Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Encyclopedia
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera
composed by Kurt Weill
to a German libretto
by Bertolt Brecht
. It was first performed in Leipzig
on 9 March 1930.
, sometimes known as Das kleine Mahagonny, a concert work for voices and small orchestra commissioned by the Deutsche Kammermusik Festival in Baden-Baden
and premiered there on 18 July 1927. The ten numbers, which include the "Alabama Song" and "Benares Song", were duly incorporated into the full opera. The opera had its premiere in Leipzig
in March 1930 and played in Berlin in December of the following year. The opera was banned by the Nazis
in 1933 and did not have a significant production until the 1960s.
Weill's score uses a number of styles, including rag-time
, jazz
and formal counterpoint
, notably in the "Alabama Song
" (covered by multiple artists, notably The Doors
and David Bowie
). The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic
English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original (German) language.
, Mahagonny is still considered a work of stature with a haunting score. Herbert Lindenberger in his book Opera in History, for example, views Mahagonny alongside Schoenberg's Moses und Aron
as indicative of the two poles of modernist opera.
Following the Leipzig
premiere, the opera was presented in Berlin in December 1931 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm
conducted by Alexander von Zemlinsky
with Lotte Lenya
as Jenny, Trude Hesterberg as Begbick, and Harald Paulsen as Jimmy. Another production was presented in January 1934 in Copenhagen
at the Det ny Teater.
Other productions within Europe waited until the end of the Second World War
, some notable ones being in January 1963 in London at Sadler's Wells Opera conducted by Colin Davis
and in Berlin in September 1977 by the Komische Oper
.
It was not presented in the United States until 1970, when a short-lived April production at the Phyllis Anderson Theatre off Broadway starred Barbara Harris
as Jenny and Estelle Parsons as Begbick.
A full version was presented at the Yale Repertory Theatre
in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1974, with Gilbert Price
as Jimmy and Stephanie Cotsirilos as Jenny. Kurt Kasznar
played Moses. The libretto was performed in an original translation by Michael Feingold; the production was directed by Alvin Epstein.
In October of 1978, Yale presented a "chamber version" adapted and directed by Keith Hack, with John Glover
as Jimmy and June Gable
as Begbick. Mark Lynn-Baker played Fatty; Michael Gross
was Trinity Moses.
Finally, in November 1979 it debuted at the Metropolitan Opera
in a John Dexter
production conducted by James Levine
. The cast included Teresa Stratas
as Jenny, Astrid Varnay
as Begbick, Richard Cassilly
as Jimmy, Cornell MacNeil
as Moses, Ragnar Ulfung
as Fatty and Paul Plishka
as Joe. In 2010, the Met released it on DVD.
The Los Angeles Opera
presented the opera in September 1989 under conductor Kent Nagano
and with a Jonathan Miller
production. Other notable productions in Europe from the 1980s included the March 1986 presentation by the Scottish Opera
in Glasgow
; a June 1990 production in Florence
by the Maggio musicale fiorentino. In October 1995 and 1997, the Paris Opera
staged by Graham Vick
, under the baton of Jeffrey Tate
starring Marie McLaughlin
as Jenny, Felicity Palmer
(1995) and Kathryn Harries (1997) as Begbick, Kim Begley (1995) and Peter Straka (1997) as Jimmy. The July 1998 Salzburg Festival
production featured Catherine Malfitano
as Jenny, Gwyneth Jones as Begbick, and Jerry Hadley
as Jimmy.
Productions within the US in the last ten years have included those in November 1998 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago
directed by David Alden. Catherine Malfitano repeated her role as Jenny, while Felicity Palmer
sang Begbick, and Kim Begley sang in the role of Jimmy. The Los Angeles Opera's February 2007 production directed by John Doyle
and conducted by James Conlon
included Audra McDonald
as Jenny, Patti LuPone
as Begbick, and Anthony Dean Griffey
as Jimmy. This production was recorded on DVD
, and subsequently won the 2009 Grammy Award
s for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Opera Recording."
A truck breaks down. Three fugitives from justice get out: Fatty the Bookkeeper, Trinity Moses, and Leocadia Begbick. Because the federal agents pursuing them will not search this far north, and they are in a good location to attract ships coming south from the Alaskan gold fields, Begbick decides that they can profit by staying where they are and founding a pleasure city, where men can have fun, because there is nothing else in the world to rely on.
Scene 2
The news of Mahagonny spreads quickly, and sharks from all over flock to the bait, including the whore Jenny Smith, who is seen, with six other girls, singing the "Alabama Song
", in which she waves goodbye to her home and sets out in pursuit of whiskey, dollars and pretty boys.
Scene 3
In the big cities, where men lead boring, purposeless lives, Fatty and Moses spread the gospel of Mahagonny, city of gold, among the disillusioned.
Scene 4
Four Alaskan Lumberjacks who have shared hard times together in the timberlands and made their fortunes set off together for Mahagonny. Jimmy Mahoney and his three friends – Jacob Schmidt, Bank Account Billy, and Alaska Wolf Joe – sing of the pleasures awaiting them in "Off to Mahagonny", they look forward to the peace and pleasure they will find there.
Scene 5
The four friends arrive in Mahagonny, only to find other disappointed travelers already leaving. Begbick, well-informed about their personal tastes, marks down her prices, but for the penurious Billy they still seem too high. Jimmy impatiently calls for the girls of Mahagonny to show themselves, so he can make a choice. Begbick suggests Jenny as the right girl for Jack, who finds her rates too high. She pleads with Jack to reconsider ("Havana Song"), which arouses Jim’s interest, and he chooses her. Jenny and the girls sing a tribute to "the Jimmys from Alaska."
Scene 6
Jimmy and Jenny get to know one another as she asks him to define the terms of their contact: Does he wish her to wear her hair up or down, to wear fancy underwear or none at all? "What is your wish?" asks Jim, but Jenny evades answering.
Scene 7
Begbick, Fatty and Moses meet to discuss the pleasure city’s financial crisis: People are leaving in droves, and the price of whiskey is sinking rapidly. Begbick suggests going back to civilization, but Fatty reminds her that the federal agents have been inquiring for her in nearby Pensacola. Money would solve everything, declares Begbick, and she decides to soak the four new arrivals for all they’ve got.
Scene 8
Jimmy, restless, attempts to leave Mahagonny; it’s too peaceful for him. His three friends, in close harmony, try to persuade him to stay. Eventually their threats drive Jim, his anger vented, back to the city.
Scene 9
In front of the Rich Man’s Hotel, Jimmy and the others sit lazily as a pianist plays Thekla Badarzewska
's "A Maiden’s Prayer". With growing anger, Jimmy sings of how his hard work and suffering in Alaska have led only to this. Drawing a knife, he shouts for Begbick, while his friends try to disarm him and the other men call to have him thrown out. Calm again, he tells Begbick that Mahagonny can never make people happy: it has too much peace and quiet.
