The Temple of Dagon

Composition history The libretto was mainly written in early 1927 and the music was finished in the spring of 1929 nike air max 2016 tilbud , although both text and music were to be partly revised by the authors later. An early by-product, however, was the Mahagonny-Songspiel, sometimes known as Das kleine Mahagonny, a concert work for voices and small orchestra commissioned by the Deutsche Kammermusik Festival in Baden-Baden and premiered there on 18 July 1927. The ten numbers, which include the "Alabama Song" and "Benares Song", were duly incorporated into the full opera. The opera had its premiere in Leipzig in March 1930 and played in Berlin in December of the following year. The opera was banned by the Nazis in 1933 and did not have a significant production until the 1960s. Weill's score uses a number of styles, including rag-time, jazz and formal counterpoint, notably in the "Alabama Song" (covered by The Doors and later David Bowie). The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original (German) language. Production history It has played in opera houses around the world. Never achieving the popularity of Weill and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny is still considered a work of stature with a haunting score. Herbert Lindenberger in his book Opera in History, for example, views Mahagonny alongside Schoenberg's Moses und Aron as indicative of the two poles of modernist opera. Following the Leipzig premiere, the opera was presented in Berlin in December 1931 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm conducted by Alexander von Zemlinsky with Lotte Lenya as Jenny, Trude Hesterberg as Begbick, and Harald Paulsen as Jimmy. Another production was presented in January 1934 in Copenhagen at the Det ny Teater. Other productions within Europe waited until the end of the Second World War nike air max 2016 danmark , some notable ones being in January 1963 in London at Sadler's Wells Opera conducted by Colin Davis and in Berlin in September 1977 by the Komische Oper. It was not presented in the United States until 1970, when a short-lived April production at the Phyllis Anderson Theatre off Broadway starred Barbara Harris as Jenny and Estelle Parsons as Begbick. Finally, in November 1979 it debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in a John Dexter production conducted by James Levine. The cast included Teresa Stratas as Jenny, Astrid Varnay as Begbick, Richard Cassilly as Jimmy, Cornell MacNeil as Moses, Ragnar Ulfung as Fatty and Paul Plishka as Joe. The Los Angeles Opera presented the opera in September 1989 under conductor Kent Nagano and with a Jonathan Miller production. Other notable productions in Europe from the 1980s included the March 1986 presentation by the Scottish Opera in Glasgow; a June 1990 production in Florence by the Maggio musicale fiorentino. In October 1995 and 1997, the Paris Opra staged by Graham Vick, under the baton of Jeffrey Tate starring Marie McLaughlin as Jenny, Felicity Palmer (1995) and Kathryn Harries (1997) as Begbick, Kim Begley (1995) and Peter Straka (1997) as Jimmy. The July 1998 Salzburg Festival production featured Catherine Malfitano as Jenny, Gwyneth Jones as Begbick, and Jerry Hadley as Jimmy. Productions within the US in the last ten years have included those in November 1998 by the Lyric Opera of Chicago directed by David Alden. Catherine Malfitano repeated her role as Jenny, while Felicity Palmer sang Begbick, and Kim Begley sang in the role of Jimmy.TRhe Los Angeles Opera's February 2007 production directed by John Doyle and conducted by James Conlon included Audra McDonald as Jenny, Patti LuPone as Begbick, and Anthony Dean Griffey as Jimmy. This production was recorded on DVD nike air max thea dk , and subsequently won the 2009 Grammy Awards for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Opera Recording." Brecht and Weill were evidently under the misapprehension that the Irish surname "Mahoney" is accented on the first syllable, an error which cannot be easily corrected because the all of the songs and spoken text are written to fit the mispronunciation. It must be noted that in Ireland, the surname "Mahony" is accented on the first syllable, while in the US, the accent falls on the second syllable. Accordingly, in the LA Opera production (done exclusively in English, not in the original German) -- the character was renamed "Jimmy McIntyre."[citation needed] Roles Role Voice type Premiere cast, 9 March 1930 (Conductor: Gustav Brecher) Leocadia Begbick, a fugitive mezzo-soprano Dreieinigkeitsmoses (Trinity Moses), another fugitive baritone Fatty der Prokurist (Fatty the Bookkeeper), a third fugitive tenor Jimmy Mahoney, an Alaskan lumberjack tenor Sparbchsen Billy (Moneybags Billy), Jimmy's friend baritone Widow Begbick contralto Jacob Schmidt, Jimmy's friend tenor Alaskawolfe Joe, Jimmy's friend bass Jenny Smith, a whore soprano Toby Higgins tenor An announcer Synopsis Act 1 Scene 1: A desolate no-man land A truck breaks down. Three fugitives from justice get out: Fatty the Bookkeeper, Trinity Moses nike air max thea tilbud , and Leocadia Begbick. Because the federal agents pursuing them will not search this far north, and they are in a good location to attract ships coming south from the Alaskan gold fields, Begbick decides that they can profit by staying where they are and founding a pleasure city, where men can have fun, because there is nothing else in the world to rely on. Alabama Song Excerpt from the "Alabama Song" as sung in Act 1, scene 2 Problems listening to this file? See media help. Scene 2 The news of Mahagonny spreads quickly, and sharks from all over flock to the bait, including the whore Jenny Smith, who is seen, with six other girls, singing the "Alabama Song", in which she waves goodbye to her home and sets out in pursuit of whiskey, dollars and pretty boys. Scene 3 In the big cities, where men lead boring, purposeless lives, Fatty and.