Les sept péchés capitaux

This new version reduces the instrumentation to 15 musicians while closely adhering to the original score. The chief point of reference was Kurt Weill’s handwritten piano reduction which permitted HK Gruber and Christian Muthspiel to recognise what Weill considered as fundamental musical concepts, and what he subsequently added in his colourful instrumentation. The objective was to retain the harmony and melodic structure, which initally appeared to be simple, but on closer inspection was actually highly sophisticated. To this end, the arrangers oriented themselves to other works by Weill with a smaller-scaled instrumentation such as the Kleine Dreigroschenmusik.

This new version enables smaller theatres to present scenic performances of the work. In contrast to the original version, singers with light voices can be cast for the leading roles.