Overview

The opera is based on the English poet John Gay's 1728 operatic satire, The Beggar's Opera - set in London's Soho. The central character in both is Macheath, who is an elegant highwayman in Gay's work and a vicious and violent anti-heroic criminal who sees himself as a businessman in the Brecht-Weill version. In homage to the earlier work, the opening number of the First Act , Morgenchoral des Peachum, is set to the music used in Gay's original.

In the Threepenny Opera, Macheath (Mack the Knife) marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, Jonathan Peachum, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the chief of police, Tiger Brown, is an old friend of Macheath's. Peachum exerts considerable political influence, and eventually Macheath is arrested and imprisoned, escapes, then imprisoned once more. At the point of execution, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a hard-riding messenger from the Queen (possibly meant to be Victoria, although the play's chronology is deliberately unclear) dramatically arrives at the last minute, and Macheath is pardoned and given a baronetcy. (Another Brecht-Weill work is titled Happy End.)

The Threepenny Opera directly challenges the audience by breaching the "fourth wall" with what Brecht called Verfremdungseffekt, or "alienation technique." For example, slogans are projected on the back wall and the characters sometimes carry picket signs, or stand at times with their backs to the audience. The play challenges conventional notions of property as well as theater. It asks the central rhetorical question, "Who is the bigger criminal: He who robs a bank or he who founds one?"

The Threepenny Opera is actually one of the first instances of the modern musical comedy. The score, by Kurt Weill, was deeply influenced by jazz, and in fact mandates a fifteen-piece jazz combo. The opening song, "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", was written just before the premiere of The Threepenny Opera in august 1928 because actor Harald Paulsen (Macheath) asked Bertolt Brecht for an introduction to his figure. Otherwise, Paulsen said, he will quit. Angry Brecht wrote the theme, which later became the most popular song of the opera, together with Kurt Weill within hours. It was translated by Marc Blitzstein into English as "Mack the Knife" and became a swing standard, made most famous in a version by Bobby Darin.

Productions

The original German version was very popular. It was performed more than 10,000 times and translated into 18 languages. The play was translated into French as L'Opéra de quat'sous ("The Fourpenny Opera"). It has been translated into English several times. The best-known is the translation published by Blitzstein in 1954, but first performed on stage under Leonard Bernstein's direction at Brandeis University in 1952; other translations include Ralph Mannheim and John Willett's 1979 translation, noted Irish playwright and translator Frank McGuinness's in 1992, and Jeremy Sams's for a production at London's Donmar Warehouse in 1994.

Film

There have been at least four film versions. German director Georg Wilhelm Pabst made German- and French-language versions simultaneously (a common practice in the early days of sound films) in 1931. Another version was directed by Wolfgang Staudte in West Germany in 1962 (scenes with Sammy Davis, Jr. were added for the American release). The most recent one was an American version (renamed Mack the Knife) in 1990, directed by Menahem Golan, with Raúl Juliá as Mackie and Roger Daltrey as the Streetsinger.

Broadway

To date, there have been seven productions on and Off-Broadway.

• The first, adapted into English by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky and staged by Francesco Von Mendelssohn, featured Robert Chisholm as Macheath. It opened on April 13, 1933 and closed after only twelve performances.

• In 1954, Lotte Lenya won a Tony Award for her role as Jenny in a somewhat softened version of the Threepenny Opera by Marc Blitzstein that played Off-Broadway at the Theater de Lys in Greenwich Village for many years. Blitzstein translated the work into English, and Lenya, who was married to Weill, had also played the role of the "Jenny" in the original German production. Her ballad fantasizing leaving her work as a barmaid to lead a pirate assault on the city is the second best known song in the work with its chorus, "And the ship with eight sails, and with 50 cannons, will fire on the city". (Und das Schiff mit acht Segeln und mit fünfzig Kanonen wird beschießen die Stadt.) In the original German version this was sung by the character "Polly" in the stable scene. This version won a special Tony Award for off Broadway production.

• A nine month run in 1976 at the New York Shakespeare Festival with Raul Julia as Macheath, Blair Brown as Lucy, and Ellen Greene as Jenny.

• A 1989 Broadway production, billed as 3 Penny Opera, featured Sting as Macheath. The cast also boasted Georgia Brown as Mrs. Peachum, Maureen McGovern as Polly, and Kim Criswell as Lucy. Sting famously grew a thin moustache for the role, and when it closed after 65 performances he shaved it off onstage with a straight razor.

