Melbourne Opera: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

As the first main stage production in Australia in over forty years, Melbourne Opera and IOpera will present a stunning reinterpretation of Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at The Athenaeum from 1 May.

Composed over 100 years ago with the first performance in Leipzig in 1930, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a timeless political-satirical opera that was banned in Germany in 1933 by the Nazi movement.

Director Suzanne Chaundy (Das Rheingold, The Flying Dutchman) bravely navigated COVID-19 lockdowns to stage the first production of Wagner’s epic Ring cycle, Das Rheingold, and will now take on the revolutionary work of Brecht, Hauptmann and Weill.

The production will see two-time Helpmann Award-winner James Egglestone in the role of Jimmy, who just enjoyed enormous success as Loge in Das Rheingold for Melbourne Opera, perform alongside his wife, the highly accomplished and brilliantly talented Antoinette Halloran as the controversial Jenny Smith, who recently gave a stellar performance in the leading role of Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd.

While pursuing his career in London, Aussie rising star in the role of Fatty the Bookkeeper, Samuel Sakker, was on an upward trajectory with major debut performances lined up when COVID-19 lockdown hit. With all his contracts for the next six months gone, Simon went from a London stage to a hospital ward.

Chaundy’s past work as a theatre director has seen her directed works by (and influenced by) Brecht and Hauptmann. “I am so happy to bring The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny into my opera practice.”

“Brecht and Hauptmann were amongst the most revolutionary theatre makers of the early twentieth century and the resonances of their stylistic conventions still play through into the nuances of the most contemporary theatre makers today,” says Chaundy.

The score draws on grand-opera, operetta, and the jazz-infused popular music of the roaring ‘20’s and is created by the same team who wrote The Threepenny Opera (‘Mack the Knife’). One of the most famous numbers in Mahagonny is the ‘Alabama Song’ sung by Jenny (played by Halloran), a landmark role for opera singers and ‘cross-over’ singers alike. This role has been performed by many extraordinary artists from Lotte Lenya to Audra Mc Donald, and the song has been covered by David Bowie and The Doors.

Rounding out the critically acclaimed lead cast are Christopher Hillier (Zurga in The Pearl Fishers), Andrea Creighton (Carlotta Guidicelli in the recent Australasian tour of The Phantom of the Opera), Samuel Sakker (Rodolfo in Scottish Opera’s La Bohème), Christopher Tonkin (Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Fraser Findlay (Jamie Wellerstein in The Last Five Years), Darcy Carroll (Richard Divall Emerging Artist), Zac McCulloch (Many roles for Opera Australia) as well as the brilliantly talented Melbourne Opera chorus with the legendary Raymond Lawrence (Macbeth) as Chorus Master.

This co-production by Melbourne Opera and IOpera offers a wonderful opportunity for Melbourne Opera to present a different aspect of the repertoire long absent from Victorian stages.