31 MARCH — 23 APRIL
The Seven Deadly Sins & Mahagonny Songspiel
Kurt Weill: THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Ballet with songs
Text by Bertolt Brecht
English translation by Michael Feingold
This performance is given by permission of Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd, exclusive agents for Schott Music Ltd of Mainz
MAHAGONNY SONGSPIEL
Music by Kurt Weill. Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht.
Presented under license from European American Music Corporation, on behalf of The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., and the Brecht Heirs
Directed By Constantine Costi
A Tap Dance On The Edge Of The World.
A drunken reverie.
An unconventional live orchestra featuring a banjo and a piano on it’s last legs
Constantine Costi and his team present a Kurt Weill Double Bill of operatic cantata, dance, and theatrical mayhem. The Seven Deadly Sins (Weill/Brecht) sees two sisters hustling their way across America. They will charm and swindle to make ends meet in any way they can to survive.
Mahagonny Songspiel (Weill/Hauptmann/Brecht) is a manic celebration of the fall of a fictitious city, Mahagonny, whose gold façade is nothing but a cover for nausea, vice, and despair. The Fitz has always been a space where anything is possible, and for the first time it will be home to a debauched operatic spectacle.
Creative team
Presented by: Red Line Productions
Director Constantine Costi
Conductor Brian Castles-Onion AM
Conductor Simon Bruckard (from April 5)
Choreographer Shannon Burns
Associate Director Tabatha McFadyen
Set Designer Charles Davis
Associate Set Designer Cris Baldwin
Costume Designer Emma White
Lighting Designer Trent Suidgeest
Stage Manager Christopher Starnawski
Performers Margaret Trubiano, Nicholas Jones, Benjamin Rasheed, Andy Moran, Anthony Mackey & Roberta Diamond
Dancer Allie Graham
Repetiteur Antonio Fernandez
Orchestra: Ensemble Apex
Flute | Breeanna Moore / Emilia Antcliff
Clarinet I | Dayna Johnston
Clarinet II Sax | Alice V Morgan
Clarinet III | Jared Mattes
Bassoon | Tiger Chou
Trumpet I | Matt Carter
Trumpet II | Indi Williams
Trombone | Andrew Nissen / Jarrod Calloghan
Horn | Simon Jones
Percussion | Salina Myatt
Piano | Estelle Shircore Baker
Violin I | Monty Guo
Violin II | Mateja Primorac
Viola | Cienna Irwin
Cello | Seb Mansell / Val Suraev
Double Bass | Julia Magri / Will Hansen
Banjo | Sidney Brien
Dates + Ticketing
Previews: 31 March & 1 April 2022
Season: 2 April - 23 April 2022
Approximate run time: One hour
Content Note:
Light sexual references
Gun and gun shot sound effect
Mention of suicide
Mention of sex work
Theatrical Haze
Partners
This performance is funded in part by the Kurt Weill
Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY
Generously supported by Goethe-Institut
Image credit: Robert Catto
Image credit: Robert Catto
Image credit: Robert Catto
Image credit: Robert Catto
Image credit: Robert Catto
Image credit: Robert Catto
Image credit: Robert Catto
Select Reviews
"Improbably wondrous... it's hard to imagine the works being done much better"
— Sydney Morning Herald
“A must-see for Brecht-Weill lovers. And for those who aren’t yet Brecht-Weill fans, this show might well convert them”
— Sydney Arts Guide
"Bringing world class opera to an unexpected place, with unsuspecting audiences, is a mammoth undertaking.”
— Suzy Goes See
From Cat, Con & Alex: The Old Fitz Theatre Artistic Directors
“One of the things we love about the Old Fitz is that whenever the bell rings, and you make your way down the stairs from the pub, you never quite know what to expect behind the door of the theatre. Entering the space, it somehow seems to defy physics and shrinks or grows in mystifying ways. The next work is going to test this to the extreme as we cram a 16-piece orchestra onto the Old Fitz stage for a Kurt Weill Opera Double Bill featuring Mahagonny Songspiel and The Seven Deadly Sins directed by Constantine Costi. A frantic danse macabre. A sung ballet. A musical celebration of debauchery and vice. Expect a night of big voices and big ideas, and a wall of sound, live on the Old Fitz stage.”