• The musical, with a new liberal adaptation by playwright Wallace Shawn, was brought back to Broadway [1] by the Roundabout Theatre Company in March of 2006 with Alan Cumming playing the lead as Macheath, Nellie McKay as Polly, Jim Dale as Mr. Peachum, Ana Gasteyer as Mrs. Peachum, Carlos Leon as Filch, Brian Charles Rooney as Lucy, and Cyndi Lauper playing Jenny. Also included in the 2006 cast are New York drag performers Hattie Hathaway (Brian Butterick), Edie (Christopher Kenney), Flotilla DeBarge (Kevin Rennard), and performance artist David Cale. Although the Production was not well-received by the critics, it was nominated for the Best Musical Revival Tony award. In addition, Jim Dale as Mr. Peachum was nominated for a Tony Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor. The limited run production was originally set to close on June 12, 2006, but sold quite well and was expanded to June 25, 2006.

• A 2006 NY International Fringe Festival adaptation "The Beggar's Opera" utilizing some stylistic and character elements of "The Threepenny Opera" entitled "Imminent Indeed (or if you prefer, Polly Peachum's Peculiar Penchant for Plosives." Written and directed by Bryn Manion in association with Aisling Arts, www.aislingarts.com. Performed by the following cast: Christiane Amorosia (Polly Peachum), Mike Amato (Josiah K. Peachum), Berto Colon (Desmond Ditchdigger), Kate Geller (Doll), Karen Grenke (Doll), Heather Helton (Doll), Natalie Pero (Doll), Liza Pross (Doll), Heather Rogers (Snitch), Maria Rusolo (Lucy Lockit), Kevin Schwab (Henry Macheath), Sarah Stephens (Jenny Diver), Christopher T. VanDijk (Matthias...), Catherine Wronowski (Doll)

West End

Nick Dear adapted the Threepenny Opera for the Royal National Theatre in a play called The Villains' Opera in 2002.

Musical numbers

Vorspiel (Prelude)

nr 1 Ouverture

2 Moritat vom Mackie Messer (aka "Mack the Knife") (Ausrufer - Streetsinger)

Erster Akt (First Act)

3 Morgenchoral des Peachum (Peachum)

4 Anstatt-dass-Song (Peachum, Frau Peachum)

5 Hochzeitslied (Chor,)

6 Seeräuberjenny (Polly)*

7 Kanonensong (Macheath, Brown)

8 Liebeslied (Polly, Macheath)

9 Barbarasong (Polly)â€

10 I. Dreigroschenfinale (Polly, Peachum, Frau Peachum)

Zweiter Akt (Second Act)

nr 11 Melodram (Macheath)

11a Polly's Lied (Polly)

12 Ballade von der sexuellen Hörigkeit (Frau Peachum)

13 Zuhälterballade (Jenny, Macheath)

14 Ballade vom angenehmen Leben (Macheath)

15 Eifersuchtsduett (Lucy, Polly)

16 II. Dreigroschenfinale (Macheath, Frau Peachum, choir)

Dritter Akt (Third Act)

nr 17 Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens (Peachum)

18 Salomonsong (Jenny)

19 Ruf aus der Gruft (Macheath)

20 Grabschrift (Macheath)

20a Gang zum Galgen

21 III. Dreigroschenfinale (Brown, Frau Peachum, Peachum, Macheath, Polly, choir.)

* In many productions, "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny") is sung by the character of Jenny. In the original, it is sung by Polly during the wedding scene, but is sometimes moved to the Second Act and given to Jenny. In the 1956 off-Broadway production starring Lotte Lenya, Polly sang a version of the "Bilbao Song" from Brecht and Weill's "Happy End" in the first act wedding scene.

†In the Marc Blitztein adaptation, this song was moved to the second act and sung by the character of Lucy.

Discography

• The Threepenny Opera 1955 Decca Broadway 012-159-463-2. In English. Lyrics by Marc Blitzstein. The 1955 Broadway cast, starring, among others, Lotte Lenya, Beatrice Arthur, and Charlotte Rae. This album contains only one disc, but according to the notes, is the complete score.
• Die Dreigroschenoper, 1958 CBS MK 42637. In German. Lotte Lenya, who also supervised the production, Soloists, Chorus, Orchestra from German radio, conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Ruggeberg This is the complete work, on a 2-CD set.
• The Threepenny Opera, 1997 CDJAY 1244. Donmar Warehouse production. Translated by Robert David Macdonald (Lyrics translated by Jeremy Sams).
• The Threepenny Opera, 1990/2000 Decca 289 430 075-2. Ute Lemper, René Kollo, Milva, RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta, John Mauceri. Translated by Ralph Mannheim and John Willett.