ICSM Online Journal > Reviews

Kurt Weill:Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
Komische Oper, Berlin, premiere 24 February 2006 and in repertoire

Reviewed by Michael Eagleton
posted 14 Feb 2007

Berlin is broke. Whether or not millions of euros have been squandered over the last few years could well be a question raised by the new production of the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht Mahagonny at the Komische Oper. One thing is certain – the Komische Oper itself could never be accused of profligacy , since this was the sparsest production seen on a Berlin stage for some time, vastly different in Intendant Andreas Homoki’s conception than the previous staging at the Komische Oper in 1977, by Joachim Herz, which did so much to put the opera firmly back in the repertoire. Then, of course, back in GDR days, there were political points to be scored and subtexts to be explored. Thirty years on, things have changed, and Berlin has seen more change than most.

So, there were no references to the Berlin Wall, no suicide bombers, not even a hint of Brecht’s stylised view of America . This Mahagonny was set firmly on the stage of the Komische Oper, obviously so, since most of it was clearly visible. In Brechtian epic theatre style, it was bare save for a couple of ladders and a few chairs - and a large cube wrapped in brown paper on which the stage crew painted the wording of the subtitle of each scene, as specified in the text. Then, at the beginning of Act 2 (and, for once, the interval was actually placed between Acts 1 and 2), as the threatened catastrophe bypasses Mahagonny and its citizens embark on their new freedom of ‘High Life in Mahagonny after the Great Hurricane’ the cube took on a new lease of life. Now hung on three sides with transparent plastic, livened with multi-coloured abstract projections, it formed an enclosure for the eating, loving and fighting sequence, with those all important captions now appearing on a screen at the back of the stage, and all the while banknotes showering from above. Mahagonny collapses, of course, as does our cube, in spectacular fashion. The final scene shows the hero Jim Mahoney, knee deep in money though he has none himself to pay his bills, staring out at the audience as if looking for salvation, the chorus milling around in confusion, and the stage hands clearing up the mess.

Kirill Petrenko in the pit conducted a superbly polished account of the score – with rhythmic drive in plenty but on occasions he was perhaps a little too polite, missing the subtle subversion in, for example, the cow-eating scene. But the chorus were in terrific form throughout, as was, indeed the whole cast. It was good to see a younger, less blowsy, Begbick in Christiane Oertel, who still stamped her authority on the proceedings. The quartet of Alaskans was led by the Jim Mahoney of Kor-Jan Dusseljee, a rather more angry portrayal than is often the case, with plenty of bite to his tenor. Tatyana Gazdik as Jenny sang seductively but needed a touch more carry.

A compliment, too, to the programme-book compiler, for including the series of scene sketches by Caspar Neher, designer of the Leipzig premiere, and of the famous production at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin the next year (conducted by Zemlinsky, with Lotte Lenya as Jenny). Incredibly, four of these sketches are published for the first time.

Different, direct, and delicious! And no ‘Crane’ duet!

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