Originally telecast on PBS, this Los Angeles Opera production works hard to make the 1930 Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill opera—satirizing a fictional American sin city devoted to the almighty dollar—accessible to contemporary American audiences. The strategies include using an English-language libretto (via Michael Feingold's translation), employing a kitschy pop cultural set design (including retro Vegas signs and a jumbotron television screen), choreographing stage movements that are closer to Bob Fosse razzle-dazzle than Brechtian theater, and featuring star power from Broadway divas Patti Lupone and Audra McDonald. However, these distractions fail to hide the basic problems inherent to Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, which suffers from an uncommonly cumbersome Weill score wrapped around a story that collapses beneath its lethal Marxist cynicism. It also creates an unfortunate circumstance where shtick is used to camouflage a lack of substance. John Doyle's stage direction unwisely allows the actors' costumes to do the performing—Lupone's 1930s gangster moll get-up and McDonald's erotically provocative attire are elaborate, but neither performer conveys the unapologetic venality that drives their respective characters' actions, and their inertia throws the show off-balance, putting a greater burden on Anthony Dean Griffey's broad shoulders in his role as the doomed lumberjack Jimmy. Mercifully, Griffey rises to the occasion, and his transformation from the happy-go-lucky seeker of good times to the friendless condemned prisoner of Mahagonny's climate of greed is a tour de force of vibrant acting and rich singing. Presented in DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM stereo, DVD extras include an interview with conductor James Conlon, who talks about the opera's significance. An optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
(2007) 133 min. DVD: $32.98. EuroArts (dist. by Naxos of America). Volume 23, Issue 3
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
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