James Zehm:

>Kurt Weill's "Die Sieben Todsuenden" intrigued me...how shall this work
>really be interpreted? I suggest it is a critizism (what to expect from
>Weill?) of the bourgeoisie's (remember the original title is: "Die sieben
>Todsuenden des Kleinbuegers") double nature.  The dual personality of Anna
>should indicate this.  But how shall this really be interpreted? In her
>first "Lied der Schwester", Anna the Sister ensures us that "Wir sind
>eigentlich nicht zwei Personen sondern nur eine einzige..." (We are in
>fact not two persons, just one).  Meanwhile the family sings: "may the
>Lord entlighten our children".  etc.

Weill wrote the work for a principal singer and a principal dancer,
I believe to accomodate Lenya and Tilly Losch, whose husband was
responsible for the commission.  However, Anna I and Anna II (as they
are referred to) are really two aspects of the same person.  The singing
Anna is the "practical" one - hypocritical, cynical, selfish.  The dancing
Anna is sentimental, sweet, kind, and too weak to act - in Jungian terms,
perhaps, the anima.  The very first song makes the unity of these "two"
Annas clear - "We are in fact not two people, but only one.  We are
both called Anna.  We have one Past and one future, one heart and one
savings-account book." The family's use of plural is really the same as
Anna I's referral to the "sister" - it is to the personality in conflict
with itself.  Remember, however, that the "family" is simply the chorus
and, as such, can stand for Anna's projection, rather than a real entity.

By the way, in the 1933 London production, the ballet - directed and
designed by Caspar Neher - was called Anna Anna.

[log in to unmask] (Steven Schwartz)