IF YOU were to compile a list of 20 of the most decadent moments in music history, what would you choose? Carl Orff's wicked Carmina Burana would be a must. And that stripper tune that everyone can hum (da dar dar dum . . .). But which pieces from Berlin of the Cabaret era should be omitted? The executives from Teldec made the decision earlier this year, and have produced a new CD of purple passages called Classic Sleaze (Teldec 450999468). It includes Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill's Lust from Seven Deadly Sins and Marlene Dietrich paying attention to two men in Peter and Johnny.
The inclusion of the opening of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra is initially perplexing. What's so sleazy about that, you may wonder. A joke? A mistake? No, apparently it's the theme tune of the latest Conservative Party conference in Britain.
SO you were one of the many who did not get any of the tickets you wanted for this year's international film festival? You can either try suing the Urban Council (like Chan Yue-fong, who filed a lawsuit for $21), or bite your lip and queue from the early hours of Sunday morning for your set of souvenir stamps of the Hong Kong film industry.
The 20,000 sets (each with a serial number) will be available from 10 am at the concourse of Ocean Theatre, to mark the 14th Film Awards that evening. WHAT is billed as 'the first show of Chinese avant-garde art in a museum' is booked between February and June next year in the new Modern Art Museum in Bonn. The publicity material notes the gallery is just opposite Helmut Kohl's office, although whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage it does not say.