Charleston, SC
It's time for the Spoleto Festival USA once again. What a splendid event overall, and I have been privileged to enjoy the likes of the Aspen, Newport and Salzburg festivals, too. And what an appropriate kick-off we experienced last night in the classic Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The work may have debuted in Leipzig in 1930, but it holds up well as political theater and in testament to the dark side of human nature.
Weill and Brecht produced the blackest of black humor and did so in a truly subversive manner. It's no wonder the Nazis banned the work in their rise to power, since speaking truth to power always stirs the neuroses of authoritarians. With this opera, Weill and Brecht artfully and painfully illustrated our innate penchant for power and greed and how language is used to obfuscate reality and obviate responsibility. That's why this German opera of some 80 years vintage is as relevant today as it was back then.
Alas, lead character Jimmy Mahoney is sentenced to death not for manslaughter or other criminal acts he committed, but because he is poor and cannot pay his bar bill. He dies at the hands of three corrupt rulers of Mahagonny, where greed, lust for power and hypocrisy reign supreme.
The highly personable Emmanuel Villaume was brilliant at conducting the Spoleto Orchestra. You may know the wonderful Alabama Song, which first appeared in this work and was covered over the years by David Bowie, The Doors and others. Richard Brunner played Jimmy very well, underscoring the extraordinary talent that comes with being both a leading operatic tenor as well as a comedic actor.
It's time for the Spoleto Festival USA once again. What a splendid event overall, and I have been privileged to enjoy the likes of the Aspen, Newport and Salzburg festivals, too. And what an appropriate kick-off we experienced last night in the classic Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The work may have debuted in Leipzig in 1930, but it holds up well as political theater and in testament to the dark side of human nature.
Weill and Brecht produced the blackest of black humor and did so in a truly subversive manner. It's no wonder the Nazis banned the work in their rise to power, since speaking truth to power always stirs the neuroses of authoritarians. With this opera, Weill and Brecht artfully and painfully illustrated our innate penchant for power and greed and how language is used to obfuscate reality and obviate responsibility. That's why this German opera of some 80 years vintage is as relevant today as it was back then.
Alas, lead character Jimmy Mahoney is sentenced to death not for manslaughter or other criminal acts he committed, but because he is poor and cannot pay his bar bill. He dies at the hands of three corrupt rulers of Mahagonny, where greed, lust for power and hypocrisy reign supreme.
The highly personable Emmanuel Villaume was brilliant at conducting the Spoleto Orchestra. You may know the wonderful Alabama Song, which first appeared in this work and was covered over the years by David Bowie, The Doors and others. Richard Brunner played Jimmy very well, underscoring the extraordinary talent that comes with being both a leading operatic tenor as well as a comedic actor.