Weill: Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny

I was NOT prepared for this dvd. Diffidently (after all, what does Madrid know about Weill?), I ordered it simply to have another copy of MAHOGANNY, a work I adore. Can you spell "schmuck"? That's what I was calling myself ten minutes into the performance. It is, simply, the most intelligent production of this "opera" I have seen (pray, be not impressed; I've seen only three others, but I've re-seen them many times). Conducting: one couldn't wish for better. The cast: not one dud amoung them, not a one (check out Jenny's trill in "Moon of Alabama" - it is to swoon). The mise en scene? Oh, man, don't get me started. It's like a Broadway show; it's like the best of contemporary opera; it's like the old 60's days of the Living Theater. Yet it's too something "also" on which right now I can't put my finger. To borrow a phrase from Talulah B, it's a goddamn miracle. The chorus? Spot on. Underlying all is the translation of Brecht's libretto into American English. It's superb, comperable to the translation (Blitzstein's ?) of the Threepenny Opera that put Weill/Brecht on the Manhattan scene back in the 50's. For a while my Inner Purist (who can be SUCH a bore!) fussed about losing the German...until I remembered that Weill, upon coming to Manhattan and claiming a historical place among Broadway's greats, being so ashamed of his native country rolling over for the Nazis, refused to speak a word of German. That made it all right. That made it OK. In this performance, Mahoganny, takes its place in musical history in an entirely new context: Weill in Manhattan. I think he would have loved it. But all that's intellectual twaddle. If you have a love for Weill and his works, please do not deny yourself the pleasure of this performance. And don't expect a better one anytime soon. I know of none better, though I know of one very close. Madrid, bravo! Er...make that bravissimi! Tutti! Disclosure: I am not acquainted with anyone involved in the production of this dvd, nor do I have any financial interest therein.

When it was originally composed in 1930, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht intended Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) to be as much a satire of opera and a reaction to the state of the Weimar Republic. Now, when taken alongside such like-minded work contemporary works by Hindemith and Berg, it just sounds like great opera - but it still functions as a scathing satire on all the subjects it deals with, particularly the nature of capitalism, on which it still has very relevant points to make. You can call it music theatre if you like, but Weill's score for Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is considerably more sophisticated than that, working in a variety of styles to create a deliberate alienating effect, drawing on specific references, creating dissonance and unsettling arrangements, using unexpected plot points to keep the listener engaged and keep them from complacently and unquestioningly accepting operatic conventions. If you need any convincing that Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny can aspire to great opera however, this 2010 production at the Teatro Real in Madrid, directed by La Fura dels Baus might be just the ticket. Their unconventional approach to opera staging, which could even be considered anti-theatre, certainly has a Brechtian influence, so it's no surprise to find that that the Catalan group are absolutely perfect for this particular work. Directed by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa, there are no projections this time - other than the titles of each of the sections (in Spanish here, not translated on the screen) - and no elaborate designs, no acrobatic wire work and no off-the-wall concepts. Everything is tailored directly towards the expression of the ideas in the work, finding the most imaginative and impactful way of putting it across, without relying on stagy conventions. The satire effectively makes all its points - from the expectations of the individual to the concept of justice - all within the umbrella of the capitalist system, and it doesn't need any specific or easy-target anti-American agenda attached for the concept to stand on its own and be applied by the listener to their own experience of the system. I'm not sure why it was chosen to use the US revision of the original opera, singing it in English and changing Jimmy Mahoney to Jimmy MacIntyre, particularly as there are a few native German speakers in the cast here and others, like Henschel, have a strong footing in German opera. If it's another attempt at alienation effect to keep the audience guessing, then it works. Most importantly however, the casting and singing is superb. Jane Henschel is superbly capable in the whole range from singspiel-like dialogue to more conventional opera singing, as well as being a fine actress in the role of Widow Begbick. Jenny Smith is an important piece of casting, and Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman makes an incredible impression, oozing sensuality and absolutely electric in her scenes with Michael König's fine Jimmy MacIntyre. The balance right across the board in the other roles seems perfect, consistently hitting the right note, as do the Chorus of the Teatro Real, who give their all in the scantiest of costumes and in the most... well... indelicate situations. One can't fault the commitment either of the Madrid orchestra under Pablo Heras Casado. I don't know if it's to do with the encoding, but Bel Air releases often look a little juddery in motion on my set-up - but generally the image is fine, and even if movements aren't smooth, I didn't find it too distracting. The audio tracks, in LPCM Stereo and DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, are both good, but there's not much to choose between them. There are no extra features on the disc, and only a synopsis in the booklet.

Like another reviewer, I was hesitant about a production that was not sung in the original German. Silly, silly me. This is a great production, complete with a couple of surprises. The singing is superb and the staging ingenious. I really love this.

Whereas the Threepenny Opera is set in an imaginary London without landmarks, Mahagonny is set in an imaginary town on the US east coast. Both reflect events in Germany at the time they were written. Mahagonny has a wonderfully melodic score that shows the influence of many popular genres of the period such as jazz and cabaret music, yet it is a very bleak complex, very dramatic work, at times intensely moving. Brecht's text is heavily ideological and full of unrelenting sardonic humour. There is so much to it that any fairly good production will have a considerable amount of interest to it but the work is staged in front of a rubbish dump. Two of the characters who open the work are ejected from a refuse collection vehicle into a pile of rubbish and Widow Begbig is to be found in a refrigerator. Jenny and her friends sing the Alabama Song having also emerged from the rubbish dump. One might think that such an environment would not be a very appealing location for a libertarian utopia. The work is lit in blue twilight and many of the costumes add little in the way of colour. The conductor conducts with vigour but fails to lift the atmosphere of urban grunge that pervades throughout much of the production despite some strong vocal contributions. The work's breadth and complexity stood little chance of being conveyed in this grungy production.The best production by far that I have watched in English is the one from the Met conducted by James Levine from the Met, at B0064SHXE8. It is really worth finding. The best production in German is likely to be as fine as that by the Komische Oper, Berlin, from the GDR period, conducted by Robert Hannell with Maria Zahlten-Hall as Widow Bedbick, Elliott Palay as Jimmy (Paul Ackermann) and Tmara Lund as Jenny Hill, available to view online.