1. Act I
2. Act II
3. Act III

Elisabeth Kulman - Leokadja Begbick
Tomasz Konieczny - Dreieinigkeitsmoses
Angelika Kirchschlager - Jenny Hill
Christopher Ventris - Jim Mahoney
Herwig Pecoraro - Fatty
Norbert Ernst - Jack O'Brien
Clemens Unterreiner - Bill
Il Hong - Joe
Wolfram Igor Derntl - Tobby Higgins
Ileana Tonca - Mädchen 1
Valentina Nafornita - Mädchen 2
Ildikó Raimondi - Mädchen 3
Juliette Mars - Mädchen 4
Stephanie Houtzeel - Mädchen 5
Monika Bohinec - Mädchen 6
Heinz Zednik – Kommentator

Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper
Ingo Metzmacher – conductor

Wiener Staatsoper Januar 2012

A collaboration between composer Kurt Weill and librettist Bertolt Brecht, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny conveys the sense of alienation and disillusionment that characterized the interwar period in Germany, and stands as a harrowing example of the darkly apocalyptic wit of its creators. Though its musical materials -- which borrow freely from jazz and cabaret styles -- demonstrate a palpable sense of parody, Weill was careful to note that irony should not be read into the piece itself, but observed firsthand in the kind of world the piece portrays. "It is not advisable to shift presentation of the work to the side of the ironic or the grotesque," Weill pointed out in the foreword to the production book. "Since the incidents are not symbolic but typical, economy in the scenic means and in the expression of the individual actor commends itself most strongly." It is the directness, the eerie familiarity of the sights and sounds, that lend the piece its power. As philosopher and critic T.W. Adorno observed in 1931, Weill's music demonstrates "a circumspect sharpness which by means of its leaps and sidesteps makes articulate something which the song public would prefer not to know about."

Set rather tenuously in the United States (according to a surreal geography, somewhere between Pensacola and the Gold Coast), the story follows a group of fugitive criminals who set up a resort town in hopes of attracting newly rich customers returning with full pockets from the Gold Rush. Among those who arrive are a group of young girls in search of whisky, men, and money. Their carnal desires alternate with nostalgic lyricism in the famous Alabama Song. The awkward dissonances and clunky melodies of the verses are so overshadowed by the wistfully arching line of the chorus that the real dramatic intention of this popular song is perhaps lost on many listeners, who likely never hear it in context or in its entirety. Other visitors to the town include a group of men returning from seven years' labor in Alaska, eager to spend their hard-earned cash on Mahagonny's pleasures -- which include the girls, who have found employment of the most ancient kind in this city of sin. A romance develops between Jimmy and Jenny, though this relationship is like every other interpersonal exchange in Mahagonny: sentiments seem to fall on half-deaf ears, the characters talk past each other. There is a sense that everyone on-stage is oblivious to everyone else, except when self interest prompts interaction -- a disjunction that finds voice in Weill's dialectical juxtapositions of musical materials. In the end, several of the men suffer ignominious demises (one eats so much he dies, another is executed for his inability to pay a bar tab), the citizens divide into arbitrarily opposing political factions, and God himself condemns the residents to hell. They refuse to go, however, insisting that hell can be no worse than Mahagonny. ---Jeremy Grimshaw, Rovi

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1 Overtüre (Original Version)
2 Moritat von Mackie Messer (Original Version) 
3 Morgenchoral des Peachum (Original Version) 
4 Anstatt-daß-Song (Original Version) 
5 Hochzeitslied (Original Version) 
6 Seeräuberjenny (Original Version) 
7 Kanonen-Song (Original Version) 
8 Liebeslied (Original Version) 
9 Barbara-Song (Original Version) Start
10 Dialog: Herr Macheath hat meine Tochter (Original Version) 
11 1. Dreigroschenfinale (Original Version) 
12 Mackie Messer . . . Melodram: Ach Mac, reiß mir nicht (Original Version) 
13 Polly's Lied (Original Version) 
14 Ballade von der sexuellen Hörigkeit (Original Version) 
15 Zuhälterballade (Original Version) 
16 Seeräuber-Jenny (Original Version) 
17 Ballade vom angenehmen Leben (Original Version) 
18 Eifersuchtsduett (Original Version) 
19 Arie der Lucy: Wut, Liebe und Furcht zugleich (Original Version) 
20 Macheath ist entkommen . . . Als der ägyptische König (Original Version) 
21 2. Dreigroschenfinale (Original Version) 
22 Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlischen Strebens (Original Version) 
23 Salomon-Song (Original Version) 
24 Ruf aus der Gruft (Original Version) 
25 Grabschrift (Original Version) 
26 Gang zum Galgen: Verehrtes Publikum, wir sind so weit (Original Version) 
27 3. Dreigroschenfinale (Original Version)

