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Scene from the "Life of Brian" musical: "Even mariachi trumpets"
Photo: Christian Pogo Zach / Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz / dpa
"Everyone just a cross": The Munich Gärtnerplatztheater is bringing "The Life of Brian" to the stage this Thursday in a music theater version - in a German premiere.
"The Life of Brian" tells the story of a man who was born around 2021 years ago in the stable next to that of Mary and Joseph, 33 years later fought underground against the Romans and was ultimately mistaken for the Messiah by a stupid coincidence .
The film was released in 1979. The London magazine "Time Out" ranks it 20 among the best British films of all time.
In 2007 the music theater came out in the English original.
According to the theater, there are very few translations - and the "comic oratorio" did not even exist in German.
English miners' choir becomes a group of homesick Middle Franconians
The cabaret artist and author Thomas Pigor has translated the "Life of Brian" oratorio, this "very British piece", into German.
Not an easy task.
»Translating English lyrics into German is always a challenge because English uses short words - in contrast to German.
We have monster words with a built-in three-quarter time, such as vehicle registration office, which you then have to emphasize correctly, «he told the German press agency.
»Simple gags translate easily: slapstick interludes or comedy situations.
It gets more difficult when it comes to puns or context. «There are allusions to television series, to Monty Python skits, which are classics for the English but which a German audience hardly knows.
In such cases he then had to "incorporate the German context".
The English miners' choir turns into a group of homesick Middle Franconians who shout "Mir wolln hamm".
The Pigor version of the bagpipers is a Bavarian brass band.
In his opinion, the special comedy results from the discrepancy between the orchestra and classical singers, who perform with great gestures, on the one hand - and the banality of what they sing on the other.
The piece is based on Handel's Messiah oratorio.
"But it's also Broadway and pop music, country, spiritual, even mariachi trumpets," says Pigor.
"One sentence is called Baroque and Roll."
He saw a challenge not only in the simple translation: "It was my job to translate the lyrics in such a way that they appeal to today's German-speaking audience" - and "Today's" wasn't easy either. “The 'Life of Brian' is timeless material, even if some of the numbers can be clearly assigned to the 1970s. For example, the dispute between the Jewish resistance groups, the Popular Front of Judea and the Judean Popular Front, is a parody of the left-wing K groups. I am also not sure whether the speech impediment of Pontius Pilate would be amused as freely today as the pythons did then, ”he says.
But one aspect was inviolable for him: The song "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life", for which Brian is crucified: "We prefer to sing the chorus in English."
sak / dpa