The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny
| Work data | |
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| Original title: | The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Kurt Weill |
| Libretto : | Bertolt Brecht |
| Premiere: | March 9, 1930 |
| Place of premiere: | Leipzig |
| Playing time: | approx. 2½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Mahagonny, fictional city in North America , present |
| people | |
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The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny , or Mahagonny for short, is an opera in three acts (the division into acts is missing in most of the later text editions). The music is by Kurt Weill , the libretto by Bertolt Brecht . The opera was premiered on March 9, 1930 in Leipzig under the direction of Walther Brügmann . The opera has a playing time of about 2½ hours. The action takes place in Mahagonny, a fictional city in North America today.
orchestra
2 flutes (also 2 piccolo flutes ), oboe , clarinet , 3 saxophones (soprano, alto / baritone, tenor), 2 bassoons (2nd also contrabassoon ), 2 horns , 3 trumpets , 2 trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , piano , Harmonium ad lib., Banjo , bass guitar , bandoneon , strings
- On stage
2 piccolo flutes, 2 clarinets, 3 saxophones, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, percussion, piano, zither , possibly xylophone , banjo, bandoneon
action
first act
Leokadja Begbick, Willy, the authorized signatory (called Fatty in the early versions of the opera), and Dreieinigkeitsmoses are on the run from the constables . They want to go to a coast where gold is found. But the car breaks on the edge of a desert. Since they can neither go back nor forward, they decide to found a city: Mahagonny, "that means: Netzestadt" (1,1), in which they can do this to the men who come with money from the coast with the help of bars and brothels want to pull out of your pocket. There should be peace and harmony there.
And the city is growing. With the dissatisfied from all over the world, four lumberjacks also come from Alaska : Heinrich Merg, Joseph Lettner, Jakob Schmidt and Paul (Paule) Ackermann (in the early versions: Sparbüchsenbilly, Alaskawolfjoe, Jack O'Brien and Jim (Jimmy Mahoney)). They want to be happy in Mahagonny too. As soon as he arrives, Paul falls in love with the whore Jenny. But even Mahagonny has its crises : prices are falling, people are leaving. Paul becomes dissatisfied when he sees a sign that says “This is forbidden ...” and to top it all off, a hurricane is heading towards Mahagonny.
That night Paul invented the law of human happiness: “You may!” The only thing that is forbidden: having no money - it is the death penalty. Shortly before the destruction by a hurricane, he makes it clear to people that you don't need a typhoon to destroy, humans can do that very well on their own. As an example, despite the ban, he sings a funny song.
Second act
The hurricane is approaching Mahagonny, the audience learns the path of the typhoon by radio message. One minute before Mahagonny, however, the storm steers clear of the city and spares it. From now on the new motto in Mahagonny (beginning of scene 13) is:
- “Firstly, don't forget, there is the eating / secondly there is the act of love
- Third, don't forget to box / fourth, drinking, according to the contract.
- Above all, however, pay close attention / That everything is allowed here.
- (if you have money.) "
This has some consequences: Paul's friend Jakob overeat on two calves. Joseph dies in a prize boxing against the Trinity Mosque after persuading Paul to put all his money on him. In the next scene, Paul hands all of Mahogany's men a whiskey . But when Begbick wants payment from him, it occurs to him that he has no more money. His own law is his undoing. Since neither Jenny nor Heinrich want to pay for him, he is arrested.
Third act
Paul's trial begins the next day. The court first hears another case in which the accused of murder bribes the court and is consequently acquitted. But Paul has no money to do the same and doesn't get any support from his friends. Paul is confronted and found guilty on abstruse charges: indirect murder of Joseph (two days in prison), seduction of Jennys (four years in prison), disturbance of peace and harmony (two years loss of honor), singing a funny song (ten years in prison ) and the main point of the indictment: dodging , for which Paul is sentenced to death. He is guilty of the greatest crime ("lack of money"). Paul says goodbye. At this point it is also told how God once came to Mahagonny (“God’s Game in Mahagonny”).
The opera ends with the city sinking into chaos ("burning Mahagonny") and several demonstrating groups wandering around.
music
Kurt Weill describes a wide arc in the composition of this opera by introducing many topics in the first act in order to interleave them more and more complexly in the course of the plot and to lead them to the climax in the finale.
Quotations from classical music are often used (often in an ironic form), for example Tekla Bądarzewska's prayer of a virgin , already regarded as "kitsch", is quoted literally and commented on with the words "This is eternal art!" The following are also quoted: Paul Linckes Give me a little love and the song of the maiden wreath from Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz in the number Auf nach Mahagonny (see below), musical forms such as Bach's fugues , chorale preludes and passion music (see below) , Popular music such as Schrammelmusik, Marching Band Music, Shanty , Tarantella , Blues and the Tristan Chord .
Kurt Weill was in the exact types of Brecht's characters, the counterparts for its own sake directness of the statement, and Bertolt Brecht saw in Weill people of his conception of theater as a "moral institution", its relentless time and social criticism , his humanitarian ethos provided the background music.
