News Release

‘Seven Deadly Sins,’ a sung ballet,
to be performed March 8-9 at UNC

CHAPEL HILL – "The Seven Deadly Sins," a ballet chanté, or ballet with songs, will be performed at 8:15 p.m. March 8-9 in the Center for Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Students and faculty from UNC and Duke University will present the one-act theatrical work in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre of the center, located on Country Club Road. Admission will be free; donations will be accepted.

The musical collaboration by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, choreographed by George Balanchine, incorporates elements of dance, song and drama. Cocoa Chanel funded the first production, staged in Paris in 1933. Brecht called the piece "a critique of the corruption of the individual within a capitalistic society."

In nine scenes, "The Seven Deadly Sins" follows a practical young woman (Anna I) and her impulsive and flighty alter-ego (Anna II). Anna’s family sends her on a seven-year journey through American cities to earn money for a house by dancing. In each city, Anna succumbs to one of the "seven deadly sins": sloth, pride, anger, gluttony, lust, covetousness and envy.

UNC music professor Dr. Terry Rhodes and Julie Fishell, a UNC adjunct assistant professor of dramatic art, are producing the ballet chanté with Duke associate professor of music Jane Hawkins and Jessi Knight Walker, a local dancer and choregrapher.

Fishell will direct, and Hawkins will play piano. Rhodes, a soprano, will portray Anna I, and Walker, Anna II. Walker also will choreograph and dance in the performance.

Voice professor Stafford Wing, adjunct faculty member Timothy Sparks and students Jonathan Nussman and Nicholas Nguyen, all of the UNC music department, will sing as a quartet that represents Anna’s family.

Besides the performance, the presentation will include a talk by Dr. Bryan Gilliam, a Duke musicology professor and an expert on Weill (1900-1950) and his work. The German-born Weill also wrote "The Threepenny Opera" and several Broadway musicals.

At UNC, the effort marks the second joint venture this academic year by the music and dramatic art departments of the College of Arts and Sciences. In December, the departments staged Marc Blitzstein’s "The Cradle Will Rock."

"Weill greatly influenced Blitzstein, and it’s extremely interesting to hear and see these two works so close together in live performances," Rhodes said. "Part of the enjoyment and excitement for the artists involved is the creative and organic process of bringing to life a performance of this challenging, multi-layered work."

For more information, call the UNC music department at (919) 962-1039.

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Note: Fishell can be reached at Julie Fishell, fishell@email.unc.edu; Hawkins, at 919 660 3321, jhr@duke.edu; Rhodes, at (919) 962-2270 or rhodes@email.unc.edu

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu

News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595