Karyn Levitt offers a cabaret tribute to Hanns Eisler.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
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| Karyn Levitt (center) in concert at the Metropolitan Room. Photo by the author. |
The name of Hanns Eisler is shrouded, both by the mists of time and the fact that he is one of the few composers to have his work banned by the Third Reich. Ten years later, he was booted out of the United States, thanks to the anti-Communist witch hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee. New York soprano Karyn Levitt is out to correct those injustices and place Eisler back in the orbit of important 20 century composers. Her CD, Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Song Book was the first step, but a more important one is to get the music of Eisler in front of a live audience.