Scene 10
As if in answer to Jimmy’s complaint, the city is threatened by a typhoon. Everyone sings in horror of the destruction awaiting them.
Scene 11
Tensely, people watch for the hurricane’s arrival. The men sing a hymn-like admonition not to be afraid. Jim meditatively compares Nature’s savagery to the far greater destructiveness of Man. Why do we build, he asks, if not for the pleasure of destroying? Since Man can outdo any hurricane, fear makes no sense. For the sake of human satisfaction, nothing should be forbidden: If you want another man’s money, his house or his wife, knock him down and take it; do what you please. As Begbick and the men ponder Jimmy’s philosophy, Fatty and Moses rush in with news: The hurricane has unexpectedly struck Pensacola, destroying Begbick’s enemies, the federal agents. Begbick and her cohorts take it as a sign that Jimmy is right; they join him, Jenny, and his three friends in singing a new, defiant song: If someone walks on, then it’s me, and if someone gets walked on, then it’s you. In the background, the men continue to chant their hymn as the hurricane draws nearer.
Magically, the hurricane bypasses Mahagonny, and the people sing in awe of their miraculous rescue. This confirms Begbick’s belief in the philosophy of "Do what you want," and she proceeds to put it into effect.
Scene 13 At the renovated "Do It" tavern.
The men sing of the four pleasures of life: Eating, Lovemaking, Fighting and Drinking. First comes eating: To kitschy cafe music, Jimmy’s friend Jacob gorges until he keels over and dies. The men sing a chorale over his body, saluting "a man without fear".
Scene 14: Loving.
While Begbick collects money and issues tips on behavior, Moses placates the impatient men waiting in line to make love to Jenny and the other whores. The men sing the "Mandalay Song", warning that love doesn’t last forever, and urging those ahead of them to make it snappy.
Scene 15: Fighting.
The men flock to see a boxing match between Trinity Moses and Jim’s friend Alaska Wolf Joe. While most of the men, including the ever-cautious Billy, bet on the burly Moses, Jim, out of friendship, bets heavily on Joe. The match is manifestly unfair; Moses not only wins but kills Joe in knocking him out.
Scene 16: Drinking.
In an effort to shake off the gloom of Joe’s death, Jimmy invites everyone to have a drink on him. The men sing "Life in Mahagonny", describing how one could live in the city for only five dollars a day, but those who wanted to have fun always needed more. Jim, increasingly drunk, dreams of sailing back to Alaska. He takes down a curtain rod for a mast and climbs on the pool table, pretending it is a ship; Jenny and Billy play along. Jimmy is abruptly sobered up when Begbick demands payment for the whiskey as well as for the damage to her property. Totally broke, he turns in a panic to Jenny, who explains her refusal to help him out in the song "Make your own bed" – an adaptation of the ideas he proclaimed at the end of act 1. Jim is led off in chains as the chorus, singing another stanza of "Life in Mahagonny", returns to its pastimes. Trinity Moses assures the crowd that Jimmy will pay for his crimes with his life.
Scene 17
At night, Jim alone and chained to a lamppost, sings a plea for the sun not to rise on the day of his impending trial.
Moses, like a carnival barker, sells tickets to the trials. He serves as prosecutor, Fatty as defense attorney, Begbick as judge. First comes the case of Toby Higgins, accused of premeditated murder for the purpose of testing an old revolver. Fatty invites the injured party to rise, but no one does so, since the dead do not speak. Toby bribes all three, and as a result, Begbick dismisses the case. Next Jimmy’s case is called. Chained, he is led in by Billy, from whom he tries to borrow money; Billy of course refuses, despite Jim’s plea to remember their time together in Alaska. In virtually the same speech he used to attack Higgins, Moses excoriates him for not paying his bills, for seducing Jenny (who presents herself as a plaintiff) to commit a "carnal act" with him for money, and for inciting the crowd with "an illegal joyous song" on the night of the typhoon. Billy, with the chorus’s support, counters that, in committing the latter act, Jimmy discovered the laws by which Mahagonny lives. Moses argues that Jim hastened his friend Joe’s death in a prizefight by betting on him, and Billy counters by asking who actually killed Joe. Moses does not reply. But there is no answer for the main count against him. Jim gets short sentences for his lesser crimes, but for having no money, he is sentenced to death. Begbick, Fatty and Moses, rising to identify themselves as the injured parties, proclaim "in the whole human race / there is no greater criminal / than a man without money". As Jim is led off to await execution, everyone sings the "Benares Song", in which they long for that exotic city "where the sun is shining." But Benares has been destroyed by an earthquake. "Where shall we go?" they ask.
Scene 19: At the gallows
Jim says a tender goodbye to Jenny, who, dressed in white, declares herself his widow. He surrenders her to Billy, his last remaining companion from Alaska. When he tries to delay the execution by reminding the people of Mahagonny that God exists, they play out for him, under Moses’s direction, the story of "God in Mahagonny", in which the Almighty condemns the town and is overthrown by its citizens, who declare that they can’t be sent to Hell because they are already in Hell. Jim, chastened, asks only for a glass of water, but is refused even this as Moses gives the signal for the trap to be sprung.
Scene 20
A caption advises that, after Jim’s death, increasing hostility among the city’s various factions has caused the destruction of Mahagonny. To a potpourri of themes from earlier in the opera, groups of protesters are seen on the march, in conflict with one another, while the city burns in the background. Jenny and the whores carry Jim’s clothing and accessories like sacred relics; Billy and several men carry his coffin. In a new theme, they and the others declare, "Nothing you can do will help a dead man". Begbick, Fatty and Moses appear with placards of their own, joining the entire company in its march and declaring "Nothing will help him or us or you now," as the opera ends in chaos.
To an extent, Mahagonny is an opera that satirizes operas. Brecht said that "[i]t attacks the society that needs operas of such a sort" and Weill said that it "pays conscious tribute to the irrationality of the operatic form". Both thought operas had become too full of ritual and bereft of substance, and Mahagonny in part sought to deflate the pompous arrogance of traditional opera. With this aim, many traditional operatic themes are subverted and made grotesque; love becomes a commodity, the deus ex machina
tells everyone to go to hell, the law is run by criminals, etc. A traditional opera theme is true love, but in Mahagonny the closest such thing is the love between Jimmy and the prostitute Jenny. Furthermore, when given the choice to pay off Jimmy's debt and save his life, she tearfully regrets that while she loves him and will miss him dearly, she cannot part with her money. This commodification of love is brought to a grotesque apex after the hurricane spares Mahagonny; the residents now feel free to do what they want, and naturally they want to love. Consequently, in act 2 scene 3, the largely male population take turns having sex with the prostitutes. In contrast to the supposed theme of love, the scene portrays a perverse form of love; the prostitutes are carted around like giant slabs of meat and the "love" is regimented by the queue of men each waiting impatiently for his own turn. The "Mandalay Song" also heightens the ongoing tension. At no point is the music entirely tonal, and while the tune is seemingly jazzy and carefree, the tonalities betray an uneasiness about the whole business. In Mahagonny, operatic love is mutated from a grand aspiration to a mere commodity.
