Weill - Die sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins)
I. Prolog
Lotte Lenya, Anna I / Anna II
Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, cond. (1957)
Die sieben Todsünden (1933), billed as a “sung ballet,” was the first collaboration between Weill and Bertolt Brecht after a period of estrangement. It is a delicious satire on bourgeois family values: Anna, the protagonist, seeks gainful employment in various American cities to finance the building of a home for her family in Louisiana, a family which continually judges her behavior while remaining dependent on her handouts and completely unhelpful in the task at hand. They admonish her to avoid each of the “seven deadly sins,” but always for selfish, earthly reasons. In the “Gluttony” movement, for example, Anna is warned (in the style of a Lutheran chorale) not to overeat lest she lose her job as a dancer.
In the prologue, we learn that Anna has a kind of split personality, with her more adventurous half represented by a dancer with occasional spoken lines and her practical self by a singer. In this classic recording from the 1950s Lenya presents the music in a significantly lower key for a more sultry effect, a move seen as controversial by some as it was apparently never discussed with her late husband, the composer—but her delivery has been universally hailed as superlative. The family, sung by a male quartet, does not appear in this movement.
(You may also enjoy this video production conducted by Nagano.)