Kurt Weil wrote “Die Sieben Todsünden” in Paris (in exile) as a commission from a French ballet group. It is a “Ballet chanté” (a “sung ballet”) for singers, dance group and orchestra. Weill and his librettist Bertolt Brecht present a satire of the pretty bourgeois morals, and turn the 7 deadly sins into virtues.

This recording from 1966 is a classic, and of the most authentic performances, starring the great Gisela May, grande dame of the German protest song. She is superbly seconded by Peter Schreier and the Rundfunk‐Sinfonie‐Orchester Leipzig conducted by Herbert Kegel, unsurpassed in this repertoire.

Furthermore on this fascinating disc: songs from Berliner Requiem, Mahagonny and Dreigroschenoper.