Another trope of operas is the deus ex machina
, in which the protagonist is saved at the last minute by divine intervention. This is a useful technique to quickly wrap up a story and make a happy ending, and has been used in drama many times. In Mahagonny, though there are no supernatural occurrences for most of the opera, there is in fact a deus ex machina; God himself comes to Mahagonny right before Jimmy is executed. The typical opera would have God solving all the problems just in time for the end of the opera, but Mahagonnys god does not. He does not even acknowledge that Jimmy is tied up and ready to be killed, but at least tries to fix the moral problems in Mahagonny. He tries to convince them to give up their degraded way of life, but the residents all refuse the offer. God then tells them literally to go to hell, but the people are not even offended; they proclaim that they already are in hell so that is no punishment. After fixing nothing, God then lets Jimmy have his say. Jimmy realizes that money did not buy him happiness or freedom, and he has learned his lesson. However, God does not spare him even then, and Jimmy is executed off-stage.
Mahagonny as capitalism
Mahagonny as a city was also intended to be a parable of capitalism
stripped of its veneer of bourgeois respectability, as it "arose to meet the needs and desires of the people, and it was these same needs and desires that brought about its destruction". Ultimately, this was also intended as a commentary on the state of Weimar Germany; underneath that facade of prosperity and happiness, lay corruption and savagery. Under Brecht's (and to some extent Weill's) Marxist-influenced view of capitalism, it is created to provide people the goods and services they need, but it does so at the expense of reducing everything to a mere commodity. Furthermore, since obtaining wealth in capitalism is a cutthroat enterprise, the powerful are no better than a gang of bandits, and the law in turn is run by such thugs.
The city of Mahagonny embodies many of these characteristics. Mahagonny was originally created to provide people with useful services; the gold prospectors wanted a relaxation spot, and the three criminals needed to stay there. However, this led to the commodification of everything the tourists desired, especially love. In the end, nobody could buy true happiness; Alaska Wolf Joe and Jacob Schmidt died, the city is burning down, and Jimmy declared before his death that "[t]he happiness I bought was no happiness". His death was also ordered by the court of law, which was run by the three criminals. To make matters even more farcical, they let a murderer bribe his way to freedom while Jimmy is sentenced to death for petty crimes. The parallels between the events of Mahagonny and the Marxist view of capitalism are clear.
To make the comparison more obvious, the opera is set in a pseudo-Wild West America, with Mahagonny itself placed somewhere far from the rest of civilization. America was the land of unbridled capitalism, the frontier just as much so. The only difference is that bourgeois civility and civilization has yet to occupy the frontier, and thus there is no hiding the nature of capitalism beneath the facade of gentlemanly conduct. In Mahagonny, the characters are prostitutes, lumberjacks, criminals, and the like. Not one of them comes from the moneyed class, and yet the same system of exploitation was set up, but in a more naked manner. Instead of seducing a woman's love with power and influence, the residents of Mahagonny pay for a prostitute. But in Mahagonny, poverty is not just a condition the poor bring upon themselves, but a crime to be punished. Thus, Brecht and Weill tried to display capitalism as the meatgrinder they believed it to be.
movement in Germany, many of his works, including the music for Mahagonny, share many of its characteristics. Loosely defined, Gebrauchsmusik is the idea that music can be more than just pure music. For example, music that accompanies a silent film is perfectly respectable, so long as it is done well. Also, simple music to be performed by amateurs is also acceptable. Weill's musical setting of Mahagonny exemplifies many of these characteristics. In the first place, this is music composed for the stage and not for the concert hall, and Weill intentionally chose that so. He wished to make his music speak out to as many people as possible, so throughout his career his mostly wrote music for the stage, and all the while in Europe he was considered a real composer and not just some hack pandering to the playwright to make a living.
For example, in act 1, scene 2, the scenario is that Jenny and other girls are walking to Mahagonny. The music is surprisingly simple; just a simple solo with a short chorus and sparse orchestration. The music is not some baroque contrapuntal scheme, nor is it a Romantic forest of sound; rather, the music is very easy to listen to. This music setting matches with the idea of making music accessible to the public, and not just for educated artists. The music style also displays influences from popular music. During this time, American jazz was a sensation in Europe; since opera is set in America, it is not surprising that the tune and the beat have a jazz influence. The orchestration, also includes such non-classical instruments as a saxophone, a decidedly jazz instrument. By using a jazz style in the music, Weill immediately associates the action as happening in America. In addition to making a relatively exotic sound, Weill manages to incorporate the jazz style in the song without making it seem incongruous; the American and European music are seamlessly joined under Weill's hands.
Elsewhere Weill uses other such non-classical instruments as the accordion, and he uses other popular influences, including those of his native Germany. The most enduring feature of Gebrauchsmusik in Mahagonny, however, are the tunes. This reflects Weill's greatest desire to create simple music that would go straight to the heart of the audience. Many of the songs in Mahagonny are very simple and accessible. The "Alabama Song
", for example, can be picked up absentmindedly and hummed. And while it seems carefree, something seems wrong with it, despite or perhaps because of its simplicity.
and its emphasis on reason. In the case of Brecht, it was more as a didactic tool for communist philosophy, but for Weill, it was more of a social scheme, a way to get people involved and thinking. The general scheme was to shake up people's preconceived notions and make them think about what is happening on stage, or to emotionally distance the audience from the action thus making logical evaluation of the play's events easier. Brecht and Weill used different methods to achieve this effect.
One of the most noticeable methods Brecht uses are the inscriptions at the beginning of most of the scenes. Before the majority of the scenes, there is a short summary of that scene recited to the audience. By being already aware of what will happen, the audience can then better concentrate on what is going on in the scene. Often, Brecht will also have seemingly bizarre events occur, seemingly just to keep the audience unable to guess what will happen next. For example, Jimmy is going crazy at having nothing to do, when all of a sudden a hurricane starts heading towards Mahagonny. The audience is forced to give up concentrating on how Jimmy feels and think about what the meaning of this sudden hurricane is.
