Lotte Lenya/ Kurt Weill – The Seven Deadly Sins

I posted one Brecht/Weill work before but I have never posted anything by Lotte Lenya, I believe.  Well, what better time to correct this than Anniversary April. This was $5.00.

Lotte Lenya, born in Vienna in 1898, was to Kurt Weill’s music what Dionne Warwick was to Burt Bacharach’s.  Plus Lenya and Weill were married twice.  Lenya first gained fame with Bertolt Brecht’s/Weill’s Three Penny Opera. From there she performed Weill’s work on stage across the world as well as on records. As with many performers at the time, she emigrated to New York to flee pre-WWII aggression.

 

In her later life, Lenya worked on film as well as Broadway.  Lenya would die in 1981 of cancer.  She is buried in New York, next to Weill.  Throughout her life, Lenya was quite faithful to her husband’s work, performing and promoting his pieces until the end.

Kurt Weill began work on The Seven Deadly Sins in 1933 after fleeing Germany and the rising National Socialist Party.  After landing in Paris as a refugee, he received a commission to compose a ballet.  The work was commissioned by a wealthy Englishman, Edward James.

James’ wife, Tily Losch was a ballerina and had a striking resemblance to Lenya.  Therefore, as it was just assumed that Weill would write the lead role for Lenya, James demanded his wife be given the role as Lenya’s dancing doppleganger.  Therefore, the split personality motif was in place before Weill gave the work to Brecht to write the libretto.

The work, known as a Ballet with Song, opened the same year in France and despite being  set in America and sung in German, was actually well received (EDITOR”S NOTE: Inital reviews were actually mixed.  And in terms of James bankrolling the production to win back favor with his wife, that failed as well).  The piece tells the story of two American sisters (or perhaps the same sister) who leave their home in Louisiana to gain fortune in the big cities of the US.  Along the way, they came face to face with the seven deadly sins, each in a different city.  Lenya took the main singing role of Anna I, while Losch was the main dancer as Anna II. Their family is sung by a male quartet which functions as a Greek chorus.   Incidentally, after France, the work opened at the Savoy in London as Anna-Anna.  Lenya revived the work in the 50’s and it has enjoyed a few major production ever since.  This piece of work, however, would mark the last collaboration between Brecht and Weill.

As far as the album goes, without a translation and with never seeing the work, I still found it quite enjoyable.  The singing and music are top notch.  I liked it but would probably like to see the performance live at some point.

For a sample, I went with “Zorn (Anger)”.  It this point in the production, the girls are in Los Angeles.  Anna I has a job in the circus when a horse she is riding starts bucking.  As the ringmaster whips the horse, Anna II becomes overwhelmed by anger, grabs the whip from the ringmaster, and begins to whip him.  Anna I reminds her sister that she must tolerate such brutality if they are to get ahead in life.  Anyway, I liked this song the best from the album.

Satisfactory record.  Will try to see a production of this if it ever comes my way.