Brilliant new production in English by ENO at the London Coliseum of The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny. Brecht tackles the big themes: food, sex, fights and whiskey: so basically decadence. Weil’s music fortifies this, both in songs and underpinning dialogue and speeches. The Coliseum is one of London’s largest stages but the austere staging and lighting managed to convey the aesthetic of an intimate production, as in the early Berlin performances at the Kroll theatre.
The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny is an opera that is still difficult to take in because of its overt political commentary, much of which seems simplistic and now dated. The first night of Mahagonny in Berlin in 1930 was besieged by protesters, not the only opera in history to trigger riots but these were Nazis and eventually they destroyed almost all of copies of Mahagonny when the publishers were raided then burnt out.
Mahagonny is the big brother of The Threepenny Opera by Weil and Brecht that I know well as I’ve contributed to student productions. Here in Mahagonny we have the same driving dynamic of sung text, neither opera nor musical theatre but demanding full attention from the audience, there’s no sit back and enjoy the melodies. Similar twisted moral code as well, maybe a bit dated now in twenty-first century London or maybe just as relevant with rampant me-first decadence plus threats of fascism looming just as much as towards to the end of Weimar Germany in 1930.
New productions are rare and precious these days in the opera houses. Tonight was the First Night and everything seemed smooth although curtain-up was a little delayed, probably by the capacity audience taking their seats. Just one malfunction, which was suitable comic: Simon O’Neill as Jimmy MacIntyre (singing fantastically) was chained to a post by a leg iron, which came loose during a solo. One of the chorus reattached him, Simon O’Neill continued singing throughout.
Fluid new translation, which makes the work immediately accessible, one of the original tenets of the ENO company, This performance made much more impression on me in English translation than the Royal Opera’s version (in Brecht’s original German) a decade ago.
Jenny has almost all the big songs, which we know from Lotte Lenya’s recordings. Danielle de Niese sings them fantastically, the Alabama song seemed a recreation of the classic Lotte Lenya recordings (who must have been formidable indeed on stage in this role).
Unfortunately another show with three acts but no interval between the first two. Not good for audience concentration nor can the limited toilets cope with the inevitable crush.
The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny (1930)
composer Kurt Weill - playwright Bertolt Brecht
Leokadja Begbick - Rosie Aldridge
Trinity Moses - Kenneth Kellogg
Fatty the Bookkeeper - Mark Le Brocq
Jimmy MacIntyre -Simon O’Neill
Bank-Account Billy - Alex Otterburn
Jack O'Brien - Elgan Llyr Thomas
Alaska Wolf Joe - David Shipley
Chorus and orchestra of English National Opera.
Conductor - André de Ridder
Director - Jamie Manton
Designer - Milla Clarke
Lighting Designer - D.M. Wood
Translator - Jeremy Sams