Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Two Productions of the Weill/Brecht Opera

2) Los Angeles Opera Live Production, March 2007
Audra McDonald/Patti LuPone, Anthony Dean Griffey/Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Chorus/James Conlon
Studio: EuroArts 2056258 [Distr. by Naxos]
Video: Enhanced for 16:9 widescreen
Audio: English DTS 5.1, DD 5.1, PCM Stereo
No regional coding
Extras: John Conlon talks about the opera (22 min.)
Length: 133 minutes
Rating: *****

Don’t expect any holiday wishes or cheery thoughts for the day from Brecht!  He had a very acid political message in his libretto for Kurt Weill’s grand opera of 1929 on which the two of them began work even before The Three-Penny Opera. Brecht’s intent is not only to distance the audience from the trappings of theater but also from any human feelings.  His idea was to get them to think about the harsh realities of life under Capitalism carried to its ultimate ends; to be clinical observers of this story of the three fugitives from the law who set up “The City of Nets” in the desert to lure the cash from gold miners and workers. Conductor Conlon speaks in his interview about Mahagonny sharing aspects of grand opera, musical theater and specifically Brechtian theater. He has tried to bring this otherwise dated opera into today’s modern world by drawing on all three of these aspects, and especially in using montage and juxtaposition of elements in the work.

The story depicts consumerism run amuck in this mythical city founded to cater to men who have money to spend. Jimmy McIntyre (in the LA production) is disturbed by the signs forbidding various things, such as singing.  He proposes to the Widow Begbick – the brains behind the city – that nothing be forbidden – that everything and anything be allowed, and that would make the city the most money.  A hurricane approaches the city but passes it by, and afterwards a wild party begins with the nihilistic idea of a series of contests involved gluttony, boxing, commodified sex and drunkenness.  At the end Jimmy cannot pay his bar bill, resulting eventually in his trial and execution – the victim of Brecht’s version of capitalistic logic.

It took some years for many concert music and jazz videos to appear on DVDs as they had on laserdisc, but now there is a flood of them available. Unfortunately, most are not stocked by rental outlets, so one has to purchase them. Just about every well-known opera and ballet is now available on DVD,  and an increasing percentage of them are using widescreen 16:9 presentation and surround sound – even DTS 5.1, which is about the best. The fact that two competing version of Mahagonny – certainly not your typical popular opera – would be released on DVD about the same time shows the importance that even obscure music DVDs have achieved.

Both DVDs are shot in widescreen 16:9 color and balance long shots – even including the audiences – with closeups of the performers on the stage. The LA production also has closeups of many of the orchestra members. Weill’s instrumentation is interesting in downplaying the strings and giving most of it to the brass and woodwinds plus percussion – many sections revealing his being influenced by the jazz of the 1920s. The Salzburg production opens with a lovely short musical travelogue tour of Salzburg. The Salzburg setting is appropriate because Weill’s model for writing his first grand opera was Mozart. Both productions make use of both trained opera singers and those from the musical comedy stage. The part of Jenny the prostitute is a major one in the opera, and Catherine Malfitano shows her operatic training well, but seems a bit too old for the part. (She also plays the lead role in a new DVD of Puccini’s Tosca.) Gwyneth Jones as the Widow Begbick has an excellent voice but could be a bit more extreme in her delivery. One of the workers from Alaska is played by the well-known Jerry Hadley.

In the Los Angeles production Patti LuPone pulls out all the stops for her Widow Begbick, and really belts out in a fashion not usually heard in opera.  I sometimes had to strain to hear her lyrics; the mics in both productions are some distance from the singers and this occasionally affects audibility.  The real find here – both vocally and physically – is Audra McDonald’s Jenny.  No one should have any difficulty believing this sexy and slinky black woman as Jenny.  She is experienced in both opera and musical theater, and steals the show.  Griffey is also a standout as the ill-fated Jimmy.  The Widow’s two sidekicks are both large, chunky men with operatic chops, whereas in the Stuttgart production one is thin – seemingly a contradiction to Brecht’s “fat capitalistic cat” concept.

The staging of the LA version is more elaborate and colorful than the bare-bones Salzburg staging, and the costumes are more varied and interesting.  The sex competition scene in the Stuttgart production is rather explicit, with four nudes prominently displayed; the LA version is more circumspect (but love Jenny’s costume!). Each section of the opera is introduced by an announcement – part of Brecht’s effort to separate viewers from the theater experience. In the Stuttgart staging these are handled simply by one of the cast walking to the front of the stage and making the announcement. In the LA production it is merely a voice coming out of a PA horn which is part of the stage setting.

Along with the more enjoyable staging and better Begbick and Jenny of the LA production, I have to lean toward its excellent English translation by Michael Feingold.  It was the first time I had heard some of Weill’s songs in English and understanding was much improved – although the English subtitles on the Stuttgart version are quite effective. Also, whether due to German just requiring lots more words to say the same thing or some judicious cutting, the LA version is a half-hour shorter, which I see as a good thing. Either version, however, will fully immerse one in the sarcasm of Brecht’s world, and the often catchy and occasionally beautiful music of Kurt Weill.

 – John Sunier