Sieben Todsünden, Die

(‘The Seven Deadly Sins’).

Ballet chanté in eight parts by kurt Weill to texts by bertolt Brecht; Paris, Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées, 7 June 1933.

Anna I (soprano) and her sister, Anna II (dancer), set out from Louisiana. In seven years they hope
to earn enough in the big cities to return and build a house for their Family (two tenors, a
baritone and a bass – the last is ‘Mother’). Anna II is pretty, Anna I is practical. With just one
savings book between them, they are really two sides of the same person.

Sloth The family lives in the hope of Anna II becoming industrious. Its prayers are punctuated by
the proverb: ‘The devil makes work for idle hands’. Meanwhile, Anna II falls asleep during the
exploit she and her sister have devised: Anna II makes a scene by accosting strange men in the
park; Anna I then offers to remove her for a fee.

Pride In Memphis Anna II learns that ‘pride is something for the rich’. She thinks of her dancing
as art, but the cabaret audiences demand striptease for their money.

Anger In Los Angeles the sisters work as film extras. When Anna II protests at the ill-treatment of
a horse, she is sacked. Her sister teaches her to curb her anger in the interests of getting on.
Complaining of the paltry sums coming in, the Family prays that ‘our children may know the way that
leads to prosperity’.

Gluttony In Philadelphia Anna II is engaged as a solo dancer. She must watch her weight (two
servants with revolvers assist her) or break her contract.

Lust In Boston the sisters find a man called Edward who has money. But Anna II loves Fernando, who
has none. She is forced against her will to remain faithful to Edward.

Avarice Anna II spells financial ruin for Edward, who shoots himself. Others follow suit. Now in
Baltimore, she achieves fame. But eventually her naked displays of greed turn her fame into
notoriety.

Envy In San Francisco Anna II is envious of all those who commit sins with impunity. She is rebuked
by her sister and repents.

Epilogue After seven years away, the two Annas return to live in their little house in Louisiana.

The above synopsis is culled from the ballet’s sung texts, written by Brecht, and the scenario. The
latter was not by Brecht, as later assumed, but by the impresario Edward James and the artistic
director boris yevgen’yevich Kochno. James had agreed to fund the first season of Kochno’s and
Balanchine’s Parisian company ‘Les Ballets 1933’, provided they commissioned a new work from Weill.
That work, Die sieben Todsünden, turned out to be the collaboration of mutually estranged exiles.
Weill, recently arrived from Germany, initially wanted to work with Cocteau. James however insisted
on Brecht, from whom Weill had become alienated during the Berlin production of Aufstieg und Fall
der Stadt Mahagonny. The text and vocal score were written in April 1933, the full score during the
following month. Lotte Lenya, with whom Weill was going through divorce proceedings (they later
remarried), was also summoned. She sang the part of Anna I (her current lover, Otto von Pasetti,
who came from Vienna with her, was given a tenor part in the Family). The dancer, for whose
appeasement James had devised the ballet, was his wife, Tilly Losch, who divorced him the following
year. Caspar Neher (with whose wife Weill was having an affair) was persuaded to serve as stage
designer.

Each ‘sin’ is conceived as a separate musical number. The Family, all-male quartet, sings in all
but the outer movements, providing a kind of linking refrain, now with quasi-religious intonations,
now in the style of a German Singverein, now like a barbershop quartet, at all times in parodistic
vein. There is also a musical link with the transformation of the recurring opening motif. The
score represents a remarkable fusion of popular and classical styles with an almost symphonic
coherence.

Despite the personal complications of the original production, it proved a huge critical success.
When the troupe transferred to the Savoy Theatre in London on 28 June (the title having been
changed to Anna-Anna after intervention by the Lord Chamberlain) the critical reception was
lukewarm. Lenya’s revival of the work in the 1950s gave birth to a new version, with Anna I’s
numbers transposed down a perfect 4th. She thereby inaugurated a frequently-copied style of
performance at odds with her husband’s original intentions.

Stephen Hinton