2014 Program Notes, Book 9 37
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
The Seven Deadly Sins
(1933)
Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
The Seven Deadly Sins
is scored for two flutes doubling
on piccolos, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, two
trumpets, trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano,
banjo, guitar and strings. The performance time is 39 minutes.
This is the work’s first performance by the Grant Park Orchestra.
When the Reichstag burned and the Nazis came to power
in Germany in 1933, Judaism and the caustically radical stage works of Kurt Weill
and Bertold Brecht were declared undesirable and composer and librettist fled the
country. Brecht tramped through Prague, Vienna, Zurich and Lugano before settling
in Carona, an isolated village nestled in the Italian Alps; Weill headed straight for
Paris. Between 1927 and 1931, Brecht and Weill had collaborated on some of the
most successful and characteristic theater pieces of the Weimar Republic —
The
Threepenny Opera
,
Happy End
,
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
— but
had a falling out over the production of
Mahagonny
in Berlin in December 1929. The
loss of their property and the royalty fees from the German performances of their
works threatened the financial well-being of both Brecht and Weill, and Weill was
delighted to receive a commission almost as soon as he arrived in Paris on March
23, 1933.
Early in April, Weill was approached by a committee comprising Boris Kochno,
Diaghilev’s former secretary and collaborator, the choreographer George Balanchine
and the wealthy English philanthropist Edward James to compose a piece for a
ballet company that they were establishing upon the pleasant foundation of James’
money. It was James’ intention that the troupe —
Les Ballets 1933
— serve to win
him back the affection of his estranged wife, the dancer and mime Tilly Losch, by
providing a showcase for her talents. A ballet with song was agreed upon, and its
subject mooted as a modern retelling of the Medieval morality plays depicting the
Seven Deadly Sins. The new piece served further as a platform of marital reconciliation
when Weill convinced Lotte Lenya, from whom he had been separated for a year, to
take the leading vocal role. The job of devising the libretto was first offered to Jean
Cocteau, but when he declined, Weill turned to Brecht with the hope of revitalizing
their partnership. Brecht accepted, and in April he was lured to Paris long enough
to devise the verses for the one-act piece.
The
Seven Deadly
Sins
was presented at
the Théâtre des Champs Elysées on June 7, 1933 to respectful but lukewarm notices.
James himself cobbled an English version of the opera and played it with the retrained
Paris company at the Savoy Theatre in London for two weeks in July. A production by
the Royal Danish Ballet in 1936 was upended when the King objected to the opera’s
subject matter, and
The Seven Deadly Sins
then vanished until the score was recorded
Bass
Wilbur Pauley
is in his second season as a member of
the Grant Park Chorus and sixteenth season as a principal artist
at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Some highlights of Mr. Pauley’s 35-
year career include the world premiere of John Corigliano’s
The
Ghosts of Versailles
at the Metropolitan Opera and Weill’s
The
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
at the Salzburg Festival,
as well as two Broadway engagements — the musical
Band
in Berlin
and
The Merchant of Venice
with Dustin Hoffman —
plus some dozen film sound tracks, including
Beauty and the
Beast
,
Dead Man Walking
,
Enchanted
and
Tangled
.
