In Poulenc’s surreal opera “Les Mamelles de Tirésias,” (The Breasts of Tirésias), Thérèse opened her blouse and two balloons popped out. As her “breasts” floated away, Thérèse, who decided to become a feminist, promptly popped them, grew a beard, changed her name to Tirésias and sang a ravishing waltz.

It was giggly, outrageous and in many ways, timeless.

Jose Maria Condemi, the new Associate Director of Opera at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, made his directorial debut over the weekend with an impressive double bill of Kurt Weill’s “Mahagonny Songspiel” and Francis Poulenc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias.”

Smartly staged and featuring a cast of fresh rising-stars and imaginative sets by students Luke Dufilho (Mahagonny) and EJ Goodman (Les Mamelles), it was an enchanting evening of theater. From the steamy, dissolute world of Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny to Poulenc’s surreal fantasy of Zanzibar — where a man could produce 40,049 babies in one day — the audience was alternately riveted and howling with laughter.

Condemi, who is an alumnus of CCM and has an extensive portfolio, joined the faculty in August of 2025. He’s familiar to Cincinnati Opera fans, who saw him stage “Ainadamar,” “Don Giovanni,” “La Traviata,” “Tosca” and “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

In the small orchestra pit, these two jazzy and bubbly scores received spirited readings by CCM musicians, conducted by William Langley, currently resident conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, among other titles. He’s a gifted and very busy maestro, and has returned several times to lead productions at his alma mater, CCM, where he earned a Master’s Degree with Mark Gibson.

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “Mahagonny Songspiel” of 1927 is a 30-minute precursor to the full-blown opera, “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.” It offers a grim, cynical picture of Germany between the wars. I saw the Friday (Feb. 27) performance in CCM’s intimate Cohen Family Studio Theater (CCM has alternate casts).

The songspiel (a play on the word singspiel) opened as four grimy miners were dreaming of finding paradise in Mahagonny: Charlie (Carlos Ahrens); Billy (Levi Capesius); Bobby (Donghoon Kang) and Jimmy, who also played God (Andrew Hallam). Mr. Capitalism was portrayed by Brigid Mack, who unfurled an American flag at the conclusion. Their intended paradise was depicted with sex, drugs, whiskey and even God – who was represented by a priest who leaped up onto a bar and condemned them all to hell.

The two sultry ladies, Jessie (Clara Reeves) and Bessie (Caroline Carter), had seen better days, and were dressed in rags and yellow caution tape. One unwrapped her wrists to reveal track marks as they sang the despairing, cabaret-style “Alabama Song.”

The voices were all terrific in these songs –  including “Mahagonny Song” and “Benares Song.” The small orchestra added spice in Weill’s jazzy tunes and foxtrots. At the time, it was meant to shock, which it did at its premiere, and it still has that effect. The pleasure city was set in an adult club, where there was whiskey, cocaine and simulated sex. Finally, the six huddled together and cried. Mahagonny, it turned out, never really existed.

“Mahagonny Songspiel” was aptly paired with Poulenc’s “Les Mamelles de Tirésias.”  Poulenc took his libretto from the play by Apollinaire that debuted in 1917. Then, France was trying to repopulate during World War I. When Poulenc premiered his opéra bouffe in 1947, the French government was again begging the populace to have more babies as a result of World War II, when France had lost so many men.

EJ Goodman’s scenic design included huge, pink suspended balloon-breasts populating the stage, with the baby-making “machine” off to the side. The first act opened with Le Mari (the husband, performed by baritone Søren Pedersen) enjoying his bath.

An excellent ensemble cast also populated the small stage, with star turns in the leading roles. In the role of the Theater Director, baritone Alan Rendzak introduced the proceedings with a flair for the dramatic. He was a mesmerizing presence, and oozed charisma as he passed out cards from a deck to audience members and then tossed out the whole deck, exhorting them to “make more babies.”

Soprano Léa Nayak dazzled as Thérèse/Tirésias. Smart and sassy, she had it all, starting with a lovely voice and a charming presence. She also had perfect comic timing as she revolted from her husband’s demands — from sex to “donnez-moi du lard!” (bring me bacon) — and told him to go to hell – in much more colorful language. Pedersen, too, was a remarkable singing actor, as he tended to his flock of babies, some of them clinging to his coat. Pedersen must also be complimented for his ability to stand in hot pink, four-inch high heels all evening.

It wouldn’t be a French farce without a mock duel set to a polka by old friends Presto (Caden Webb) and Lacouf (Carlos Ahrens). The chorus mourned their deaths dressed as Parisian ladies with hats and shopping bags and men in suits. Then, of course, there was the hopeless but appealing Gendarme (Jack O’Leary), who entered wielding his magnifying glass and announcing he smelled a crime, adding a nifty tap dance right out of vaudeville.

I also enjoyed the snooty journalist (Levi Capesius) with his notebook, who in a twist, returned as his son on a tricycle. The son dashed away to make up some “fake news,” which reminded us that nothing is new under sun.

After all the silliness, Tirésias returned in another disguise (a fortuneteller), made up with her husband, and sang, “Love is the only answer… We must love, or we die.”

We must laugh, too, and I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard in the theater in a long time.

The production was inventively and exuberantly staged. Besides the scenery, the lighting (Ben Niemczyk), sound (Lacey Vailikit) and costumes (Kyle Williams and Anya Brennan) were all designed by CCM students. And in the orchestra pit, Poulenc’s vibrant music, evoking the French music hall, Chabrier, Ravel, and witty tunes that only Poulenc could invent, was vibrantly performed by CCM’s own musicians.