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Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s "Die Sieben Todsünden": Exile and Exilic Legacy in Performance, 1933-2020

Kirkendall, Ellen
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7408-1649
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1657797290068373

Abstract Details

2022, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Germanic Languages and Literature.
My dissertation investigates "The Seven Deadly Sins" (full title in German: "Die sieben Todsünden der Kleinbürger") written by the famous German playwright Bertolt Brecht, with music composed by Kurt Weill, from its Paris, France, premiere in exile during the Third Reich, to the twenty-first century. "The Seven Deadly Sins" embodies a gray area between opera and ballet, which has shaped its varied performance history. It features two women as the main protagonist, Anna, divided into Anna I (a singer) and Anna II (a dancer), who is sent on her own journey of exile across seven different cities in the United States by her patriarchal family unit over the course of seven years. The goal of her journey is to become a famous actress and to send money home to her family to build a house in her native Louisiana. "The Seven Deadly Sins" is an outlier among Brecht and Weill’s collaborations together as a “sung-ballet.” They are famous for working together on Brecht’s signature style of theater, the “epic theater,” which promotes critical thinking over emotion; they had never written a ballet together before in their native Germany. Thus, "The Seven Deadly Sins" was a result of the two writing in exile and as a result, outside influences crept into the epic theater. Therefore, "The Seven Deadly Sins" has not received the same amount of attention as Brecht and Weill’s other works, which are more standard examples of epic theater. As such, instead of labeling this work as a “sung-ballet,” I argue that it should be recognized as a piece of “exilic theater.” Therefore, my work can be seen as a unique and innovative contribution to the field of German Studies, by bridging the gap between our literary field and the arts, and by strengthening growing ties between disciplines in the humanities who write on Theater and Performance Studies, Musicology, and Exile Studies.
Valerie Weinstein, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Evan Torner, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Joy Calico, PhD (Committee Member)
221 p.
Germanic Literature
The Seven Deadly Sins; Die sieben Todsunden; exile; Theater and Performance Studies; Music; Dance

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kirkendall, E. (2022). Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s "Die Sieben Todsünden": Exile and Exilic Legacy in Performance, 1933-2020 [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1657797290068373

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kirkendall, Ellen. Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s "Die Sieben Todsünden": Exile and Exilic Legacy in Performance, 1933-2020. 2022. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1657797290068373.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kirkendall, Ellen. "Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s "Die Sieben Todsünden": Exile and Exilic Legacy in Performance, 1933-2020." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1657797290068373

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1657797290068373
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.