Weill also contributed greatly to the Verfremdungseffekt by his music. Often the music would intentionally be unsuited for the onstage action, preventing the audience from getting carried away by the onstage emotion. For example, in act 2, scene 13, the hurricane has spared Mahagonny, and the people feel free to do whatever makes them happy. For Jacob Schmidt, this means eating a lot. He sings of how he has not had his fill yet with such lines as "Not enough by half! / I may eat myself for supper." And yet, the music betrays the seeming unbridled ecstasy of Jacob; he is singing to a discordant melody, and the accordion accompaniment sounds stark and rather macabre. The intention is that the audience realizes that all this is very wrong; Jacob claims to be having a great time, but the music suggests all may not be well, thus the audience needs to pay attention and think about what is really going on. To further this point, Jacob then dies and the chorus sings of how happy he was while dragging out his corpse. This last twist of welcoming death is unexpected and contributes to the alienation.
Another example of Verfremdungseffekt in the music is in the "Alabama Song". This time, instead of the music sounding deeply disturbing compared to the stage action, it is the reverse. When the "Alabama Song" first appears, the women are going to Mahagonny. The second time the song appears is near the end of the opera, after Jimmy has been executed. Mahagonny is in decline, and there are street protests. The entire stage is singing about how rotten the world and man are, when all of a sudden Jenny and the prostitutes come walking through singing the "Alabama Song", a total departure from the previous mood. What is more, they are carrying Jimmy's corpse through the stage. The music refuses to set and keep the audience in a particular mood, and the conflict between the lighthearted "Alabama Song" and the imagery of the funeral procession is confusing. This tension serves to distance the audience from the action, even at an exceptionally powerful moment of the opera, giving the audience one last chance to digest all the contradictions and perversions of Mahagonny.
, directed by Lars von Trier
, contains several references to the plot of Mahagonny. The most notable of these is the threat of a hurricane approaching the city during the first act. Von Trier's earlier movie Dogville
, to which Manderlay is a sequel, was for a large part based on a song from Brecht's Threepenny Opera ("Pirate Jenny"). In the brothel scene in act 2 of Mahagonny, the choir sings a "Song von Mandelay". The play Happy End (1929) by Elisabeth Hauptmann
, Brecht and Weill, also contains a song called "Der Song von Mandelay", which uses the same refrain as in the brothel scene of Mahagonny. Brecht's use of the name Mandelay/Mandalay was inspired by Rudyard Kipling
's poem "Mandalay
".
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composed by Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
to a German libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. It was first performed in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
on 9 March 1930.
Composition history
The libretto was mainly written in early 1927 and the music was finished in the spring of 1929, although both text and music were to be partly revised by the authors later. An early by-product, however, was the Mahagonny-SongspielMahagonny-Songspiel
Mahagonny-Songspiel, also known as The Little Mahagonny, is a "small-scale 'scenic cantata'" written by the composer Kurt Weill and the dramatist Bertolt Brecht in 1927...
, sometimes known as Das kleine Mahagonny, a concert work for voices and small orchestra commissioned by the Deutsche Kammermusik Festival in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
and premiered there on 18 July 1927. The ten numbers, which include the "Alabama Song" and "Benares Song", were duly incorporated into the full opera. The opera had its premiere in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
in March 1930 and played in Berlin in December of the following year. The opera was banned by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in 1933 and did not have a significant production until the 1960s.
Weill's score uses a number of styles, including rag-time
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and formal counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, notably in the "Alabama Song
Alabama Song
The "Alabama Song" was originally published in Bertolt Brecht's Hauspostille . It was set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 "Songspiel" Mahagonny and used again in Weill's and Brecht's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny...
" (covered by multiple artists, notably The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
). The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic
Idiosyncrasy
An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person . The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be .-Etymology:...
English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original (German) language.
Production history
It has played in opera houses around the world. Never achieving the popularity of Weill and Brecht's The Threepenny OperaThe Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
, Mahagonny is still considered a work of stature with a haunting score. Herbert Lindenberger in his book Opera in History, for example, views Mahagonny alongside Schoenberg's Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...
as indicative of the two poles of modernist opera.
Following the Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
premiere, the opera was presented in Berlin in December 1931 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm
Theater am Schiffbauerdamm
The Theater am Schiffbauerdamm is a theatre building at the Schiffbauerdamm riverside in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, opened on November 19, 1892. Since 1954 it is home to the Berliner Ensemble theatre company, founded in 1949 by Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht.The original name of the...
conducted by Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.-Early life:...
with Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
as Jenny, Trude Hesterberg as Begbick, and Harald Paulsen as Jimmy. Another production was presented in January 1934 in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
at the Det ny Teater.
Other productions within Europe waited until the end of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, some notable ones being in January 1963 in London at Sadler's Wells Opera conducted by Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
and in Berlin in September 1977 by the Komische Oper
Komische Oper Berlin
The Komische Oper Berlin is an opera company in Berlin, Germany, which specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals....
.
It was not presented in the United States until 1970, when a short-lived April production at the Phyllis Anderson Theatre off Broadway starred Barbara Harris
Barbara Harris (actress)
Barbara Harris is an American actress who was a Broadway stage star and later became a film actress. She appeared in such films as A Thousand Clowns, Plaza Suite, Nashville, Family Plot, Freaky Friday, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Grosse Pointe Blank...
as Jenny and Estelle Parsons as Begbick.
A full version was presented at the Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre
The Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of the Yale School of Drama in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented students. In the process it has become one of the...
in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1974, with Gilbert Price
Gilbert Price
Gilbert Price was an American singer and actor.Price was one of Langston Hughes's protégés; his first starring role was in Hughes's Jericho-Jim Crow , for which he won a Theatre World Award....
as Jimmy and Stephanie Cotsirilos as Jenny. Kurt Kasznar
Kurt Kasznar
-Early life:Kasznar was born in Vienna, Austria as Kurt Servischer. His father left when Kurt was very young, his mother married a Hungarian restaurateur named Ferdinand Kasznar, and Kurt assumed his surname. He emigrated to the United States in the mid-1930s for The Eternal Road in which he...
played Moses. The libretto was performed in an original translation by Michael Feingold; the production was directed by Alvin Epstein.
In October of 1978, Yale presented a "chamber version" adapted and directed by Keith Hack, with John Glover
John Glover
John Glover may refer to:*John Glover *John Glover , American general*John Glover , English-Australian painter*John Montgomery Glover , U.S. Representative from Missouri...
as Jimmy and June Gable
June Gable
June Gable is an American Character actress, best known for her role as Estelle Leonard of The Estelle Leonard Talent Agency in the American sitcom Friends.-Life and career:...
as Begbick. Mark Lynn-Baker played Fatty; Michael Gross
Michael Gross
Michael Gross may refer to:*Michael Gross , Israeli painter, sculptor and conceptual artist*Michael L. Gross , American professor of chemistry, medicine, and immunology*Michael Gross , American actor...
was Trinity Moses.
