UTE LEMPER SINGS WEILL. ARIAS Berlin Kammerensemble...

UTE LEMPER SINGS WEILL. ARIAS Berlin Kammerensemble conducted by John Mauceri. London 425 204-2 (compact disc). London/Decca is gambling an entire Weill series on the throat and temperament of German cabaret artist Lemper, who here traverses 14 arias and songs in an authoritative growl and some noticeable transpositions. She vocalizes with supreme confidence in three languages, though excessive articulation is a mannerism in need of curbing. But Lemper’s dramatic approach, heard in familiar “Dreigroschenoper” and “Mahagonny” excerpts, as well as in rarer collaborations of Brecht and Georg Kaiser, bespeaks a bracing theatrical sensibility, ever resistant to the temptation to sentimentalize, even when the material (“One Touch of Venus”) almost demands it. Mauceri’s deft accompaniments provide dollops of sugar and vinegar. If Lemper can conjure more of the haunting results she achieves in the “Lottery Agent’s Song” from “Der Silbersee,” Weill fans are in for a good time.