The Seven Deadly Sins Totally Explained

Everything about The Seven Deadly Sins totally explained

The Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chanté ("sung ballet") in nine scenes composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933. It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. This would be the last major collaboration between Weill and Brecht.

Performance history

The Seven Deadly Sins was first performed in the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on 7 June 1933, with choreography by George Balanchine. The lead roles were played by Lotte Lenya (Anna I) and Tilly Losch (Anna II). Nils Grosch writes that it "was met with bewilderment by the French audience (not just because the work was sung entirely in German). German émigrés living in Paris, however, were enthusiastic and considered it 'a grand evening.'" 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 Lotte Lenya – Kurt Weill's widow – in the 1950s, however with the main singing part in version transposed to a fourth below its original pitch level which matched Lenya's new lower voice but didn't correspond to Weill's intentions. Another transposed version, down by a full octave, was used by Marianne Faithfull in her recording from 1997.

April 26, 2007, London, Royal Ballet, Martha Wainwright, Zenaida Yanowsky, Marianela Núñez director / choreographer Will Tuckett, Martin Yates conductor.

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're the same person: "To convey the ambivalence inherent in the 'sinner', Brecht splits the personality of Anna into Anna I, the cynical impresario with a practical sense and conscience, and Anna II, the emotional, impulsive, artistic beauty, the salable product with an all too human heart." "The Family", a male quartet, acts as the Greek 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

Faulheit / Sloth (city not mentioned)

Stolz / Pride (Memphis)

Zorn / Wrath (Los Angeles)

Völlerei / Gluttony (Philadelphia)

Unzucht / Lust (Boston)

Habsucht / Greed (Tennessee, in posthumous versions Baltimore)

Neid / Envy (San Francisco)

Epilogue (home, in the new little house) After arriving back home after seven years, the sisters ostensibly succeed 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's been deprived of, and the epilogue ends in a sober mood, with Anna II's resigned response to her sister, "Yes, Anna."

Satire

The full title is "The seven deadly sins of the Petty Bourgeousie". The libretto is satirical: the important moral point is that Anna II does wrong only when she does not commit the sin concerned. Anna II frequently tries to do the right thing, but is cured of this "temptation" to "sin" by her hypocritical family and her "prudent" alter ego. For instance, her "pride" consists in not wanting to work in a strip club, her "lust" is wanting to marry the one she loves rather than marrying for money, and her "anger" is righteous anger against ill-treatment of a fellow worker.

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