Oh I definitely enjoyed this opera. It's an opera from 1930, and is definitely an opera that is anti-Wagner so to speak.
Three criminals on the run found a city dedicated to pleasure and money to trap gold miners coming down from Alaska. However, the city is initially too boring. Facing a hurricane that bypasses them, anarchy engulfs the city. Anything is permitted — gluttony, lust, violence — except having no money. Jimmy (one of the gold miners from Alaska) eventually commits the capital crime of failing to pay for his whiskey and is executed. Given this bizarre plot, the opera showcases themes like the commodification of pleasure, the brutality of capitalism, the hypocrisy of "freedom" in a consumer society, and the alienation of the individual. Its musical style is a unique fusion of Neo-Baroque counterpoint, 1920s jazz/cabaret, and Expressionist dissonance. It is Anti-Romantic to its core.
I really appreciated Weill's musical architecture in this opera, considering my dislike of "mushy" late-Romantic textures. This is not a lush Wagnerian orchestra. Weill uses a "radio orchestra" sound: saxophones, banjo, piano, zither, and bandoneon mixed with traditional strings and winds. The texture is transparent, dry, and rhythmic. Harmonically, it sounds tonal but is full of "wrong" notes, bitonality, and unresolved 7th/9th chords that give it a bruised, cynical quality. It avoids the "sentimental" resolutions that I dislike.
Historically, it was first performed in Leipzig in 1930. I learned that there was a riot during the premiere due to Nazi instigators. Of course, when the Nazis later came to power, they banned this work, and Weill fled Germany. Given this historical significance, I definitely wanted to check it out. And yes, it was definitely worth it.
Overall, I enjoyed this performance, for various reasons. It is anti-Romantic, it matches my political and edgy preferences, and it connects with my love of percussive and rhythmic complexity. I am glad that I saw this in the Komische Oper in Berlin, as opposed to the Deutsche Oper in Berlin - both opera houses have staged it in the recent past and I have read not so flattering reviews on the version of the Deutsche Oper, given that they have taken the opera out of the stage and used the entire building as a staging alternative. Somehow, that alternative staging would have been too distracting.
