The piece charts the seven-year journey of two sisters across the United States. Their mission is to get enough money to buy a small house for their family. Both are called Anna. One is the manager, the other is the performer; one (Anna I) is the salesperson, the other (Anna II) the article sold.
We first meet them in Louisiana and follow them through the big cities of America where Anna I promotes her sister. Under her persuasive guidance and the moralising threats of her family, Anna II is cajoled, persuaded and forced into selling herself. The seven deadly sins are used as a weapon to curb any resistance she puts up during her seven-year ordeal. When, early on in Memphis, she refuses to work as a stripper they accuse her of being precious and Proud. When in Los Angeles she stands up to an abusive film-director they deem it Anger. When in Boston she leaves her rich admirer for a man she loves, they accuse her of Lust. When in San Francisco, towards the end of their journey, she reproaches her sister for all she has been deprived of, she is accused of Envy. Successful but exhausted, the sisters return to Louisiana and their hard-earned little house.
The Seven Deadly Sins does not fit comfortably in the opera house. Brecht's theatre is as far removed from opera and ballet as it is from psychological realism of the naturalistic theatre. Like many artists of the Left between the world wars, both in the West and in the Soviet Union, Brecht drew inspiration primarily from popular culture: cabaret, dance-halls, jazz, circus and of course the cinema - Chaplin, Keaton, even early Disney were admired and claimed by the Left for its anarchic subversive quality and its immediacy.
Brecht and Weill compress the seven-year journey into 35 minutes. The narrative is thrust forward at a cinematic pace akin to a documentary or a newsreel - at times even a cartoon short. Anna I is our guide, our commentator; she addresses us directly, she narrates, evokes, enters and intervenes in the action. In seven songs she hits us with the facts of where the journey takes her and her sister and what they did - then moves on to reflect on what ought to happen and what should be done. She never reveals how she ‘feels’. There are no arias in The Seven Deadly Sins, no lyrical elaborations on emotionally poignant moments - Anna 1 speaks continuously and directly to us.
The choice to present the piece in Greek is inextricably linked to the speed of the narrative progression and that the vocal lines have the inflection and the immediacy of speech; Anna should be understood instantly and unmediated.
But even more important - the real power of the piece is the discrepancy between what is said and what actually happens. The hypocritical moralising of the family is at a constant odds with what is actually demanded of Anna II. Anna I tries to rationalise and justify the events, to gloss over the grim reality of sexual exploitation that is actually taking place. It is in front of this drama of deceit that our eyes must be firmly on the action (rather than six meters above it on operatic surtitles), for us to decipher the truth behind the words - our gaze should be firmly on Anna to discover who she really is and what really happened to her.