Featuring The Alabama Song, this modern show mixes opera, ragtime and jazz.
Consumerism meets hedonism in ENO’s alluring new production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s rarely performed and frighteningly relevant tale of satisfaction at any price.
Overview
Enter the City of Mahagonny, where the pleasure is all yours – if you’re willing to pay for it. Lose yourself in a desert boomtown built on the foundations of greed and moral corruption.
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny tells the story of three criminals on the run who find Mahagonny, a city of gold. In a place where absolutely anything goes, everything is permitted and the rules are, there are no rules. The question is, who will get out alive?
Staging & Score
Weill’s musical style in Mahagonny combines opera with the popular music of the time, ragtime and jazz. He mixes the standard orchestra with the banjo and bass guitar, creating a unique yet recognisable sound with the Alabama Song which was later recorded by artists including David Bowie and The Doors.
Weill’s distinctive melodies form a delicious contrast to libretto written by the playwright Bertolt Brecht. Enjoy an unforgettable trip to the City of Mahagonny.
Singers & Creatives
Leading the cast as the three fugitives, Leokadja Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty the Bookkeeper, are Rosie Aldridge, Kenneth Kellogg, and Mark Le Brocq. They will be joined by the internationally renowned Danielle de Niese who makes a welcome return to ENO as Jenny Smith. Directing this provocative production is twice Olivier Award-nominated Jamie Manton.
This production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is by Kurt Weill
Text by Bertolt Brecht (in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann, Caspar Neher and Weill)
English translation by Jeremy Sams.
This production has been made possible through the generous support of the Colwinston Charitable Trust, Audley Travel, Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc, New York, NY, The English National Opera Trust and a syndicate comprising Peter Dolgenos, in memory of Katherine R. Zades, Alan McLean, Professor Mick Peake OBE, and an anonymous supporter.
'the result is exhilarating, as raw and volatile as surely the creators of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny intended'The Times
'There is no option in the capacious Coliseum but to play Weill’s colourful potpourri of jazz, cabaret, ragtime and operatic satire for all its worth, which is what André de Ridder does in his first appearance as ENO’s new music director. The choruses make the rafters shake.'The Financial Times
'makes an impact...delivers some vivid scenes'The Telegraph
Performance prices, dates, times and cast are subject to change without notice. Prices shown are starting prices.
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