Kz Zar

Born in Alexandria, Egypt and migrated to Perth in 1963, Ivan Zar was drawn to the Blues at an early age and taught himself the harmonica and Delta Blues style Guitar. In 1968, he formed his first band "King Biscuit Co", as well as writing his own songs. After playing in several bands, Ivan formed a band called The Elks in 1975, which was to introduce the Chicago style of Blues to the mainstream. The band toured the South West and across to major cities in the Eastern States. They had the opportunity to support B.B King, Rory Gallagher, Joe Cocker and Ike and Tina Turner, and recorded an album Refer to Drawer, which is now a sought after Australian Blues album by blues affeciandos. In 1981, Ivan recorded some of the material that he had written and worked in a duo with Brian Fitzgerald called The Deltatones…

What better legacy could an opera-house director leave behind him than a string of excellent theatrical productions! Rolf Liebermann (1910-1999), who was actually a composer, certainly succeeded in doing this – particularly during the 14 years from 1959 to 1973 that he spent in charge of Hamburg State Opera. During the Liebermann era the company in this northern German city embarked on a new artistic and administrative course that had - and still has - an impact on the entire operatic scene in central and Western Europe. It is significant in terms of Rolf Liebermann’s artistic credo that he selected Joachim Hess’ 1969 production of Zar und Zimmermann to be included amongst the august ranks of his 13 opera films.

“Yet another outstanding entry in Capriccio’s heroic Kurt Weill series and a major hole in Weill's recorded catalogue plugged. Georg Kaiser, perhaps Weill's favorite German collaborator (the Brecht collaboration, although it produced terrific work, came with nettles and thorns), supplied the libretto, and Weill subtitled the piece an ‘opera buffa.’ However, as with Mozart, this hardly qualifies as a light-hearted romp. Indeed, it features the kind of humanistic ethical dilemma that attracted Weill again and again … kudos for a fine recording of a rarity.”