The Seven Deadly Sins

Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins (German: Die sieben TodsündenSometimes listed as Die sieben Todsünden der Kleinbürger ("The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeoisie").) is a ballet chanté ("sung ballet") in nine scenes composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was translated into English by W.H. Auden & Chester Kallman.

Contents

1 Performance history
2 Synopsis
3 References
4 Notes

Performance history

It was first performed in Paris on 7 June 1933 with choreography by George Balanchine. The production went to London opening at the Savoy Theatre under the title Anna-Anna, on 28 June of the same year. It was revived by Kurt Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya, in the 1950s, however with the main singing part in a transposed version (arranged by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg) which matched Lenya's new lower voice but didn't correspond to Weill's intentions. The same transposed version was also used, for example, by Marianne Faithfull in her recording from 1997. The original higher version has been recorded by among others Elise Ross and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Synopsis

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. Anna I, the singer, is the main singing voice. Her sister Anna II, the dancer, is heard only infrequently and the lyrics hint at the possibility that they are the same person. "The Family", a male quartet, acts as the chorus. Both sisters set out from the banks of the Mississippi in Louisiana to find their fortune in the big cities, and to send enough money back to their family to build a little house on the river. After the prologue, in which Anna I introduces the sisters and their plans, seven scenes are devoted to the seven deadly sins, each encountered in a different American city:

Prologue
Idleness (home in Lousiana)
Pride (Memphis)
Anger (Los Angeles)
Gluttony (Philadelphia)
Lust (Boston)
Avarice (Baltimore)
Envy (San Francisco)
Epilogue (home, in the new little house)

After arriving back home after seven years, the sisters ostensibly succeeded in securing the means to buy the little house, but in the process Anna II, envies all those who can engage in the sins she has been derpived of, and the epilogue ends on in a sober mood, with Anna II's resigned response to her sister, "Yes, Anna."

References

[Kurt Will Foundation entry]

Notes

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.