Opera on 3 14/03/15 - Royal Opera House: Weill's Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny

[Guest]

I have listened to this wonderful performance half a dozen times since it was broadcast, and attended a broadcast performance at my local small provincial cinema. Marvellous!

Sadly the "On demand" recording ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05202hr ) on iplayer expires today.

I have been looking for a cd of this in English but so far without success. There are several versions in German and a couple of DVD versions in English, but I cannot find it on CD. Is anyone aware of such a recording?

The performance I heard has really stayed with me and I will miss it if unable to source a copy.

Many thanks in advance.

MLF

[Flosshilde]

I saw it at a cinema relay & thought it was great - production, performances, everything about it. I couldn't understand why it had lukewarm reviews.

[MrGongGong]

I sneaked some teenagers into a dress rehearsal during a project and they were mesmerised

[Simon Biazeck]

Glad you enjoyed it! We worked very hard on this production and the lukewarm reviews were annoying. In truth, they seemed as biased, agenda-driven and pompous as I have come to expect from most of the broadsheets. There was one excoriating, patronising and very personal broadside online - clearly agenda-driven too. Of course, not everyone has to like it, but... a little balance would be welcome. It only encourages the first night booing, which is on the increase and itself seems to be the spawn of certain social media types. As someone who works on the other side of the curtain, I would never boo - very juvenile!

Interestingly, the majority of Twitter comments I read after the cinema relay were very positive. I listened to the BBC 3 relay later and really enjoyed it - such a strong piece!

Brecht thought Weill softened the message with his music and published an "antidiote" to it himself in an edition of the text. I think Weill knew exactly how to sweeten the pill and does so very deftly with his music.

[gurnemanz]

We went to the last show on Easter Saturday and really enjoyed it. I knew the work from CD and it was great to see it live for the first time. I thought it was a lively and imaginative production which worked well with opera singers, (strangely, with Anne Sofie von Otter coming across least effectively).

I am a teacher of German and am pretty familiar with Brecht's works and would have far preferred the original German. If you're going to do it in translation, presumably for comprehensibility and immediacy of impact, why assume it is not actually comprehensible and compromise that immediacy of impact by putting up surtitles? If surtitles are up there, you constantly find yourself distracted into reading them, even if you don't need to. I really missed Brecht's biting German, which is what Weill set the music to, after all. Well-known songs like "Wie man sich bettet, so liegt man" just don't work as well for me. Also you don't then get the contrast when he moves into his own brand of idiosyncratic English as in the Alabama song.

[Simon Biazeck]

Being half German, a singer and composer, I completely agree. As an extra chorister on this production, I had no choice in the matter, but I was very pleased to do it!

[Frances_iom]

.. (strangely, with Anne Sofie von Otter coming across least effectively).
.

I saw the 1st April performance (luckily the ROH has two mains power feeds and that for the stage was still working but no food/bar as power off there tho the house did offer free water!) - I enjoyed the production but could see why it might come over better in the cinema (assuming that the camera merely looks full on stage never having seen a relay) however I felt von Otter was either badly cast or well under par as the voice was weak and to be honest not that audible in what is often one of the best seats acoustically in the Upper Slips but Willard White still has plenty of his old magic in the small part he placed.

[Howdenite]

I wondered after I saw it if some of the reviewers left at the interval. The second half was devastating! One of the most effective performances I've seen at the ROH.

[MLF]

Simon - my congratulations on a wonderful production. I did not read the reviews - although that these would be lukewarm seems scarcely credible! I don't suppose you know of any plans to release a recording?

Howdenite - I agree: devastating is precisely the word!

If noone knows of a recording in English other than DVD, I will simply have to invest in a recording in German. I appreciate that something is inevitably lost in translation - sadly my German is simply not up to the task!

[Simon Biazeck]

Simon - my congratulations on a wonderful production. I did not read the reviews - although that these would be lukewarm seems scarcely credible! I don't suppose you know of any plans to release a recording?

Howdenite - I agree: devastating is precisely the word!

If noone knows of a recording in English other than DVD, I will simply have to invest in a recording in German. I appreciate that something is inevitably lost in translation - sadly my German is simply not up to the task!

Thank you! Your positive comments are very welcome and I will pass them on to my colleagues.

I must tell you that leaving the ROH after performing in that dystopian fable on the night of the Holborn fire with all the lights out down to the Strand was very strange and not a little a eerie.

[Stanley Stewart]

Alas, MLF, your appeal came too late as I decided to delete my minidisc recording of the ROH production last week! I thought that Anne Sofie von Otter was, surprisingly underpowered for the Widow Begbick and the dialogue lacked animation between the songs. However, the interval features indicated that the second half would have benefited here by visual appeal and TV transmission would also have the attraction of subtitles. End of negatives as I am a Weill devotee and the broadcast encouraged me to listen to a range of recordings and revisit Speak Low, the Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya with its rich pickings. Always a pleasure to hear KW: From Berlin to Broadway (2 CD set on Pearl; 'Songs
& Chansons, Berlin 1930 recordings by Lenya and Dietrich; a splendid Mahagonny Suite on a 2 CD DG set, Weill. London Sinfonietta/David Atherton; Dagmar Kraus, Supply and Demand (1986); Gisela May sings Brecht/Weill; a Decca set including Mahagonny Songspiel, Ute Lemper, RIAS Berlin/John Mauceri; Angela Reaux 2 CD set, Stranger Here Myself on Koch; KW-Berlin im licht, Ensemble Modern, Rosemary Hardy. hk Gruber, conductor/singer - sassy! - ; and Teresa Stratas sings Weill, 1986

Returning to your search for a CD set of Mahagonny, you will find that these are rare. However, I do have a complete recording on the Capriccio label, 1988, with the booklet well produced and a complete libretto: Capriccio (digital) German and English translation cheek-by-jowl. Kolner Rundfunkorchester/ Jan Latham-Konig, Anja Silja (Jenny) and Anny Schlemm (Begbick). Capriccio 10 160/61.

[MLF]

Many thanks for that kind and thoughtful advice, Stanley - I shall investigate as you suggest!