Finally, in November 1979 it debuted at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in a John Dexter
John Dexter
John Dexter was an English theatre, opera, and film director.- Theatre :Born in Derby, England, Dexter left school at the age of fourteen to serve in the British army during World War II. Following the war, he began working as a stage actor before turning to producing and directing shows for...
production conducted by James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
. The cast included Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas, OC , is a retired Canadian operatic soprano. She is especially well-known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.-Early life and career:...
as Jenny, Astrid Varnay
Astrid Varnay
Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay was an American dramatic soprano of Hungarian heritage and Swedish birth, who did most of her work in the United States and Germany. She was one of the best-known Wagnerian heroic sopranos of her generation...
as Begbick, Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
as Jimmy, Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil , was an American operatic baritone known for his exceptional voice and long career with the Metropolitan Opera, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles. F...
as Moses, Ragnar Ulfung
Ragnar Ulfung
Ragnar Sigurd Ulfung is a Norwegian operatic tenor. Described in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as "a brilliant actor with an incisive voice", he was particularly known for his portrayals of Herod and Mime . He is also an opera director...
as Fatty and Paul Plishka
Paul Plishka
Paul Plishka is a Ukrainian-American bass opera singer.Mr Plishka comes from Old Forge, Pennsylvania and Paterson, New Jersey; his parents were American-born children of Ukrainian immigrants...
as Joe. In 2010, the Met released it on DVD.
The Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
presented the opera in September 1989 under conductor Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano
__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...
and with a Jonathan Miller
Jonathan Miller
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE is a British theatre and opera director, author, physician, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and...
production. Other notable productions in Europe from the 1980s included the March 1986 presentation by the Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
; a June 1990 production in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
by the Maggio musicale fiorentino. In October 1995 and 1997, the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
staged by Graham Vick
Graham Vick
Graham Vick CBE is an English opera director. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester....
, under the baton of Jeffrey Tate
Jeffrey Tate
Dr Jeffrey Tate CBE is an English conductor.Tate was born with spina bifida, and also has kyphosis. His family moved to Farnham, Surrey when he was young and he attended Farnham Grammar School between 1954 and 1961 gaining a State Scholarship to Cambridge University, where he directed theatre...
starring Marie McLaughlin
Marie McLaughlin
Marie McLaughlin is a Scottish operatic soprano.A light lyric soprano, McLaughlin is noted for her performances as Susanna , Zerlina , Despina , Norina , Marzelline , Nannetta , Micaëla and Tytania Marie McLaughlin (born Hamilton, South Lanarkshire 2 November 1954) is a Scottish operatic...
as Jenny, Felicity Palmer
Felicity Palmer
Dame Felicity Joan Palmer, DBE , is an English mezzo-soprano and music professor. She sang soprano roles until 1983....
(1995) and Kathryn Harries (1997) as Begbick, Kim Begley (1995) and Peter Straka (1997) as Jimmy. The July 1998 Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
production featured Catherine Malfitano
Catherine Malfitano
Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano. She is generally considered to be one of America's leading operatic sopranos...
as Jenny, Gwyneth Jones as Begbick, and Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenůfa , Susannah , and Candide...
as Jimmy.
Productions within the US in the last ten years have included those in November 1998 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
directed by David Alden. Catherine Malfitano repeated her role as Jenny, while Felicity Palmer
Felicity Palmer
Dame Felicity Joan Palmer, DBE , is an English mezzo-soprano and music professor. She sang soprano roles until 1983....
sang Begbick, and Kim Begley sang in the role of Jimmy. The Los Angeles Opera's February 2007 production directed by John Doyle
John Doyle (director)
John Doyle is a Tony Award winning Scottish stage director for musicals and plays, as well as operas. He has served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United Kingdom, where he has staged more than 200 professional productions during his career spanning 30...
and conducted by James Conlon
James Conlon
James Conlon is an American conductor and the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera.-Early years:Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in Douglaston, Queens, New York. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New...
included Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald
Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...
as Jenny, Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
as Begbick, and Anthony Dean Griffey
Anthony Dean Griffey
Anthony Dean Griffey is an American operatic tenor. With his lyric tenor voice, Griffey has become a regular presence on the stages of opera houses around the world....
as Jimmy. This production was recorded on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, and subsequently won the 2009 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Opera Recording."
Roles
| Role | Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types... |
Premiere cast, 9 March 1930 (Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Gustav Brecher) |
|---|---|---|
| Leocadia Begbick, a fugitive | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
|
| Dreieinigkeitsmoses (Trinity Moses), another fugitive | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
|
| Fatty der Prokurist (Fatty, "The Bookkeeper"), a third fugitive | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
|
| Jimmy Mahoney (Jimmy MacIntyre), an Alaskan lumberjack Lumberjack A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest... |
tenor | |
| Sparbüchsen Billy (Bank Account Billy), Jimmy's friend | baritone | |
| Jacob Schmidt (Jack O'Brien), Jimmy's friend | tenor | |
| Alaska Wolf Joe, Jimmy's friend | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
|
| Jenny Smith, a whore | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
|
| Toby Higgins | tenor | |
| An announcer |
Act 1
Scene 1: A desolate no-man’s landA truck breaks down. Three fugitives from justice get out: Fatty the Bookkeeper, Trinity Moses, and Leocadia Begbick. Because the federal agents pursuing them will not search this far north, and they are in a good location to attract ships coming south from the Alaskan gold fields, Begbick decides that they can profit by staying where they are and founding a pleasure city, where men can have fun, because there is nothing else in the world to rely on.
Scene 2
The news of Mahagonny spreads quickly, and sharks from all over flock to the bait, including the whore Jenny Smith, who is seen, with six other girls, singing the "Alabama Song
Alabama Song
The "Alabama Song" was originally published in Bertolt Brecht's Hauspostille . It was set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 "Songspiel" Mahagonny and used again in Weill's and Brecht's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny...
", in which she waves goodbye to her home and sets out in pursuit of whiskey, dollars and pretty boys.
Scene 3
In the big cities, where men lead boring, purposeless lives, Fatty and Moses spread the gospel of Mahagonny, city of gold, among the disillusioned.
Scene 4
Four Alaskan Lumberjacks who have shared hard times together in the timberlands and made their fortunes set off together for Mahagonny. Jimmy Mahoney and his three friends – Jacob Schmidt, Bank Account Billy, and Alaska Wolf Joe – sing of the pleasures awaiting them in "Off to Mahagonny", they look forward to the peace and pleasure they will find there.
Scene 5
The four friends arrive in Mahagonny, only to find other disappointed travelers already leaving. Begbick, well-informed about their personal tastes, marks down her prices, but for the penurious Billy they still seem too high. Jimmy impatiently calls for the girls of Mahagonny to show themselves, so he can make a choice. Begbick suggests Jenny as the right girl for Jack, who finds her rates too high. She pleads with Jack to reconsider ("Havana Song"), which arouses Jim’s interest, and he chooses her. Jenny and the girls sing a tribute to "the Jimmys from Alaska."
