The Seven Deadly Sins
Concerts & Performances, Events of the Week
Persecuted by the Nazi regime, Viktor Ullmann, Peter Kien, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht wrote defiantly satirical works that endure to this day. Directors Yuval Sharon, Alexander Gedeon, Bill Barclay and Stéphane Denève juxtapose dance and theater with New World Center’s cutting-edge technology in a haunting tribute to those lost to the horrors of war and fascism.
Composer Ullmann and poet Kien were prisoners in the Nazi propaganda camp Terezín when creating the one-act opera The Kaiser of Atlantis. Ullmann and Kien were murdered at Auschwitz, but their work lives on through the visionary direction of Yuval Sharon. “By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon,” wrote Ullmann of his imprisonment at Terezín. “Our will to create was commensurate with our will to live.”
When Nazis seized control of Berlin, Weill partnered with longtime collaborator Brecht to write The Seven Deadly Sins, a sung ballet and biting critique of capitalism that would mark the end of the duo’s partnership. Soprano Danielle de Niese plays Anna, our split personality heroine whose journey through America mirrors Weill’s journey across Europe as he sought a new artistic home. Weill survived the war and found success in New York, where he established himself as one of the most important voices in musical theater. His work went on to be performed by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, The Doors and David Bowie.
