Premiered in Paris in the summer of 1933, Die sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) was the first work Weill wrote after fleeing Germany. The composer once again collaborated with Bertolt Brecht to create this "sung ballet," which portrays the lead character, Anna, with two different performers: a singer (Anna I), representing Anna's outward attitudes, and a dancer (Anna II) who conveys the character's inner turmoil. Though not as well known as Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1927), Die sieben Todsünden nevertheless stands as prime example of the sort of deeply and darkly ironic social critique that characterizes the fruits of the Weill/Brecht collaboration.

The conflict represented by the unique double-persona lead character seems somehow connected to several interpersonal conflicts between the individuals involved in the work's conception. Only a year before premiering the role of Anna I, and six years after marrying Weill, Lotte Lenya had separated from her composer husband. Likewise Tilly Losch, whose dancing skills and striking physical resemblance to Lenya made her the prime candidate to play the role of Anna II would divorce impresario Edward James soon after their joint work on the production. And, of course, librettist Brecht had angrily threatened litigation—and even physical violence—against Weill after a disagreement surrounding the Berlin staging of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. These rifts find odd resonance in the double portrayal of Anna, who navigates several dilemmas via two diametrically opposed selves: a recklessly ambitious outer personality (Anna I) which conceals a tragically unhappy inner soul (Anna II).

The work tells the story of a girl who leaves home to find work in various big American cities, hoping to earn enough money for her family to build a house on the banks of the Mississippi River. On the way, she is "tempted" by each of the seven Biblical sins. Brecht inverts these, however, treating them not as moral transgressions, but rather as episodic commentaries on the conflicts between morals and money that inevitably emerge in a capitalist society. For example, it is not Anna's prostitution that transgresses the prohibition against Lust. Rather, her sin is falling in love: her real romance threatens business and drives away paying clients. Throughout the work, each time Anna wavers in trading dignity for dollars she is reproved by her family, whom Weill and Brecht set off musically and dramaturgically as an omniscient male quartet. Their observations accompany Anna as she passes from city to city and sin to sin, and their prayer is always the same: "Lord, enlighten our children that they may find the path to Prosperity, that they may not transgress the Laws that make us rich and happy!" Weill's hauntingly sardonic mixture of cabaret sounds and complexly dissonant contrapuntal techniques provides the perfect counterpoint to Brecht's text, utilizing various degrees of irony and alienation to create a highly austere, yet deeply expressive work.

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