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"RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY" FROM LA OPERA
Premiered on December 17, 2007 on PBS (check local listings)
INTRODUCTION
At the LA Opera in February 2007, four-time Tony Award® winner Audra McDonald starred in a new production of "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," one of the great 20th century operas. From composer Kurt Weill and playwright Bertolt Brecht -- creators of "The Threepenny Opera" -- comes a savage and lyrical satire told in a highly entertaining blend of opera and raucous music hall songs, conducted by LA Opera Music Director James Conlon. Tony Award® winners Patti LuPone and John Doyle -- director of Broadway's critically lauded revival of "Sweeney Todd" -- re-team for their LA Opera debuts, joined by acclaimed tenor Anthony Dean Griffey. It's every man for himself in the newly founded city of Mahagonny, devoted to life's illicit pleasures, where anything goes and the only crime is to run out of money. The brilliant score, featuring the Brecht-Weill classic "Moon of Alabama," masterfully creates a vivid picture of determination, desperation, and debauchery.
The opera's world premiere, on March 9, 1930 at Leipzig's Neues Theater, was disrupted by organized bands of rabble-rousers. Actor/singer Lotte Lenya, who played Jenny in the 1931 Berlin production and was the composer's wife, was in the audience on opening night and recounted the events, which were included in the liner notes of the 1956 Columbia recording of the opera:
"I have been told that the square around the opera house was filled with Nazi Brown Shirts, carrying placards protesting the 'Mahagonny' performance. ... The performance [was] well under way, before I was startled out of my absorption by the electric tension around us, something strange and ugly. As the opera swept toward its close, the demonstrations started, whistles and boos; by the time the last scene was reached, fist fights had broken out in the aisles, the theatre was a screaming mass of people; soon the riot had spread to the stage, panicky spectators were trying to claw their way out, and only the arrival of a large police force, finally, cleared the theatre."
Get the lowdown on the Los Angeles Opera's production from two of its stars, Audra McDonald and Anthony Dean Griffey, who also discuss the work's message and their upcoming projects, in Dialogue. Read more about the short-lived collaboration between Weill and Brecht that produced not only "Mahagonny" but also "The Threepenny Opera" within a span of a few years in the essay by contributor Tim Smith. Watch an excerpt of the opera's best-known song, "Moon of Alabama" or "Alabama Song," featuring Audra McDonald. Find a directory of the production's cast and its musical numbers in the song list.
Special funding for the filming of "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" was provided by Eva and Marc Stern.
Top banner photo: Cast of ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny''
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photo: Audra McDonald
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