{"id":10761,"date":"2018-11-23T22:42:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T20:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.leonardcohen.de\/?p=10761"},"modified":"2018-11-23T22:47:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T20:47:15","slug":"kw-47-2018-tiefgang-mit-atmosphaerischer-dichte-offenbacher_lesungen_2018-perla_batalla-another-side-of-leonard-cohen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/?p=10761","title":{"rendered":"KW-47-2018: Descending with atmospheric density – Perla Batalla interprets Leonard Cohen\u2019s biblical songs : #Offenbacher_Lesungen_2018 #Perla_Batalla – Another Side Of LEONARD COHEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Descending with atmospheric density<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perla Batalla interprets Leonard Cohen\u2019s biblical songs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Returning to the German stage<\/p>\n

A memory of the \u201cOffenbacher Lesungen 2018\/ Literatur im O-Ton,\u201d by Christof Graf<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Photo: Christof Graf)<\/p>\n

The American singer\/songwriter Perla Batalla accompanied the rock Poet Leonard Cohen twice during his world tours in 1988 and 1993. It has been 25 years since she last performed in Germany. On the occasion of this years \u201cOffenbacher Lesungen,\u201d under the motto \u201ca different side of Leonard Cohen, she mainly performed the 2016 passed rock poet\u2019s songs with biblical connotation. \u201cYear for year, in the \u2018Offenbacher Lesungen \/ Literatur im O-Ton\u2019 series, the Max Dienemann \/ Salomon Formstecher Gesellschaft presents the pinnacle of German vocal artists, who present the works of Jewish authors,\u201d says Anton Weinberg, chairman of the association, to the audience of the sold out hall of the \u201cAlten Schlosserei,\u201d in Offenbach am Main, at the beginning of the evening. \u201cA novelty this year is the addition of Perla Batalla, a representative of a special style of vocal art, who in the 80s and 90s, was a member of Leonard Cohen\u2019s accompanying band,\u201d continued Weinberger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And it was a good decision to take specially selected songs and texts of Leonard Cohen and to embody them through many art forms by the presenting artists: narrative art, literature and music. The literary embarking into \u201cA different side of Leonard Cohen,\u201d was made by the Berliner actor, author and director Hanns Zischler, who presented himself as a truly congenial interpreter of the Canadian-Jewish songwriter\u2019s word art, as he recited Leonard Cohen\u2019s biblical texts.<\/p>\n

He breathed new life into the words of the rock poet, who passed at the age of 82 in Los Angeles, with \u201cI had a very Messianic childhood\u2026\u201d from psalm 4, out of Cohen\u2019s 1984 \u201cBook Of Mercy.\u201d More texts out of Leonard Cohen\u2019s books followed, such as \u201cLet me rest!\u201d from Psalm 5 out of \u201cBook Of Mercy.\u201d Most of all it was the biblical references that should have shown \u201ca different side of Leonard Cohen,\u201d and at no point should it have been a \u201cbest of program.\u201d In a similar fashion, texts such as \u201cGenius,\u201d \u201cFolklore,\u201d and \u201cLovers,\u201d from \u201cFlowers for Hitler \u2013 Poems and Songs 1956-1970,\u201d were presented to the attentive audience by Hanns Zischler, who accented his performance with theatrical facial expressions and gestures. \u201cTake This Waltz,\u201d by Cohen\u2019s favorite Spanish poet, Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca, rounded out the literary homage to Leonard Cohen.<\/p>\n

After that, Perla Batalla dove into the musical world of Leonard Cohen, with \u201cIf It Be Your Will,\u201d from the album \u201cVarious Positions.\u201d With strong emotions and a powerfully deep interpretation she reminded everyone of his eloquence, which was shown more and more with each of her eight performed songs on that evening.<\/p>\n

Musical contributions from seven out of the 14 albums of the total works of Leonard Cohen were the focal point of the biblical evening with Perla Batalla. It did not matter if the songs were from the 60s, \u201cSisters Of Mercy\u201d (\u201cThe Songs Of Leonard Cohen\u201d), the 70s, \u201cWho By Fire\u201d (\u201cNew Skin For An Old Ceremony\u201d), the 80s,\u201cTake This Waltz\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m Your Man\u201d) or even from the 90s with \u201cAnthem\u201d (\u201cThe Future\u201d); they all proved their ability to shine well after the death of their creator.<\/p>\n

Perla Batalla was the musical companion of Leonard Cohen from 1987 to 1993. 2007 she released the tribute album \u201cBird On The Wire.\u201d Since 2016 she has been touring with her so called \u201cHouse Of Cohen\u201d program, as a tribute to her erstwhile companion, through the U.S. She was the perfect cast for this unique, exceptional concert. Her voice is powerful and deep at the same time. Her performance is discreet, while still being full of presence. Her presentation is in service of the repertoire of songs; she does not distinguish herself, but the song and the author. In an elegant black and white dress, standing barefoot on stage, accompanied by musicians (Luis Cartes (Pianio), Marc Prat (Bass), Manu Corbal\u00e1n (Guitar)) whom she gives space to unfold, the amicable singer further strengthens her ability to shine with the title song of Leonard Cohen\u2019s last piece of work \u201cYou Want It Darker.\u201d The song had its live premiere in Germany.<\/p>\n

The audience was moved and awestruck by the atmospheric density that Perla Batalla was able to weave. After a short verbal reminiscing on Leonard Cohen in Form of a memory, Perla Batalla tuned in with an encore: Leonard Cohen\u2019s biggest hit \u201cSuzanne.\u201d This was further evidence of the atmospheric density and depth on this evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Descending with atmospheric density Perla Batalla interprets Leonard Cohen\u2019s biblical songs Returning to the German stage A memory of the \u201cOffenbacher Lesungen 2018\/ Literatur im O-Ton,\u201d by Christof Graf (Photo: Christof Graf) The American singer\/songwriter Perla Batalla accompanied the rock Poet Leonard Cohen twice during his world tours in 1988 and 1993. It has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10765,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761\/revisions\/10765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leonardcohen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}