The Backyard Suppliers

Maids would briefly interrupt their work to have a little dance, while their employers listened surreptitiously from behind the curtains—only to then toss a penny wrapped in newspaper into the courtyard as a token of thanks.

Susanne Brantl and her musicians bring this milieu back to life: tracing the often arduous living conditions with “Songs of a Poor Girl” by Holländer, “Nanna’s Song” by Brecht, and Fritzi Massary’s reimagined image of women in “Why Shouldn’t a Woman Have an Affair?”—a journey through time to operetta, cinema, and cabaret; Claire Waldoff’s “Because of Emil’s Indecent Lust” shows: the chansons from the old gramophones have remained astonishingly relevant…

Susanne Brantl (vocals)

Ludwig Hahn (violin)

Norbert Bürger (banjo/guitar)

Alex Armbruster (accordion)