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Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Germany and Ireland

Jun. 04, 2014

Kurt Weill's <em>Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny</em> in Germany and Ireland

The past several years have brought more productions of Weill and Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny than any other period in its history, including major premieres at Los Angeles Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, and the Vienna Staatsoper. This month ushers in significant stagings in Germany and Ireland.

The Berlin Staatsoper opens a new production of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny on June 6, for six performances through June 25. The cast features Michael König (who also appears in the DVD of the 2011 Teatro Real production) as Jimmy, Evelin Novak as Jenny, and Gabriele Schnaut as Begbick. Vincent Boussard directs the production, with conductor Wayne Marshall. In 1927, within a year of the hugely successful premiere of Der Protagonist in Dresden, the Staatsoper played an important role in the development of Weill's career by presenting Weill’s first opera production in Berlin, with a double bill of the one-act opera Royal Palace and the cantata Der neue orpheus. While the Staatsoper has produced other Weill works since then, it has never staged Mahagonny until now.

In Ireland, Rough Magic Theatre Company and Opera Theatre Company join forces to create an immersive production of Mahagonny in one of Dublin’s great Victorian music halls, the Olympia Theatre. Lynne Parker directs and David Brophy conducts a line-up of leading Irish singers, including Claudia Boyle as Jenny, Julian Hubbard as Jimmy, Anne Marie Gibbons as Begbick, John Molloy as Trinity Moses, and Ross Scanlon as Fatty the Bookkeeper. The production runs June 13 through 22.

Next season, in the spring of 2015, Mahagonny will have its house premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

More information on the life and work of Kurt Weill can be found at www.kwf.org.

Kurt Weill
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1927/29)
opera in three acts
text (Ger) by Bertolt Brecht
English translation by Michael Feingold
S, Mz, 3T, 2Bar, B; chorus and orchestra
2(2pic)1.1.ssax.asax.tsax.2(cbsn)-2321-perc.timp-pno.harm ad lib.banjo. bass gtr.bandoneon-str
Stage orchestra: 2(2pic)2.3sax(ssax, asax, tsax)2- 2221-perc-pno.zither or xyl.banjo.bandoneon-3 vn
full evening

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