Audra McDonald - Alabama Song

[@donkraar1116]

Unequivocally GREAT! Audra McDonald is simply one of the greatest singing actresses in the history of the American theater. The fact that she is gifted with such an exceptional voice is the icing on the cake.

[@mzmiller52]

The only time I was floored by Audra McDonald was in “lady day at Emerson’s”. She was truly an actress in that performance.

[@FrierenLapada]

That money note on 2:08 always gives me the chills!

[@terrazasresortapartcabanas1877]

Such a great, great opera singer!

[@bernardoschmidt]

Espectacular voice and acting talent.

[@memphisvein7065]

She's absolutely amazing... My favorite ver is the David Bowie cover (only because he purposefully emphasizes the villainy, the purpose of the inherent distanciation of the song,) but this version is an absolute masterpiece...

[@vanadour33]

Magnifique !

[@aegisofhonor]

most didn't realize that Alabama Song was originally an opera song.

[@nondescriptbeing5944]

I didn't until today!

[@wormswithteeth]

You're learning 😏

[@jesseleeward2359]

It was not an opera. It was a musical. But opera companies have fallen so in love with Brecht that they have kind of stolen him Now I reckon the most common performances of his work are operas.

[@thursoberwick1948]

@@jesseleeward2359 Kind of... there is a fuzzy edge between the two concepts. This is into operetta territory. West Side Story falls into both camps too.

[@carterdunlap9957]

@@jesseleeward2359 Brecht called these “Plays With Music” or something like that

[@cnj67]

wauw ... Gänsehaut!

[@markbeck8384]

This is great! I didn't know Audra McDonald had that much range.

[@ros8986]

check her singing My Man is Gone (from 1998). Julliard was so disappointed she didn't want to be an opera singer.

[@trogloditoito]

evocador y encantador!!

[@Ranger4402]

Is there anything Audra McDonald can't do?

[@davidmehnert6206]

She couldn’t get her own daughter to like her singing voice enough not to cover her ears in pain, a reaction that began in infancy and has apparently persisted into adulthood - her own kids never saw her in “Porgy & Bess” for precisely this reason. Turns out there may be some very interesting and necessary evolutionary/genetic adaptations that account for this, a rather common phenomenon which (as I understand it) is akin to the repulsion we may feel on hearing our own recorded voice, or on the idea of having sex with a sibling or parent or someone of the same gender (or opposite one), which is just as hard-wired, innate, and unmaleable as the DNA code that informs our listening and speaking and the ‘hearing our own voice with our own ears from inside our own head’ which nothing and noone else can take away, except maybe your own mother, if her speaking and singing timbre is (by grace of genetics) the same or almost the same as ours. I’m thinking Audra MacDonald probably can’t splice pig genes into corn on the cob, and wouldn’t qualify for a job at Monsanto except as a Public Relations officer, singing the virtues of Round-Up possibly with a dance sequence paying homage to Martha Graham. Crackerjack plumber or pump girl, I’ll bet she ain’t either - could she fix a Hyundai ignition, or figure out why the yellow light won’t go off? - but she could still take those careers for a spin, if the next few musical audritions don’t go her way. Or she starts hearing her own voice - egads! - the way her children hear it, akin to water torture soup, I mean, mock turtle of course, superior in ever way to the merely authentic, right?

[@juliehosier1777]

@@davidmehnert6206 you're mad.

[@meganf7087]

@@davidmehnert6206 Jealousy

[@carterdunlap9957]

No, and it makes me jealous

[@freeportdad]

No there isnt. She even sang like Billie Holiday in Lady Day@ the Emerson Bar & Grille

[@momo_elmanetes6417]

M'ha agradat molt, moltes gràcies per aquesta interpretació.

[@mariuka_2024]

Спасибо! Такой версии я ещё не слышала.

[@alistairmcelwee7467]

Those verses rip along at a supersonic rate. Still, lovely tempo contrast with the slower choruses. Plus, Audra McDonald is such a shining star.

[@KaBoomChannel]

Awesome. Do they sing Light my fire?

[@appafonso]

top

[@multifandom5942]

Do u have the full version of this??

[@lordcawdorofmordor2549]

I love Audra's voice, its beautiful and gorgeous, but it's perhaps too good, in that it no longer has that brechtian V-effect.

[@user-qz6sy8wn7r]

Oh, my...Please give me link to the full version. It's a great anticapitalist song ever. I can't belive that maked in US. Cheers from Russia

[@adamx6000]

So it was originally a German play about America? What was the plot and premise of the opera?

[@margaritavlacci]

Not about America per se but probably not unintentional in choosing an American city in one of the songs - it's about the city of Mahoganny, which is intended as a place only for pleasure, being gradually ruined by the people who wanted it to exist in the first place since they're all greedy, murderous, and selfish.

[@jesseleeward2359]

Brecht and Weil did musical plays but opera companies love them so they have become re interpreted as opera composers in retrospect.

[@jesseleeward2359]

I think that Mahoganny is a fictionalized Seattle or Portland.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Wow! McDonald is unforgettable . I've never heard a real voice in this !LotteLenya makes it soo kinky and dirty as does Marianne Faithful .

[@fringelilyfringelily391]

Beautifully sung, but unforgivably bowdlerised.

[@ericsolender416]

I like the Doors version more

[@briansobey4621]

Jim gives it more drama in the Doors version.

[@anniespencer7879]

Is it the same tune as in the opera?

[@triciayates8413]

@@anniespencer7879 slightly different but similar!