Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny review – big and brash staging for Brecht and Weill’s whisky-soaked dystopia

2026-02-17 - 15:03

London Coliseum Jamie Manton’s new production for English National Opera is sparky and substantial. Danielle de Niese brings star quality to tarty Jenny, and the chorus are consistently superb What’s the worst crime in Mahagonny, the spider-web city built by three cons in order to extract a living out of sucker tourists? Not having any cash. ENO knows all too well how that particular predicament feels. Somehow, though, Jamie Manton’s new production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera manages to make a virtue of thriftiness, yet still feels substantial. For a start, it’s big. In Brechtian style, the whole breadth and depth of the Coliseum stage is open: it feels almost as if this should be an immersive production, with the audience up there in the performers’ midst. Milla Clarke’s set, centred on a huge container, reuses elements that ENO regulars will recognise from productions long past, and the costumes look like the spoils from a charity-shop sweep – which fits the trashy aesthetic. Continue reading...