Scene 6
Jimmy and Jenny get to know one another as she asks him to define the terms of their contact: Does he wish her to wear her hair up or down, to wear fancy underwear or none at all? "What is your wish?" asks Jim, but Jenny evades answering.
Scene 7
Begbick, Fatty and Moses meet to discuss the pleasure city’s financial crisis: People are leaving in droves, and the price of whiskey is sinking rapidly. Begbick suggests going back to civilization, but Fatty reminds her that the federal agents have been inquiring for her in nearby Pensacola. Money would solve everything, declares Begbick, and she decides to soak the four new arrivals for all they’ve got.
Scene 8
Jimmy, restless, attempts to leave Mahagonny; it’s too peaceful for him. His three friends, in close harmony, try to persuade him to stay. Eventually their threats drive Jim, his anger vented, back to the city.
Scene 9
In front of the Rich Man’s Hotel, Jimmy and the others sit lazily as a pianist plays Thekla Badarzewska
Tekla Badarzewska-Baranowska
Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska was a Polish composer.Bądarzewska was born in 1834 in Warsaw. She married Jan Baranowski and they had five children in their nine years of marriage. Bądarzewska-Baranowska died on 29 September 1861 at the age of 27. Her grave in the Powązki Cemetery features a young...
's "A Maiden’s Prayer". With growing anger, Jimmy sings of how his hard work and suffering in Alaska have led only to this. Drawing a knife, he shouts for Begbick, while his friends try to disarm him and the other men call to have him thrown out. Calm again, he tells Begbick that Mahagonny can never make people happy: it has too much peace and quiet.
Scene 10
As if in answer to Jimmy’s complaint, the city is threatened by a typhoon. Everyone sings in horror of the destruction awaiting them.
Scene 11
Tensely, people watch for the hurricane’s arrival. The men sing a hymn-like admonition not to be afraid. Jim meditatively compares Nature’s savagery to the far greater destructiveness of Man. Why do we build, he asks, if not for the pleasure of destroying? Since Man can outdo any hurricane, fear makes no sense. For the sake of human satisfaction, nothing should be forbidden: If you want another man’s money, his house or his wife, knock him down and take it; do what you please. As Begbick and the men ponder Jimmy’s philosophy, Fatty and Moses rush in with news: The hurricane has unexpectedly struck Pensacola, destroying Begbick’s enemies, the federal agents. Begbick and her cohorts take it as a sign that Jimmy is right; they join him, Jenny, and his three friends in singing a new, defiant song: If someone walks on, then it’s me, and if someone gets walked on, then it’s you. In the background, the men continue to chant their hymn as the hurricane draws nearer.
Act 2
Scene 12Magically, the hurricane bypasses Mahagonny, and the people sing in awe of their miraculous rescue. This confirms Begbick’s belief in the philosophy of "Do what you want," and she proceeds to put it into effect.
Scene 13 At the renovated "Do It" tavern.
The men sing of the four pleasures of life: Eating, Lovemaking, Fighting and Drinking. First comes eating: To kitschy cafe music, Jimmy’s friend Jacob gorges until he keels over and dies. The men sing a chorale over his body, saluting "a man without fear".
Scene 14: Loving.
While Begbick collects money and issues tips on behavior, Moses placates the impatient men waiting in line to make love to Jenny and the other whores. The men sing the "Mandalay Song", warning that love doesn’t last forever, and urging those ahead of them to make it snappy.
Scene 15: Fighting.
The men flock to see a boxing match between Trinity Moses and Jim’s friend Alaska Wolf Joe. While most of the men, including the ever-cautious Billy, bet on the burly Moses, Jim, out of friendship, bets heavily on Joe. The match is manifestly unfair; Moses not only wins but kills Joe in knocking him out.
Scene 16: Drinking.
In an effort to shake off the gloom of Joe’s death, Jimmy invites everyone to have a drink on him. The men sing "Life in Mahagonny", describing how one could live in the city for only five dollars a day, but those who wanted to have fun always needed more. Jim, increasingly drunk, dreams of sailing back to Alaska. He takes down a curtain rod for a mast and climbs on the pool table, pretending it is a ship; Jenny and Billy play along. Jimmy is abruptly sobered up when Begbick demands payment for the whiskey as well as for the damage to her property. Totally broke, he turns in a panic to Jenny, who explains her refusal to help him out in the song "Make your own bed" – an adaptation of the ideas he proclaimed at the end of act 1. Jim is led off in chains as the chorus, singing another stanza of "Life in Mahagonny", returns to its pastimes. Trinity Moses assures the crowd that Jimmy will pay for his crimes with his life.
Scene 17
At night, Jim alone and chained to a lamppost, sings a plea for the sun not to rise on the day of his impending trial.
Act 3
Scene 18: In the courtroomMoses, like a carnival barker, sells tickets to the trials. He serves as prosecutor, Fatty as defense attorney, Begbick as judge. First comes the case of Toby Higgins, accused of premeditated murder for the purpose of testing an old revolver. Fatty invites the injured party to rise, but no one does so, since the dead do not speak. Toby bribes all three, and as a result, Begbick dismisses the case. Next Jimmy’s case is called. Chained, he is led in by Billy, from whom he tries to borrow money; Billy of course refuses, despite Jim’s plea to remember their time together in Alaska. In virtually the same speech he used to attack Higgins, Moses excoriates him for not paying his bills, for seducing Jenny (who presents herself as a plaintiff) to commit a "carnal act" with him for money, and for inciting the crowd with "an illegal joyous song" on the night of the typhoon. Billy, with the chorus’s support, counters that, in committing the latter act, Jimmy discovered the laws by which Mahagonny lives. Moses argues that Jim hastened his friend Joe’s death in a prizefight by betting on him, and Billy counters by asking who actually killed Joe. Moses does not reply. But there is no answer for the main count against him. Jim gets short sentences for his lesser crimes, but for having no money, he is sentenced to death. Begbick, Fatty and Moses, rising to identify themselves as the injured parties, proclaim "in the whole human race / there is no greater criminal / than a man without money". As Jim is led off to await execution, everyone sings the "Benares Song", in which they long for that exotic city "where the sun is shining." But Benares has been destroyed by an earthquake. "Where shall we go?" they ask.
Scene 19: At the gallows
Jim says a tender goodbye to Jenny, who, dressed in white, declares herself his widow. He surrenders her to Billy, his last remaining companion from Alaska. When he tries to delay the execution by reminding the people of Mahagonny that God exists, they play out for him, under Moses’s direction, the story of "God in Mahagonny", in which the Almighty condemns the town and is overthrown by its citizens, who declare that they can’t be sent to Hell because they are already in Hell. Jim, chastened, asks only for a glass of water, but is refused even this as Moses gives the signal for the trap to be sprung.
