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“Hieronymus Bosch in Consumer Hell” – Mahagonny at Deutsche Oper Berlin

Aug. 24, 2025

“Hieronymus Bosch in Consumer Hell” – <em>Mahagonny</em> at Deutsche Oper Berlin

Those with tickets to the recent production of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny that premiered at Deutsche Oper Berlin arrived to find a darkened foyer, the word “OPEN” glowing in red above a mobile bar. Sparkling wine was available for purchase, but at oddly shifting prices. Among the crowd there were to be seen a few individuals attired surprisingly, even for Berlin. With the start of Kurt Weill’s music and the eruption of those individuals into song, it would have become clear to attendees that they were surrounded by cast and chorus and truly immersed in this particular incarnation of Mahagonny, a vision of “Hieronymus Bosch in Consumer Hell” (Das Opernmagazin).

For a production in Bremen in 2012, director Benedikt von Peter created a production of Aufstieg that distributed the singers and action all over the opera house, around and among patrons who could move freely while following the proceedings on numerous video monitors. Deutsche Oper intendant Dietmar Schwarz chose a renewed version of this production to close his twelve-year tenure in Berlin, attracting enormous attention from the press, though with a mixed response. 

Respect for the skill and resources necessary to pull off such a performance event was evident. “A technical masterpiece from all sides, which deserves a bow on bended knee,” wrote Lynn-Sophie Guldin in Opernmagazin. Kai Luehrs-Kaiser of Radio 3 recognized conductor Stefan Klingele’s task as “the most thankless coordination work imaginable.” Bachtrack’s Svenja Koch lauded Klingele, who she wrote “masterfully keeps orchestras and singers—who may find themselves separated by many floors—in harmony.” Assessing the qualities of the production, Bojan Budisavljević of Neue Musikzeitung credited principally “the singer-actors and their sweaty commitment.” Holger Jacobs (Kultur24.berlin) enthused over “great vocal performances from everyone, especially of course from Annette Dasch as Jenny, Evelyn Herlitzius as Leokadja and Nikolai Schukoff as Jimmy.”

If the Opernmagazin headline reference to Bosch in a surprising context captured the engaging novelty of the Deutsche Oper production, Ossama el Naggar in Concertonet offered a piquant, counterbalancing observation: “Early in the opera, a blasé Jim, sated with Mahagonny’s pleasures, complained: ‘Aber es fehlt etwas’ (‘but something is missing’). It would seem that Jim nailed it from the outset!”


Weill/Brecht: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at Deutsche Oper Berlin (Official Trailer)

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