Polished Mahagonny: Weill and Brecht's satire remains as relevant as ever

By Matthew Rye, 02 July 2017

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Reviewed at Nationaltheater: Opernhaus, Mannheim on 1 July 2017

Weill, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Nationaltheater Mannheim

Markus Dietz, Director

Ines Nadler, Set Designer

Henrike Bromber, Costume Designer

Vera-Lotte Boecker, Jenny Smith

Heike Wessels, Leokadia Begbick

Raphael Wittmer, Fatty

Uwe Eikötter, Jacky O'Brien

Will Hartmann, Jimmy Mahoney

Thomas Berau, Billy

Thomas Jesatko, Trinity Moses

Jan Dvořák, Dramaturgy

Lillian Stillwell, Choreography

Dani Juris, Choirmaster / chorus director

Nationaltheater Orchestra Mannheim

Benjamin Reiners, Conductor

The early flowering of opera: a fragrant L’Orfeo at Schwetzingen

Mengguang Huang, 3rd May

Markus Bothe’s Botticelli-inspired production fuses tableau vivant aesthetics with Jörg Halubek’s surgical musical precision, offering a peerless, vivid tribute to the fragrant dawn of opera.

****1

An unforgettable Good Friday Parsifal in Mannheim

Ako Imamura, 30th March

The 1957 production of Parsifal, with its traditional staging and dreamy imageries, was a perfect backdrop to showcase Wagner's celebration of stage play with music on Good Friday.

*****

“Auf nach Mahagonny" in Mannheim!

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 30th December

A modern Mahagonny rises and falls in Mannheim, brought to life by a great cast of singer-actors and a conductor (Benjamin Reiners) and orchestra who celebrate Weill's catchy score.

****1

Electric Elektra in Mannheim

Matthew Rye, 13th May

A classic production of Strauss' searing operatic depiction of the House of Atreus is revived with a particularly accomplished cast and musical direction.

*****

Der Golem: ecstatic première in Mannheim

Stephan Eckel, 16th April

The première of Bernhard Langs *Der Golem* leads through a frenzied night of occult stories.

****1

Sicilian melodrama: Tancredi in Mannheim

Matthew Rye, 11th December

The singing proves the main draw in Mannheim National Theatre's new production of Rossini's first great opera seria.

***11

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).