Mahagonny Lacks Polish on the English National Opera | Theatre | Entertainment | EUROtoday

The title of this work has nothing to do with the tropical hardwood with a similar-sounding identify however ‘Mahagonny’, in line with one of many characters, means ‘spider’s internet’. According to its author, Bertolt Brecht, nevertheless, it was only a made-up phrase for the unreal metropolis that types its theme. Brecht wrote it in 1930 along with the composer and song-writer Kurt Weill and the collaboration introduced collectively maybe the 2 biggest abilities in German theatre of the time.

The story begins with the breakdown of a car containing three escaping convicts who, motivated by a mix of greed and desperation, resolve to construct a metropolis known as Mahagonny which is able to appeal to the rich and relieve them of their cash. The outcome brings us a darkish satire on the breakdown of society itself because the goals and riches dropped at town wither and die. Death is a recurrent theme, whether or not it’s loss of life in a boxing ring, loss of life by over-eating or being sentenced to loss of life by electrocution for the crime of failing to pay one’s whiskey invoice.

As a stage work, it provides a marked distinction with virtually the rest one is prone to see in an opera home. Weill’s composition provides a variety of kinds, from cabaret to musical and opera, with the primary of these most prevalent. The solid on this manufacturing cope magnificently with these calls for, with fantastic performances from singers normally related to extra conventional operatic works.

New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill provides a strong efficiency as Jimmy MacIntyre, who loses the fortune he has made as a lumberjack in Alaska, whereas Australian-American soprano Danielle de Niese provides a wonderful portrayal of Jimmy’s favorite prostitute Jenny Smith who finally proves to be a tart and not using a coronary heart when she refuses to save lots of him by paying his whiskey invoice. Her charming supply of the opera’s greatest identified tune, Alabama, was the excessive level of the night. The Alabama Song, by the way, has been recorded by a number of artistes together with David Bowie and The Doors, which is a declare only a few if some other operatic arias can declare.

The orchestra coped very properly with the various calls for of Weill’s music beneath the German conductor André de Ridder who’s the brand new ENO Music Director. Sometimes, nevertheless, the orchestra got here near drowning the singers, forcing the viewers to rely closely on the surtitles to see what was being sung. This was not fully a foul factor, as the interpretation from the unique German was excellently achieved by Jeremy Sams, who all the time reveals the knack of manufacturing a formidable and natural-sounding English libretto.

The greatest drawback, nevertheless, was the theatre itself. With 2,359 seats, the London Coliseum is a big venue, London’s largest, and The Fall and Rise of the City of Mahagonny ought to impress a Cabaret environment. One can simply think about this opera working greatest with a small and considerably raucous viewers sitting round tables and getting into the spirit of the piece. The Coliseum viewers is way too well mannered and restrained to hitch within the enjoyable and this manufacturing by Jamie Manton gave them little excuse to take action.