James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

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James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

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Levine’s legacy at the Met will be defined in part by the works he has introduced to its repertory. These include not only Berg’s “Lulu’’ but also Weill’s “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,’’ that brilliantly synthetic score that seems to distill the musical essence of Weimar Berlin while serving up a scorching social and political critique that still resonates today.
By the late 1970s, “Mahagonny’’ was generally lingering on the edge of the repertory, but this production by John Dexter, introduced in 1979, helped secure its place. It also proved a remarkable vehicle for the soprano Teresa Stratas, whose performance as Jenny was hailed as one of her greatest at the Met. This telecast from late 1979 captures the stark potency of Dexter’s staging and finds this cast in excellent form. Levine’s conducting threads the needle, honoring this work’s debts to high and low traditions, its directness of statement but also its Mahlerian richness.
The tenor Richard Cassilly brings a singular combination of qualities to his performance as Jimmy Mahoney, the woodsman from Alaska who is executed for failing to pay his bar tab. There is an innocent sweetness of timbre combined with real vocal power, and a sense of truth-telling in his portrayal that gives Brecht’s sharp-edged libretto a poignant human dimension. Another standout from the cast is the famed Wagnerian singer Astrid Varnay, wonderfully effective as the widow Begbick.
And then there is Stratas, acting with subtlety and vulnerability, and singing with a dark purity of tone and musical intelligence that brings out the sheer classical beauty of Weill’s vocal writing. Rehearsals for this production were observed by Lotte Lenya, Weill’s widow, who sang the role of Jenny in Berlin in 1931. When she heard Stratas, she realized she had found her own successor in the quest to keep Weill’s vocal music alive. (JEREMY EICHLER)

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James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

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James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

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James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

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James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

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James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra - Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny [2010/1979]

Close