The Seven Deadly Sins (ballet chanté) to compose "Die sieben Todsünden" by Edward James, a wealthy Englishman who had been in Paris during Weill's visit in December 1932. James's wife, Tilly Losch, was a ballerina who James described as having a striking resemblance to Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya. Because James knew that Weill was going to write for Lenya, he included language in the contract commissioning the work requiring that his wife, Losch, dance opposite her lookalike. This dictated the complicated split personality plot before Bertolt Brecht was even asked to write the libretto. "The Seven Deadly Sins" premiered in the "Théatre des Champs-Elysées" in Paris
Seven deadly sins Western tradition's spiritual pietas (or Catholic devotions), as follows: These "evil thoughts" can be categorized into three types: In AD 590 Pope Gregory I revised this list to form the more common list. Gregory combined "tristitia" with "acedia", and "vanagloria" with "superbia", and added "envy," in Latin, "invidia". Gregory's list became the standard list of sins. Thomas Aquinas uses and defends Gregory's list in his "Summa Theologica" although he calls them the "capital sins" because they are the head and form of all the others. The Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church, and Methodist Church, among other Christian denominations, continue to retain