The work is about an experience of sisters in Louisiana, “down by the Mississippi,” and given by their parents, “mum and dad “and both our brothers” to a seven-city, seven-year journey to earn enough to construct a tiny home.
The sisters are thought of in the form of “a double figure under a single shawl or cloak.” They are both called Anna. Anna 1 is the one whose “head is on straight” is the type of entrepreneur as well, and Anna 11, “the one with the looks,” is the artist. Or, as Brecht says, “the article sold.” “The Family” is a choral singing a constant analysis of human resources, commodity price strategies to avoid risk, and the likely dividends. They defy the biblical call to be a good person and avoid sin. They also come in sync by embracing the capitalist obligation to exploit corruption to earn money.
The devoted daughters return with their money, tired but satisfied, their future, and by extension, it is theirs to decide. “Right, Anna” and “Right Anna” finish within their Epilogue (1979, the year 83).
Meow Meow in Victorian Opera’s Seven Deadly Sins. Magnus Hastings/Victorian Opera
Contrary to their famous large-scale operatic pieces, like The Threepenny Opera (1928), Happy End (1929), and The Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny (1930), The Seven Deadly Sins is a streamlined rendition of Weimar musicals.
The themes of exploitation, capitalism of people experiencing poverty, commodification, and loss that are infused with gender and portrayed through the wit of dance, song, and music are glimpses of an overall picture. While the film is supposedly set in 1920s America, the period and location are more easily recognized as the Brechtian “America” – an unpopular low-life version of Berlin where the sucker-values of dog-eat-dog sales are not at all affected by religion and innocents are degraded, and women are sexually assaulted and abused.
This clever and sophisticated dose of left-wing sexual politics is well laid out in a story in which Anna is measured every day to determine if she has gained “half an ounce.” If she does, she will lose her value as a commodity.
The gender of the character is crucial as the female character is a double alienation, first as a worker, then as a woman in patriarchy. The surface is not there to be a person to identify with but is considered a symbol by the performer who disengages herself from the persona.
The Musicologist, as well as the expert on Kurt Weill specialist, Kim Kowalke, has been among the few scholars who have written about The Seven Deadly Sins (2005). The story he tells of the origins of the song is an interesting story of the remarkable collaboration between German as well as Russian refugees from Hitler and Stalin who had a brief meeting in Paris in 1933.