NOI Philharmonic: Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins

What does it mean to be an American immigrant? That is the question at the heart of NOI+F 2024’s opening performance, spotlighting an array of historical perspectives into this key inquiry into our national identity. Conductor John Morris Russell of the Cincinnati Pops celebrates his 10-year anniversary opening NOI+F with a program that begins with performances of two unalloyed symbols of Americana: The Star-Spangled Banner and Charles Ives' Variations on America. The NOI Philharmonic continues with works from a selection of composers ultimately claimed by the United States and whose journeys across borders deeply informs their music: the Russian Igor Stravinsky and his Scherzo a la Russe; Hungarian Miklós Rozsa and his Oscar-nominated Parade of the Charioteers and the Kings Row Suite from Austrian Erich Wolfgang Korngold's soundtrack for the titular 1942 movie. Next, the audience is invited to sample more contemporary visions of American experience: Argentinian nuevo tango revolutionary Astor Piazzolla's 1959 elegy to his father Adios Nonino, penned while in New York; and Armenian-American Mary Kouyoumdjian's 2013 orchestral composition Diary of an Immigrant, meant to capture (in her words) "the strange and bittersweet stillness once immigration is achieved." The evening concludes with Kurt Weill's 1933 score to The Seven Deadly Sins. Created by Weill in Paris before he had ever even visited the U.S., the work plots a satirical musical travelogue of America's cities, each as representative of a chief vice.This ballet chanté would be Weill's last major collaboration with his longtime creative partner Bertolt Brecht, who provides lyrics for our special vocal guests, select members of Wolf Trap Opera.