Davies conducts Weill: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny

It took 68 years for [Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt] Mahagonny to come to the Salzburg Festival, but it arrived in style. In Peter Zadek’s bold 1998 production the denizens of Brecht and Weill’s sin city crowd the vast stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus, and conductor Dennis Russell Davies brings an uncompromising zest and grit to the playing of the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. But Weill was always adamant that Mahagonny is an “epic opera”, and Salzburg never stints on that score. Catherine Malfitano and Jerry Hadley head a cast that stars Dame Gywyneth Jones as Widow Begbick: performances exactly as outsized, and as gripping, as Weill demanded.

Soloists: 

Gwyneth Jones (Soprano), Roy Cornelius Smith (Tenor), Wilbur Pauley (Baritone), Catherine Malfitano (Soprano), Jerry Hadley (Tenor), Udo Holdorf (Tenor), Dale Duesing (Baritone), Harry Peeters (Bass), Toby Spence (Tenor), Annabel von Arnim (Singer), June Card (Soprano), Sona MacDonald (Mezzo-Soprano), Stella Fürst (Soprano), Barbara Hannigan (Soprano), Zazie de Paris (Singer), Jo Ann Pickens (Soprano)

Ensembles: 

Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien

Conductor: 

Dennis Russell Davies