Weill Triptych

The opportunity to downsize orchestras and scenery ‘facilitated’ by the long months of the pandemic has led to the creation of a small jewel of theatre and music, the diptych dedicated to Kurt Weill by Riccardo Chailly. Director Irina Brook reread Bertolt Brecht’s caustic social commentary from an environmental angle, inventing a minimalistic scenography with discarded materials and a sea of plastic bottles. The diptych comprising Die sieben Todsünden and Mahagonny Songspiel now becomes a triptych with the addition of a new production of The Songs of Happy End, which introduces “Surabaya Johnny” among the other famous pieces performed (including “Alabama-Song”).