The Seven Deadly Sins Tickets

Opera Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium

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Important Info

Type: Ballet

City: Antwerp, Belgium

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

History

Premiere of this production: 07 June 1933, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris

The Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chanté ("sung ballet") in seven scenes (nine movements, including a Prologue and Epilogue) composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James. It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. It was the last major collaboration between Weill and Brecht.

Synopsis

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. Anna I, the singer, is the principal vocal role. Anna II, the dancer, is heard only infrequently and the text hints at the possibility that the two Annas are the same person: "To convey the ambivalence inherent in the 'sinner', Brecht splits the personality of Anna into Anna I, the cynical impresario with a practical sense and conscience, and Anna II, the emotional, impulsive, artistic beauty, the salable product with an all too human heart." Anna I sings:

She's the one with the looks. I'm realistic. She's just a little mad, my head is on straight. But we're really one divided being, even though you see two of us. And both of us are Anna. Together we've but a single past, a single future, one heart, and one saving account and we only do what suits each other best. Right, Anna?

"The Family", a male quartet, fills the role of a Greek chorus. They refer to Anna as a single daughter of the family, making a verbal allusion to her divided nature: "Will our Anna pull herself together?" The sisters set out from the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana to find their fortune in the big cities, intending to send their family enough money to build a little house on the river. After the prologue, in which Anna I introduces the sisters and their plans, each of seven scenes is devoted to one of the seven deadly sins, each encountered in a different American city:

Prologue
Faulheit / Sloth (city unnamed)
Stolz / Pride (Memphis)
Zorn / Wrath (Los Angeles)
Völlerei / Gluttony (Philadelphia)
Unzucht / Lust (Boston)
Habsucht / Greed (Tennessee, in posthumous versions Baltimore)
Neid / Envy (San Francisco)
Epilogue (home, in the new little house)

While securing the means to build the little house over the course of seven years, Anna II envies those who can engage in the sins she must abjure. The epilogue ends on a sober note, as Anna II's responds with resignation to her sister: "Yes, Anna."

Venue Info

Opera Antwerpen - Antwerp
Frankrijklei 1

The Royal Flemish Opera was the almost 100-year-old independent Antwerp city opera until its merger in 1981 with the Royal Opera in Ghent. Both city operas were merged into the Opera voor Vlaanderen organization, renamed Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in 2014. Anyone entering an opera house immediately gets a special feeling. The imposing buildings with their ancient decorations and stately staircases and columns immediately transport you to another era: that of red carpets and opulent luxury. Going to a performance in this unique setting gives your opera visit that little bit more. However, opera houses are not only venues for performances, they also tell a story in themselves. Although they are old, they have not always existed, and both locations have undergone extensive restoration.

Opera has been performed in Antwerp since 1660, first in the Spaansche Pant on the Grote Markt and later in the Tapissiers building on the site where the Bourlaschouwburg would later be built.
In 1834, the Bourlaschouwburg opened as the Théâtre Royal. Only French repertoire was performed. Some locals still refer to the Bourlaschouwburg as 'French opera'.
Spurred on by composer Peter Benoit, among others, Antwerp decided in 1899 to build a Flemish Opera as a counterpart to the Bourlaschouwburg.
One of the ideas was to build an opera house in the city park, but this met with much protest. It was feared that the park would lose its character.
Eventually, the choice was made to build the Kunstlei (the current Frankrijklei) on the spot where the covered Hallen en Markten (the Criée) used to be. These had moved to the Van Wesenbekestraat. Construction started in 1904 and lasted three years.
On 18 October 1907, the Flemish Opera in Antwerp was festively opened. The neo-baroque building decorated in Louis XVI style was immediately loved by the public.
All the public, rich and not so rich, entered the hall, a very democratic idea for that time. Those with money walked straight up the stately stairs to the ground floor or first balcony. Those who sat on the higher, cheaper balconies had to take a separate staircase to get there.
Today, the hall has 1081 seats. The ceiling fresco represents Rythmus and shows a male figure surrounded by nine female muses.
At the opening, the opera was technically very modern, as it made full use of the new electric light. The opening of the stage measures 11.90 metres in width.
The stage tower is 23 metres high.
In 2004, the opera closed for the first time for a thorough renovation, which was to last three years. The technology was modernized, the stage was given a side stage, and a new building for offices and workrooms was built.