Which crime deserves the ultimate punishment – cold blooded murder or failing to pay the bar tab? For the citizens of the mythical American town of Mahagonny, the answer is clearly the latter. In a town built on the values of libertarianism and consumerism, the greatest sin is poverty, and those with money are jury, judge and executioner.
Written (in 1930) at the end of Weimar era Germany by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny explores the founding of a city by three fugitives from justice, built in service to the lawless pursuit of four pleasures – food, booze, sex, and violence. The city flourishes with the arrival of an equal mix of scammers and their marks, including a troupe of Alabama prostitutes and a crew of lumberjacks returning from years of fruitless prospecting in Alaska. Initial laissez-faire attitudes morph into a venal free-for-all after a typhoon narrowly avoids destroying the place but destroys any remaining vestige of restraint.
Reflecting the values of its creators, Mahagonny is resolutely nihilistic, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist and ultimately anti-American. It is an exploration of what happens when the bedrock of society are greed and gluttony, with no redeeming characters nor expressions of love or kindness in its 2-hour 40 running time.
ENO uses the full, empty expanse of its vast stage to set the story, with simple props carried or flown in to denote the town saloon, a boxing ring, a storm shelter, even a courtroom and electric chair. The production by Jamie Manton is hugely inventive and entertaining – the storm that narrowly misses the town is depicted as a tap-dancing arrow emoji who can’t quite read his map, weaving his way through the crown before veering off into the distance.
There are vivid performance by Danielle de Niese as Jenny Smith, the lead prostitute who belts out two of opera’s showstoppers, the Alabama Song (covered by many artists over the years including The Doors) and Make Your Own Bed (a paean to the “every person for themselves” mindset), and Simon O’Neill as Jimmy MacIntyre, who is executed for being unable to pay for his whiskey. Best of all is Rosie Aldridge as Leokadja Begbick, the fugitive turned-barkeep who incites the townfolk to condemn Jimmy. The ENO chorus is on superb form as the menacing, hedonistic townfolk.
André de Ridder conducts an energetic account of the score, which has hints of jazz and cabaret within its largely atonal musical language.
Mahagonny makes you think and reflect on how little has changed in a century, and is as uncomfortable a watch today as it must have been in 1930. A must see.
Opera in three acts, composed by Kurt Weill
Libretto by Bertolt Brecht
Conducted by André de Ridder
Production by Jamie Manton
Designs by Milla Clarke, Lighting by D.M. Wood
Cast includes Danielle de Niese, Rosie Aldridge, Kenneth Kellogg, Mark Le Brocq and Simon O’Neill
Playing until 20th February 2026
Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including 20-minute interval
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton for English National Opera