René Kollo (Tenor) - Macheath
Helga Dernesch (Mezzo Soprano) – Frau Peachum
Wolfgang Reichmann (Spoken Vocals) - Brown
Susanne Tremper (Soprano) - Lucy
Rolf Boysen (Bass) -  Ausrufen
Mario Adorf (Voice) - Peachum
Ute Lemper (Soprano) – Polly

RIAS Kammerchor
RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta
John Mauceri - conductor

For more than 30 years the CBS Dreigroschenoper under Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, with Lotte Lenya in the role of Jenny, has towered head and shoulders above any rival. That supremacy faces its sternest challenge in this new release, which boasts such assets as John Mauceri's authoritative conducting and a leading role for the young musical theatre singer Ute Lemper, whose solo recital so excited me a year ago (Decca 425 204-2DNL, 3/89).

Mauceri's presence makes itself felt immediately in the clarity of instrumental detail and the bounciness of the dance rhythms. Lemper, too, is soon well in evidence in a splendidly shaped "Barbara-Song". There is also a superbly rounded Mrs Peachum in Helga Dernesch, whose "Ballad of Sexual Dependency" is a tour-de-force—albeit sadly shorn of its third verse. It is followed by an absolutely irresistible "ZuhãlterBallade", in which the innocently spun out melody serves to accompany some wickedly expressive handling of the text by Rene Kollo as Macheath, and by the husky Milva (another impressive singing actress) as the whore Jenny. Kollo is no less impressive in his handling of Macheath's Epitaph, again tellingly accompanied by Mauceri.

Yet the challenges that a new Dreigroschenoper has to face are indeed formidable ones. Much has been said of the distorted ideas we have of Weill's music due to its subjection over the years to, firstly, Brecht's alienation style (encouraging the familiar 'snarl-and-shout' type of delivery) and, secondly, the lowering of vocal line to suit Lotte Lenya's changing vocal powers. The response of this recording is somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand, Mauceri has gone back to Weill's original manuscript material, has reconsidered tempos, and has ensured, for instance, that Macheath's music is properly sung by an operatic tenor. On the other hand, Jenny's music is sung by a performer for whom—as for Lenya—downward transpositions have to be made.

Perhaps my reaction is equally ambivalent. On the one hand, I wonder whether Kollo, with his light tenor, sounds at all like a gangster, and whether the new recording quite catches the seediness I associate with the work. On the other, I wonder whether, in the interest of hearing the music sung at closer to the original pitch, Ute Lemper might more appropriately have been cast as Jenny. It should be added that this is in no way to decry the splendid Milva. It does, though, seem to highlight a lack of assurance about the casting that the problem of which of them should sing "Pirate Jenny" is resolved by giving it to both. Polly sings it in Act 1, Jenny in Act 2—a most curious arrangement.

Ultimately the old CBS recording retains a special magic of its own that makes it foolish to pretend to its devotees that this new recording should replace it. On the other hand, there can scarcely be any doubt that it is to this new version that the uncommitted should be directed. For all the remarkably good quality of the CBS recording, the clearer Decca digital sound is obviously superior. Likewise, the singing on the new version is undeniably of a higher standard, whilst no less appropriate in terms of Weill's requirement for singing actors. In orchestral playing, too, there is a clear advantage, no less than in John Mauceri's imaginative conducting. In the "Zuhälterballade", above all, these characteristics come together to give this new recording a quite haunting quality. -- Gramophone [3/1990]

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