'Mahagonny' Airs on PBS Dec.17; with LuPone, McDonald & LA Opera

The LA Opera production of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny will premiere on PBS "Great Performances" on Monday, December 17.  Check local listings for broadcast time.

Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald star in this all new production of a "savage and lyrical satire" by composer Kurt Weill and playwright Bertolt Brecht (Threepenny Opera).  Tony Award winner John Doyle directs. 

LuPone and McDonald are joined by acclaimed tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, plus Robert Worle, John Easterlin, Mel Ulrich and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Los Angeles Opera.  James Conlon is conductor.

PBS describes: "It's every man for himself in the newly founded city of Mahagonny, devoted to life's illicit pleasures, where anything goes and the only crime is to run out of money. The brilliant score, featuring the Brecht-Weill classic 'Moon of Alabama,' masterfully creates a vivid picture of determination, desperation, and debauchery."

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny PBS Great Performances video recording is available for pre-order on Amazon.com, to be released Tuesday, December 18.

Amazon describes: "Welcome to Mahagonny, where sin is 'in' and love is always on sale. This Old West boomtown rises from the desert to become a razzle-dazzle mecca for lust, liberty, and the pursuit of pleasure. Cash is king, poverty is punishable by death, and anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Director John Doyle melds his Tony Award winning talent with the lyrics of influential playwright Bertolt Brecht and an incomparable score by Kurt Weill.

The performance was recorded live at the LA Opera on March 1 and 4, 2007.  Special funding for the filming of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny was provided by Eva and Marc Stern.