Brecht's "Mahagonny"

I'm really looking forward to teaching Brecht's opera "Mahagonny" in my introductory course, "From Kafka to Jelinek." Not only is the text a huge lot of fun, it may also allow us to do some singing in class.

There's just one problem: the class is conducted entirely in German, and the two most famous songs are in English. "Alabama Song" and "Benares Song" were written by Brecht's collaborator, Elisabeth Hauptmann. The English she used is rather bizarre ("Is here no telephone?" runs the first line of the Benares Song). So perhaps we can count the songs as a kind of German, after all. I'm still thinking about this issue and will report back later in the semester.

bamberg_mahagonny_7._juli_2014.docx23 KB
See also: Brecht