Seattle Orchestra Stages 'The Little Mahagonny'

With stage direction by Cornish College of the Arts President Sergei Tschernisch and musical direction by Gerard Schwarz, this production will include performances by Seattle Opera Young Artists mezzo-soprano Margaret Gawrysiak and tenor Noah Baetge, as well as mezzo-soprano Jenny Knapp, tenor Ross Hauck, baritone Michael Drumheller, baritone Jeremy Irland and Seattle Symphony. Béla Bartók's popular Concerto for Orchestra will also be performed on the program.

"I am delighted with the collaboration between the Seattle Symphony and Cornish College of the Arts," Tschernisch remarked. "This sharply satirical work raises an ironic eyebrow at capitalist society and is extremely timely as we in our country discuss corporate greed and moral decay."

This program marks the final presentation of Seattle Symphony's Coming to America: Composers in Pursuit of a Dream Festival which celebrates the music of immigrant composers, past and present, May 28-June 7, 2008.

The Little Mahagonny

The Little Mahagonny, also known as the Mahagonny-Songspiel, was composed by Kurt Weill in collaboration with playwright Bertolt Brecht in 1927. At the time, many felt the work went beyond acceptable literary, musical and theatrical boundaries and, even today, it escapes definition, falling somewhere in between a mini-opera and a musical. Banned by the Nazis, the work's unconventional score combines classical elements with jazz and folk. In their fictional city of Mahagonny, Weill and Brecht created a savage and lyrical satire on American consumerism in which profit, pleasure and self-gratification are the ultimate pursuits. The work's shocking subject matter and satirical tone prompted a riotous reaction at the premiere in Baden-Baden. Kurt Weill immigrated to America in 1935 after fleeing the Nazis and became a U.S. citizen in 1943. The Yale Repertory Theatre presented the American premiere of The Little Mahagonny in the 1970s.

The piece opens with a band of six travelers–four men and two women–who set out on a journey to the fictional city of Mahagonny, enticed by the promise of easy access to alcohol, sex and money. While the men anticipate "booze and poker tables" and "good whores and good horseflesh," the women bid goodbye to the "moon of Alabama," and inquire as to how to make their way to "the next whisky-bar." Having arrived at their destination, each member of the troupe engages in the vice of his or her choice. However, lethargy and disappointment soon follow, as the constant indulgence of physical pleasures turns hollow and unfulfilling. Spent and frustrated, the group decides to move to a new city, Benares, "where the sun is shining," only to discover that it has been destroyed in an earthquake. When the next morning dawns in Mahagonny, and the citizens are depressed and hung-over. God appears, condemning them for their sins and threatening eternal judgment. When He consigns them to Hell, they revolt, claiming that they cannot be sent to the underworld, for they already live there. As they protest God's sentence, the city self-destructs and the piece comes to a close. -- www.seattlesymphony.org