Alabama song
A song with song character, which is sung at the beginning by Jenny and six girls on the way to the Netzestadt. The girls have lost their home and security and see their only chance of survival in selling themselves to the men of Mahagonny. You say goodbye to the moon and with it the hope for a better life, for romantic love and security. In Jenny's solo part, Weill creates a characteristic change between nostalgic , sad coloratura and rather cynical-sounding chanting .
The English-language lyrics of the Alabama Song were first published in 1927 in Brecht's collection of poems, Hauspostille . The original poem has a male lyrical self .
The song was edited many times, including a. it was covered by the US rock band The Doors , David Bowie , Abwärts and the Swiss post-industrial band The Young Gods .
Off to Mahagonny
The song "Auf nach Mahagonny" is sung by four woodcutters who, after working for seven years in Alaska's forests, want to squander their hard-earned money in the Netzestadt. They are exuberantly looking forward to what the city has to offer. The motif of the moon also appears in the men's song and shows very clearly that they have completely different expectations of life than women. From the men's point of view, the moon is the color of the American dollar and, like everything else, can be bought. They mock him and rob him of all romance. The music carries the joyful mood of the woodcutters, but also indicates the distorted vision of the men.
Origin and reception history
Emergence
The opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny emerged from a song game called Mahagonny, a song game that Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht wrote for a music festival in Baden-Baden . Its world premiere took place on July 17, 1927. The song game consisted of five vocal numbers, a sung epilogue and some instrumental passages. There is no "plot" in the dramaturgical sense of the word in this work.
Even before the completion of the Songspiel, the two authors considered the possibility of reworking and expanding the material of the Songspiel into a full-length opera. Work on the libretto for this opera began right away. The libretto was essentially completed in autumn 1927, and Weill then worked on its setting until April 1929, temporarily interrupted by work on the Threepenny Opera in the summer of 1928.
For the opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny , Weill re-orchestrated the songs from the Songspiel , which he took over into the opera, for a large orchestra.
A world premiere at the Berlin Kroll Opera was planned early on in its genesis, and especially in the spring of 1929 . In July 1929, however, the chief conductor of the opera Otto Klemperer abandoned this plan mainly because of objections to the libretto.
premiere
At the premiere in the New Theater Leipzig on March 9, 1930, there was a commotion in the auditorium. Supporters of the NSDAP , who carried out a planned disturbance action, animated part of the audience to protests against the work, which is why it was difficult to finish the opera.
God in Mahagonny
According to Kurt Weill, Mahagonny is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah . Similar to the biblical model, the city is to perish with all “just and unjust”, as the widow Begbick expresses. In fact, the fate of the city is not sealed by an external catastrophe , as in the Old Testament , but by a revaluation of all human values , by the moral catastrophe. "Do everything tonight that is forbidden, when the hurricane comes, he'll do it that way."
Jim, the protagonist of the new morality , is judged according to his own laws. His death is lyrically and musically the crucifixion of Christ in almost blasphemous simulated way. The motifs are the mount of olives scene , the mockery, the court scene , the handover of Jennys to Bill (Maria and Johannes), the last cry for help to God and the thirst and vinegar motif.
God himself appears in the game in Mahagonny, shows himself in his powerlessness and is scornfully expelled from the city. On the musical level, alienated quotations from Bach's Passion Music can be heard.
literature
- Hans-Christian Stillmark: Emergency brakes, scandals and ghosts: dramaturgies of the disturbance in Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Müller. In: Carsten Gansel , Norman Ächtler: The “principle of disruption” in the humanities and social sciences. de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-031407-6 , pp. 151–168.
- Gerd Koch, Florian Vaßen, Doris Zeilinger (eds.) With the collaboration of Sinah Marx: “Can help us and you and nobody”. The mahoganyation of the world. Bertolt Brechts and Kurt Weils "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" , Frankfurt am Main 2006, Brandes & Apsel. ISBN 3-86099-338-0
Recordings / sound carriers
- The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny , with the North German Radio Choir, the North German Radio Orchestra, conductor: Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg , 1956 (CD 2003 on Sony Music)
- The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny , with Anja Silja , Anny Schlemm , Thomas Lehrberger, Klaus Hirte, Wolfgang Neumann, Frederic Mayer , Paul Wolfrum, Hans Franzen, Kölner Rundfunkorchester, conducted by Jan Latham-König, 1988 (CD Capriccio 10 160/61 )
- The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny , with Gwyneth Jones , Catherine Malfitano , Jerry Hadley , Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Dennis Russell Davies , 1998 (DVD from Naxos Germany)
- Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny , with Audra McDonald , Patti LuPone , Anthony Dean Griffey, the orchestra and choir of the Los Angeles Opera, conductor: James Conlon , 2007 (DVD 2007 at EuroArts Music International GmbH)
Web links
- Story of the rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny at Opera-Guide landing page due to URL change currently not available
- Libretto Italian / German (PDF; 494 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stillmark (2013), p. 156.