The Seven Deadly Sins

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The Seven Deadly (or Cardinal) Sins--Sloth, Pride, Anger, Gluttony, Lust, Greed, and Envy--do not appear as such in the Bible. Since early Christian times theologians incorporated them into Church teachings as examples of sins that led to other sins. In the Weill-Brecht collaboration, these forbidden human frailties are explored in a cabaret-style melding of music, song, dance, and spectacle. A sometimes bittersweet, sometimes sardonic morality play set in an imagined America (neither composer or librettist had yet been to the United States), it tells the story of two Annas (perhaps sisters, perhaps alter-egos) as they travel to seven cities to earn enough money so their family can "build a little home down by the Mississippi in Louisiana," encountering in each city one of the title sins. The two Annas are very different: Anna 1 sings "[Anna 2's] the one with looks, I'm realistic/She's just a little mad, my head's on straight..." Weill's score combines popular music from the 1920s and 30s (foxtrots, waltzes), with a barbershop quartet, marches and hymns into a melodic symphonic whole filled with the driving rhythms and unusual orchestrations that are a hallmark of his work.

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