First performed in Leipzig in 1930 within the shadow of the Weimar Republic, the clue to Brecht and Weill’s dystopian opera lies in its title. There was nothing in this new staging to suggest anything belonging to Germany of nearly a century ago; Mahagonny here is more a Trump-inspired “hell hole” of empty promises where pleasure is paramount within a mythical utopia, where the only crime is not having any money. And that’s the crime that ultimately brings the death of the work’s central character, Jimmy MacIntyre. With its obscene pursuit of pleasure (think no further than Martin Amis’s 1984 book Money), director Jamie Manton situates the doomed city of Mahagonny somewhere in the American desert, a boomtown entangling the unwary in a web of consumerism, greed and moral decay.
A rarity in the opera house, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny has courted mixed reviews since its UK premiere in 1963 (Sadlers Wells), and singular productions by English National Opera (1995) and the Royal Opera House (2015). Fortunately, this new ENO staging is a winner and enjoys a terrific cast, superb orchestral playing thanks to Musical Director Designate André de Ridder and a convincing set courtesy of Milla Clarke.
A modest-sized shipping container does for the broken-down van that deposits the three runaway criminals – Widow Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty the Bookkeeper – onto a mostly deserted stage, itself suggestive of a moral wasteland. Said van is later repurposed as a brothel, a refuge from a hurricane, before rising to reveal a boxing ring. Amongst Manton’s imaginative touches there include a white-robed continuity announcer who outlines the work’s wafer-thin plot (the hooded megaphone bringing echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale), a hosepipe draws urine from the toilet and converts it into whisky and, most memorably, a tap dancer-cum-weather forecaster who embodies a hurricane that’s mysteriously diverted. For all the creative spark, this production is not without its longueurs, and one soon tires of its bland sermonising (“Peace and contentment don’t exist” etc). If the Brecht / Weill collaboration had once alarmed its first audiences, there’s little to shock here, not even the scene where one of the lumberjacks eats himself to death, or the men (and women) wait in line to visit Jenny’s sex parlour.
Yet there is nothing tame in any of the singing, least of all from the Wagnerian-sized tenor of Simon O’Neill as Jimmy who soars over the orchestra with ease, compelling vocally if not always with beauty of tone, but with a voice right for the role. The lament where he bemoans his future is devastating, one of several passages where Weill scales back the hard-edged music to striking effect. Jimmy’s workmates – Alex Otterburn (Bank-Account Billy), Elgan Llŷr Thomas (Jack O’Brien) and David Shipley (Alaska Wolf Joe) – all impress, notably so in their unaccompanied singing within Act 1. Elsewhere, Rosie Aldridge is characterful as Leokadja Begbick, and her co-conspirators Kenneth Kellogg (Trinity Moses) and Mark Le Brocq (Fatty the Bookkeeper) each make their mark. No less impressive vocally is the singing of Danielle de Niese as Jenny, the boss of the sex-workers, who tugs at our emotions in “There is no whisky in this town”, earlier rising to the occasion in the celebrated Alabama song.
From the pit there are some lovely cameos, not least a doleful guitar, a honkytonk piano giving out a virtuosic rendition of the Maiden’s Prayer and a soulful saxophone bringing shapely phrases to Jenny and Jimmy’s first duet. Beyond these ear-catching moments, André de Ridder seamlessly integrates the score’s stylistic incongruities with its fusion of cabaret, jazz, opera, even a Baroque fugue.
Notwithstanding the energetic musical direction and well-judged tempi, there was a sense of being pulled in opposite directions – Brecht’s half empty glass of a plot with all its social finger wagging and Weill’s half full glass of a score that simultaneously invigorates and undercuts the moralising. Maybe that’s why I came away from this production feeling so unsettled. That said, there were some glorious moments, and ENO should be rightly proud of this latest venture.
David Truslove
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Music: Kurt Weill
Libretto: Bertholt Brecht
Cast and Production Staff:
Leocadia Begbick – Rosie Aldridge; Fatty – Marc Le Broc; Trinity Moses – Kenneth Kellogg; Jenny Smith – Danielle de Niese; Jimmy McIntyre – Simon O’Neill; Jack O’Brien – Elgan Llŷr Thomas; Bank Account Billy – Alex Otterburn; Alaska Wolf Joe – David Shipley;
Toby Higgins – Zwakele Tshabalala; Girls – Susanna Tudor-Thomas, Joanne Appleby, Ella Kirkpatrick, Deborah Davison, Sophie Goldrick, Claire Mitcher; Boys – Damon Gould, Adam Taylor
Director – Jamie Manton; Designer – Millie Clarke; Lighting – D.M. Wood; Choreographer – Lizzie Gee; Intimacy and Fight Director – Haruka Kuroda; Sound Designer – Jake Moore; Translator – Jeremy Sams; Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera; Conductor – André de Ridder
English National Opera, London Coliseum; 16 February 2026
Top image: Danielle de Niese
All photos © Tristram Kenton