British Director and Jette Parker Young Artist Isabelle Kettle reimagines Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s darkly satirical operas in a timely comment on gender politics. This production has been created with streaming in mind, building the filming element of the piece into the viewing experience while drawing on choreographer and movement director Julia Cheng’s background in hip-hop, contemporary dance and physical theatre. The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel depict a crisis of femininity and a crisis of masculinity respectively. 

Opening with The Seven Deadly Sins, Weill’s witty, satirical ballet chanté (sung ballet) is a work in seven scenes, following two aspects of one central character, Anna, as she embarks on a journey that reveals a new sin with every new city. This production calls into question the reality of the women we encounter and the ways in which they are constructed for online consumption. 

Mahagonny Songspiel is a concentrated musical and dramatic encapsulation of the story about the rise to prominence and fall into decadence of an imaginary city founded on vice that Weill and Brecht subsequently made into a full-length opera – Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. This production presents rich patrons of capitalism, reminiscent of the family from The Seven Deadly Sins and what they might have become, escaping from their world of responsibilities into an Edenic space, which leaves them reckoning with their own guilt.

Follow our main character Anna at @anna.roh21 on Instagram for live updates from the stage throughout the show. 

Production credits

Multi-camera Director Peter Jones | Assistant conductor Erika Gundesen | Répétiteur & Pit piano Michael Sikich| Musical Supervision David Gowland | Language coach Katja Parmar |Subtitles Andrew Kingsmill, Magdalena McLean | Assistant directors  Harriet Taylor, Ester Rudhart |Stage Management Simon Catchpole, Adam Lawley, Jessica Stanton | Costume Production Manager Sharon Marlowe| Hair and Make-up Melanie Bouvet | Footwear technician Ronald Taylor | Producer Angelique MacDonald | Production Manager Clíona Ní Mhocháin | Royal Opera House Technical & Production Departments| Model Room Draughtsperson Laura Foy| Production Carpenter John Bevan | Senior Production Co-ordinator Kit Withnail | Head of Film & Broadcast Production Anja Zoll-Khan | Head of Jette Parker Young Artists Programme Elaine Kidd | Director of Opera Oliver Mears