PRESS RELEASE:

Tony Award winners Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald and John Doyle star in a new production of one of the great 20th-century operas, when Great Performances presents "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny' from L.A. Opera", airing Monday, December 17, at 8 p.m. on KUED-Channel 7.

From composer Kurt Weill and playwright Bertolt Brecht - creators of "The Threepenny Opera" - comes a savage and lyrical satire told in a highly entertaining blend of opera and raucous music hall songs conducted by music director James Conlon.

Patti LuPone and John Doyle, the star and director of Broadway's highly acclaimed revival of Sweeney Todd, re-team for their LA Opera debuts, joined by acclaimed tenor Anthony Dean Griffey. It's every man for himself in the newly founded city of Mahagonny, devoted to life's illicit pleasures, where anything goes and the only crime is to run out of money. The brilliant score, featuring the classic song "Moon of Alabama," masterfully creates a vivid picture of determination, desperation and debauchery.

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