Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny. By Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Lyric Opera of Chicago. 4 December 1998.

Michael Feingold, who translated the text of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for this production, suggested in the program notes that the opera is more Weill's than Brecht's. "Weill extended and enriched Brecht's ideas, making the opera mean more than its text alone could express . . . As the opera grew in scale, [Brecht] became increasingly uncomfortable with it, ultimately repudiating it in any but a stripped-down form" ("Opera Notes," Stagebill, 50). The customs of operatic publicity magnified Feingold's deferential gesture toward the composer: the Lyric program advertised the piece as "Kurt Weill's Mahagonny, text by Bertolt Brecht." Brecht intended the piece to pay "conscious tribute to the senselessness of the operatic form" (Brecht on Theatre [Hill and Wang, 1992], 35). He wanted to provoke the audience by wallowing in the luxuries of capitalist entertainment: food, sex, blood-sports, and liquor-all with a rousing musical score. He wanted Weill's music to accompany his text, but, in the economy of opera, it is the story that accompanies the music. The Lyric Opera production foregrounded Weill's music but did not efface Brecht completely. One of the more striking elements of the production was the way in which the talents and values of Weill, Brecht, and conventional opera grated...