Scene 20
A caption advises that, after Jim’s death, increasing hostility among the city’s various factions has caused the destruction of Mahagonny. To a potpourri of themes from earlier in the opera, groups of protesters are seen on the march, in conflict with one another, while the city burns in the background. Jenny and the whores carry Jim’s clothing and accessories like sacred relics; Billy and several men carry his coffin. In a new theme, they and the others declare, "Nothing you can do will help a dead man". Begbick, Fatty and Moses appear with placards of their own, joining the entire company in its march and declaring "Nothing will help him or us or you now," as the opera ends in chaos.
Themes
Satire of operaTo an extent, Mahagonny is an opera that satirizes operas. Brecht said that "[i]t attacks the society that needs operas of such a sort" and Weill said that it "pays conscious tribute to the irrationality of the operatic form". Both thought operas had become too full of ritual and bereft of substance, and Mahagonny in part sought to deflate the pompous arrogance of traditional opera. With this aim, many traditional operatic themes are subverted and made grotesque; love becomes a commodity, the deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
tells everyone to go to hell, the law is run by criminals, etc. A traditional opera theme is true love, but in Mahagonny the closest such thing is the love between Jimmy and the prostitute Jenny. Furthermore, when given the choice to pay off Jimmy's debt and save his life, she tearfully regrets that while she loves him and will miss him dearly, she cannot part with her money. This commodification of love is brought to a grotesque apex after the hurricane spares Mahagonny; the residents now feel free to do what they want, and naturally they want to love. Consequently, in act 2 scene 3, the largely male population take turns having sex with the prostitutes. In contrast to the supposed theme of love, the scene portrays a perverse form of love; the prostitutes are carted around like giant slabs of meat and the "love" is regimented by the queue of men each waiting impatiently for his own turn. The "Mandalay Song" also heightens the ongoing tension. At no point is the music entirely tonal, and while the tune is seemingly jazzy and carefree, the tonalities betray an uneasiness about the whole business. In Mahagonny, operatic love is mutated from a grand aspiration to a mere commodity.
Another trope of operas is the deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
, in which the protagonist is saved at the last minute by divine intervention. This is a useful technique to quickly wrap up a story and make a happy ending, and has been used in drama many times. In Mahagonny, though there are no supernatural occurrences for most of the opera, there is in fact a deus ex machina; God himself comes to Mahagonny right before Jimmy is executed. The typical opera would have God solving all the problems just in time for the end of the opera, but Mahagonnys god does not. He does not even acknowledge that Jimmy is tied up and ready to be killed, but at least tries to fix the moral problems in Mahagonny. He tries to convince them to give up their degraded way of life, but the residents all refuse the offer. God then tells them literally to go to hell, but the people are not even offended; they proclaim that they already are in hell so that is no punishment. After fixing nothing, God then lets Jimmy have his say. Jimmy realizes that money did not buy him happiness or freedom, and he has learned his lesson. However, God does not spare him even then, and Jimmy is executed off-stage.
Mahagonny as capitalism
Mahagonny as a city was also intended to be a parable of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
stripped of its veneer of bourgeois respectability, as it "arose to meet the needs and desires of the people, and it was these same needs and desires that brought about its destruction". Ultimately, this was also intended as a commentary on the state of Weimar Germany; underneath that facade of prosperity and happiness, lay corruption and savagery. Under Brecht's (and to some extent Weill's) Marxist-influenced view of capitalism, it is created to provide people the goods and services they need, but it does so at the expense of reducing everything to a mere commodity. Furthermore, since obtaining wealth in capitalism is a cutthroat enterprise, the powerful are no better than a gang of bandits, and the law in turn is run by such thugs.
The city of Mahagonny embodies many of these characteristics. Mahagonny was originally created to provide people with useful services; the gold prospectors wanted a relaxation spot, and the three criminals needed to stay there. However, this led to the commodification of everything the tourists desired, especially love. In the end, nobody could buy true happiness; Alaska Wolf Joe and Jacob Schmidt died, the city is burning down, and Jimmy declared before his death that "[t]he happiness I bought was no happiness". His death was also ordered by the court of law, which was run by the three criminals. To make matters even more farcical, they let a murderer bribe his way to freedom while Jimmy is sentenced to death for petty crimes. The parallels between the events of Mahagonny and the Marxist view of capitalism are clear.
To make the comparison more obvious, the opera is set in a pseudo-Wild West America, with Mahagonny itself placed somewhere far from the rest of civilization. America was the land of unbridled capitalism, the frontier just as much so. The only difference is that bourgeois civility and civilization has yet to occupy the frontier, and thus there is no hiding the nature of capitalism beneath the facade of gentlemanly conduct. In Mahagonny, the characters are prostitutes, lumberjacks, criminals, and the like. Not one of them comes from the moneyed class, and yet the same system of exploitation was set up, but in a more naked manner. Instead of seducing a woman's love with power and influence, the residents of Mahagonny pay for a prostitute. But in Mahagonny, poverty is not just a condition the poor bring upon themselves, but a crime to be punished. Thus, Brecht and Weill tried to display capitalism as the meatgrinder they believed it to be.
Gebrauchsmusik
Though Kurt Weill was not a vocal proponent of the GebrauchsmusikGebrauchsmusik
Gebrauchsmusik is a German term, essentially meaning “utility music,” for music that exists not only for its own sake, but which was composed for some specific, identifiable purpose...
movement in Germany, many of his works, including the music for Mahagonny, share many of its characteristics. Loosely defined, Gebrauchsmusik is the idea that music can be more than just pure music. For example, music that accompanies a silent film is perfectly respectable, so long as it is done well. Also, simple music to be performed by amateurs is also acceptable. Weill's musical setting of Mahagonny exemplifies many of these characteristics. In the first place, this is music composed for the stage and not for the concert hall, and Weill intentionally chose that so. He wished to make his music speak out to as many people as possible, so throughout his career his mostly wrote music for the stage, and all the while in Europe he was considered a real composer and not just some hack pandering to the playwright to make a living.
For example, in act 1, scene 2, the scenario is that Jenny and other girls are walking to Mahagonny. The music is surprisingly simple; just a simple solo with a short chorus and sparse orchestration. The music is not some baroque contrapuntal scheme, nor is it a Romantic forest of sound; rather, the music is very easy to listen to. This music setting matches with the idea of making music accessible to the public, and not just for educated artists. The music style also displays influences from popular music. During this time, American jazz was a sensation in Europe; since opera is set in America, it is not surprising that the tune and the beat have a jazz influence. The orchestration, also includes such non-classical instruments as a saxophone, a decidedly jazz instrument. By using a jazz style in the music, Weill immediately associates the action as happening in America. In addition to making a relatively exotic sound, Weill manages to incorporate the jazz style in the song without making it seem incongruous; the American and European music are seamlessly joined under Weill's hands.
