The ROH somewhat gave itself over to this production of the Brecht/Weill opera, with, for example, the ushers wearing Mahagonny sweat shirts. The opera is quite bleak in the messages it conveys - 'nothing you can do will help a dead man' is followed by 'nothing you can do will help the living'. The 'story' centres upon three criminals on the run, whose wagon breaks down, leading them impulsively to form the down of Mahagonny as a pleasure point for those on the Alaskan gold run. The town fills up with prostitutes and punters, including four friends from Alaska. But disillusionment sets in, not helped by some of the restrictions on pleasure that people still live under. These are all removed when the town is miraculously spared a hurricane and the people's priorities become, eating, sex, fist fighting and drinking in that order. Unfortunately, one of the four Alaskan friends - Jimmy - loses all his money, betting on his friend in a rigged boxing match. He is sentenced to death for the worst possible crime of having no money. The sentence is carried out, in this production by electrocution.
This was, for me, a gripping production and I left with a definite sense of mood change and having been enveloped by the opera. It is not just the bleakness of the messages but the clever juxtaposition of Weill's music with what is happening on stage and the overall strange absurdities, of for example Fatty eating himself to death. - Gebrauchsmusik and Verfremdungseffekt
It was the last night; otherwise I'd have been tempted to go again.
