Vilkommen, Bienvenue, in German?

June 24, 2012 6:13 AM

Is there a German translation of Kander & Ebb's CABARET?

Can anyone point me to a German translation of the lyrics to songs from the musical "Cabaret?" Not literal translations- I mean, has the show actually been translated for performance into German, and if so, how can I access the translated lyrics?

posted by I_Love_Bananas to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh- and the same question, but for Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:15 AM on June 24, 2012

Best answer: I don't know about getting a copy of the translation, but the German wiki article mentions a translation by Robert Gilbert. (The most recent performance in Germany was at Bar jeder Vernunft in 2004, but it doesn't specify that it was staged in German, though I suppose you could ask them.)

I think this is the WorldCat page for the score in German. (I'm having trouble separating scores from what look like theatre programs in WorldCat.)

Scrutinising WorldCat, it looks like A Little Night Music has been performed in German--the German title is Das Lächeln einer Sommernacht. This is incredibly hard to Google, though--the Ingmar Bergman film (and its remake) has the same title in German.
posted by hoyland at 6:55 AM on June 24, 2012

Best answer: Cabaret has definitely been translated into German. There's recordings, according to this page, from a 2002 Bremen cast, a 1999 Düsseldorf cast, and a 1970 Vienna cast--this is the one with translation by Robert Gilbert that hoyland mentioned above, that all appear to be in German. (The titles to the 1998 Vienna cast are more in English, but on Uwe Kröger's 'greatest hits' album from a few years ago, he did Willkommen with the spoken bits in German, not English, and I presume that track came from his Vienna performance in the late 90s, so I'd guess it was in German as well.) Those recordings look to be pretty difficult to find, and may or may not have lyrics booklets.

I also have had no luck with Google and lyrics! Interlibrary loan of the score hoyland found may be your best bet.
posted by lysimache at 8:17 AM on June 24, 2012