Elsewhere Weill uses other such non-classical instruments as the accordion, and he uses other popular influences, including those of his native Germany. The most enduring feature of Gebrauchsmusik in Mahagonny, however, are the tunes. This reflects Weill's greatest desire to create simple music that would go straight to the heart of the audience. Many of the songs in Mahagonny are very simple and accessible. The "Alabama Song
Alabama Song
The "Alabama Song" was originally published in Bertolt Brecht's Hauspostille . It was set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 "Songspiel" Mahagonny and used again in Weill's and Brecht's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny...
", for example, can be picked up absentmindedly and hummed. And while it seems carefree, something seems wrong with it, despite or perhaps because of its simplicity.
Verfremdungseffekt
Since Mahagonny was co-produced by Brecht, there is a prominent display of the Verfremdungseffekt, often translated as the "alienation effect". Brecht and Weill wished to replace the old dramatic theater and its emphasis on emotions with epic theatreEpic theatre
Epic theatre was a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners, including Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht...
and its emphasis on reason. In the case of Brecht, it was more as a didactic tool for communist philosophy, but for Weill, it was more of a social scheme, a way to get people involved and thinking. The general scheme was to shake up people's preconceived notions and make them think about what is happening on stage, or to emotionally distance the audience from the action thus making logical evaluation of the play's events easier. Brecht and Weill used different methods to achieve this effect.
One of the most noticeable methods Brecht uses are the inscriptions at the beginning of most of the scenes. Before the majority of the scenes, there is a short summary of that scene recited to the audience. By being already aware of what will happen, the audience can then better concentrate on what is going on in the scene. Often, Brecht will also have seemingly bizarre events occur, seemingly just to keep the audience unable to guess what will happen next. For example, Jimmy is going crazy at having nothing to do, when all of a sudden a hurricane starts heading towards Mahagonny. The audience is forced to give up concentrating on how Jimmy feels and think about what the meaning of this sudden hurricane is.
Weill also contributed greatly to the Verfremdungseffekt by his music. Often the music would intentionally be unsuited for the onstage action, preventing the audience from getting carried away by the onstage emotion. For example, in act 2, scene 13, the hurricane has spared Mahagonny, and the people feel free to do whatever makes them happy. For Jacob Schmidt, this means eating a lot. He sings of how he has not had his fill yet with such lines as "Not enough by half! / I may eat myself for supper." And yet, the music betrays the seeming unbridled ecstasy of Jacob; he is singing to a discordant melody, and the accordion accompaniment sounds stark and rather macabre. The intention is that the audience realizes that all this is very wrong; Jacob claims to be having a great time, but the music suggests all may not be well, thus the audience needs to pay attention and think about what is really going on. To further this point, Jacob then dies and the chorus sings of how happy he was while dragging out his corpse. This last twist of welcoming death is unexpected and contributes to the alienation.
Another example of Verfremdungseffekt in the music is in the "Alabama Song". This time, instead of the music sounding deeply disturbing compared to the stage action, it is the reverse. When the "Alabama Song" first appears, the women are going to Mahagonny. The second time the song appears is near the end of the opera, after Jimmy has been executed. Mahagonny is in decline, and there are street protests. The entire stage is singing about how rotten the world and man are, when all of a sudden Jenny and the prostitutes come walking through singing the "Alabama Song", a total departure from the previous mood. What is more, they are carrying Jimmy's corpse through the stage. The music refuses to set and keep the audience in a particular mood, and the conflict between the lighthearted "Alabama Song" and the imagery of the funeral procession is confusing. This tension serves to distance the audience from the action, even at an exceptionally powerful moment of the opera, giving the audience one last chance to digest all the contradictions and perversions of Mahagonny.
In other media
The 2005 movie ManderlayManderlay
Manderlay is the 2005 sequel to the film Dogville. It is the second part of Lars von Trier's projected USA - Land of Opportunities trilogy. Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Nicole Kidman in the role of Grace Mulligan. The film co-stars Willem Dafoe, replacing James Caan...
, directed by Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
, contains several references to the plot of Mahagonny. The most notable of these is the threat of a hurricane approaching the city during the first act. Von Trier's earlier movie Dogville
Dogville
Dogville is a 2003 drama written and directed by Lars von Trier, and starring Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, and James Caan...
, to which Manderlay is a sequel, was for a large part based on a song from Brecht's Threepenny Opera ("Pirate Jenny"). In the brothel scene in act 2 of Mahagonny, the choir sings a "Song von Mandelay". The play Happy End (1929) by Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann
Elisabeth Hauptmann was a German writer who worked with Bertolt Brecht....
, Brecht and Weill, also contains a song called "Der Song von Mandelay", which uses the same refrain as in the brothel scene of Mahagonny. Brecht's use of the name Mandelay/Mandalay was inspired by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's poem "Mandalay
Mandalay (poem)
Mandalay is a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling that was first published in the collection Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses, the first series, published in 1892....
".
Recordings
- Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Lotte Lenya/ Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg (Sony 1990; originally recorded 1956)
- Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Anja SiljaAnja SiljaAnja Silja Regina Langwagen, , born April 17, 1940, in Berlin, is a German soprano who is known for her great abilities as a singing-actress and for the vastness of her repertoire....
/ Jan Latham-KoenigJan Latham KoenigJan Latham-Koenig is a conductor. He was born in England and educated at the Royal College of Music in London. He attended Highgate School from 1966 before he founded the Koenig Ensemble in 1976 and began his career as a concert conductor with the BBC, in 1981...
(Capriccio 1988; recorded in 1985) - Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny DVD 2007 Los Angeles Opera Production starring Audra McDonaldAudra McDonaldAudra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...
, Patti LuPonePatti LuPonePatti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
, and Anthony Dean GriffeyAnthony Dean GriffeyAnthony Dean Griffey is an American operatic tenor. With his lyric tenor voice, Griffey has become a regular presence on the stages of opera houses around the world....
. This recording won two 2009 Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album. - Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Teatro Real (Madrid) Production starring Measha BrueggergosmanMeasha BrueggergosmanMeasha Brueggergosman is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards...
, Jane HenschelJane HenschelJane Henschel is an American operatic soprano. Henschel, who was born in Wisconsin, studied at the University of Southern California, and then pursued further studies in Germany, where she has made her home...
, Michael König and Willard WhiteWillard WhiteSir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...
, conducted by Pablo Heras-CasadoPablo Heras-CasadoPablo Heras-Casado is a Spanish conductor.- Training and competitions :He won the Lucerne Festival Conductors' Competition in 2007 after a unanimous vote from the jury...
and staged by La Fura dels BausLa Fura dels BausLa Fura dels Baus is a Catalan theatrical group founded in 1979 in Barcelona, known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan means "vermin from the sewers"....
. (DVD and Blu-ray Bel Air Classiques 2011; filmed in 2010)