Chester Kallman

Welcome to Mahagonny, where sin is 'in' and love is always on sale. This Old West boomtown rises from the desert to become a razzle-dazzle mecca for lust and the pursuit of pleasure, where cash is king and poverty is punishable by death.

The story concerns the decline and fall of one Tom Rakewell, who deserts Anne Trulove for the delights of London in the company of Nick Shadow, who turns out to be the Devil. After several misadventures, all initiated by the devious Shadow, Tom ends up in Bedlam, a psychiatric hospital south of London. The moral of the tale is: "For idle hearts and hands and minds the Devil finds a work to do."

Music by W.A. Mozart; English version after the libretto of Schikaneder and Giesecke, by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman.

Tom Rakewell has a chance at love and happiness with Anne Trulove, but he is seduced by the Devil (Nick Shadow) into a life of sloth and debauchery, ending in madness and death.