of Mack The Knife - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHFXEPYU0FQ
Le prof de philo nous avait emmené voir l’Opéra de Quat’sous de Brecht et j’ai toujours été poursuivie par l’expressionnisme allemand, cette sombre période d’avant guerre. Ne me demandez pas pourquoi j’ai cet air dans la tête aujourd’hui, vraiment, je ne sais pas.
Puisqu’on est dans l’opéra de quat’sous j’en profite pour ajouter cette merveilleuse interprétation du chant des canons :
Je trouve que l’interprétation d’Ute Lemper est celle d’une danseuse qui essaie de chanter. Si on aime bien les interprétations légères peu dramatiques il y a toujours Hildegard Knef qui arrive à faire passer l’esprit de Brecht malgré l’épouvantable orchestre easy listening .
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-dQvWhZxNE
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0clERjQ5A
Gisela May l’a essayé mais elle ne l’a pas toujour réussi.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKoht4u4oAk
Mon interprète préférée des chansons Tucholsky/Brecht/Weill/Eisler est Dagmar Krause. Malheureusement je n’ai pas trouvé son interprétation des chansons de l’Opéra de quatre sous.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDVHXqdqlis
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOGwxhZDCUA
Elle est décidément plus moderne qu’Ute Lemper. Il suffit d’écouter ses travaux avec Henry Cow dans les années 1970.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fd_7unOj4A
Comme interprète francophone, Pia Colombo, bien évidemment !
Quand j’étais jeune, on savait que le Alabama Song des Doors était une reprise de Brecht et Kurt Weill. Aujourd’hui, grâce au Web, on peut directement en voir plein de versions.
Lotte Lenya, 1958 :
►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orDcL0zt34&feature=related
