Songs of war and peace

Ute Lemper is joined by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for a performance of epic proportions

Along with her more usual repertoire, which includes Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" and Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas", the German chanteuse Ute Lemper has composed three political songs for her latest tour. "Ghosts of Berlin/The Wall" is "a study of the Berlin I know best, the Berlin of the Cold War", "September Mourn" reflects on the impact of September 11 on New York, where Lemper has lived since 1997, and "Nevada" is about the proliferation of atomic weapons. "The songs are epic," she says proudly.

Along with her more usual repertoire, which includes Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" and Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas", the German chanteuse Ute Lemper has composed three political songs for her latest tour. "Ghosts of Berlin/The Wall" is "a study of the Berlin I know best, the Berlin of the Cold War", "September Mourn" reflects on the impact of September 11 on New York, where Lemper has lived since 1997, and "Nevada" is about the proliferation of atomic weapons. "The songs are epic," she says proudly.

Born in Münster, Germany, in 1963, Lemper made her name in musicals in the Eighties, and also became known for her interpretations of the Weimar-era songs of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. She won an Olivier award for her portrayal of the murderer Velma Kelly in the hit musical Chicago, and strutted naked down the catwalk while heavily pregnant for Robert Altman's film Prêt-à-Porter. ("There have been so many chapters to my career," she says.) Her album Punishing Kiss (2000) included songs by Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Elvis Costello, but now she is working on a recording of her own compositions. "It is very satisfying for me to write down my own thoughts after singing so many different people's creations," she observes.

Lemper is talking from Valencia, Spain, before a concert on her European tour with New York's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which will take her through Germany and Austria to the Barbican in London. It's then on to Carnegie Hall, New York, for the US leg of the tour.

The Grammy award-winning orchestra, founded in 1972, perform without a conductor and share leading positions according to a strict rotation system. "I could not have imagined [such a system] before I met them, because the arrangements we are playing are very complicated and mostly written for this tour," she says.

Lemper describes "Arab/Hebrew Journey" as "a very special journey dedicated to the Middle Eastern conflict". "One part of it is based on a beautiful peace poem, written in 1200 by a Muslim teacher, Ibn al'Arabi," she explains. "The other part is a Hebrew folk song about a flower. I recite the poem in English first, and then start singing it in Arabic against the sound of oboe and clarinet."

The concert also includes songs and orchestral works from the Twenties, including new arrangements of Hanns Eisler's Der Graben, about the senselessness of war, and the Eisler/Brecht work On Suicide - The Mask of Evil, which continues the political theme.

What is this concert all about for Lemper? "My root repertoire was from the Weimar Republic, especially Hanns Eisler," she says. "I was interested in trying to follow up this tradition in the contemporary world. The conflicts have shifted today, to the war of civilisations and the war of religions and, of course, the war of economies. I looked at the chaos in the world today and I wanted to include a very poetic message about all this."

Charlotte Cripps

Ute Lemper and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Barbican (020-7638 8891) 22 November