The Threepenny Opera, Quarantined
Need to Know
* Rated PG-13, opera contains adult themes and content
Die Dreigroschenoper
The Threepenny Opera premiered in Berlin in 1928 as a socialists critique on capitalism. The opera is an adaptation of an 18th century satirical ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, by John Gay, and features the antihero Macheath, aka Mack the Knife.
The plot of The Threepenny Opera follows a lot of what was already laid out in John Gay’s work, but is updated to London in the Victorian period. Weill uses only one borrowed melody from Johann Christoph Pepusch (original composer for The Beggar’s Opera) and his score is heavily influenced by popular music and jazz. The orchestration is pared-down to a few players performing a total of 23 instrumental parts.
The opera was an immediate success and would be translated into 18 languages and performed over 10,000 times by 1933. As the Nazi regime came to power, the opera was quickly banned and both Weill and Brecht had to flee Germany.
The Threepenny Opera was the most successful collaboration of Weill and Brecht. The opera also contains Weill’s most famous song “Mack the Knife” which has since been covered by artists Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra (to name a few).
The best known English version of The Threepenny Opera is an adaptation by Marc Blitzstein in 1954. Read more about Blitzstein here.
Listen to 3 Fun Facts from Soundcloud
Let’s give the women credit!
Brecht and Weill get a lot of the credit for the creation of The Threepenny Opera as well as their other collaborations. But we wanted to shine a light on the women who should get as much credit for these works. First, let’s talk about Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht’s mistress, who came up with the idea of adapting John Gay’s opera. Only after a failed proposal to a theatre did Brecht propose the idea of an adapting The Beggar’s Opera, stating he was translating it into German and then took credit for Hauptmann’s work.
Two other women, Lotte Lenya (Weill’s wife) and Helene Weigel (Brecht’s wife), were equally important in the creation of the Brecht/Weill style of theatre. After Weill’s death, Lenya would champion their works and established the Kurt Weill Foundation which would continue their legacy into the 21st century.
A new book by Pamela Katz The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women and Germany on the Brink examines their revolutionary works from the late 1920s. Read more about that book here.
Here is an interview with the great Lotte Lenya.
A Threepenny Cocktail!
Beggars can’t be choosers… still, everyone deserves a refreshing drink and in honor of The Threepenny Opera (an update on John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera) our pre-opera cocktail is a “Beggar’s Banquet.” This beer-tail is a spin on a summer shandy, but do follow liquor.coms first commandment, “Thou shalt not shake the bubbles!” Watch John build the cocktail, we mean beer-tail, here.
Ingredients: 2 oz bourbon, 1/2 oz lemon juice, 3/4 oz maple syrup, 5 oz chilled lager, citrus peel for garnish. Directions: Add bourbon, lemon juice, and maple syrup to a shaker with ice and shake till combined, strain into collins glass with ice and slowly add lager and gentle stir, garnish with half a citrus peel. Enjoy!Synopsis
Overview
Macheath Messer, Mack the Knife, marries Polly Peachum without her father knowing. Mr. Peachum, who controls all the beggars of London, senses Macheath being problematic for business and comes up with a scheme to have him hanged. This plan is impeded by the friendship between Macheath and the the chief of police, Tiger Brown, who are old army comrades. Eventually, Peachum’s influence prevails and Macheath is arrested and sentenced to hang. Macheath escapes, but gets caught again, but in a twist of fate, a messenger arrives minutes before he is to be hanged with a pardon from the Queen, as well as the new title of Baron.
Full Plot
Read the full synopsis from the Kurt Weill Foundation.
Stream the show
Here is the 1931 French movie version directed by G.W. Pabst.
Here is the Original Off Broadway Cast recording (English version) starring Lotte Lenya as Jenny from 1954
Here is a 1955 recording (German version) starring Lotte Lenya as Jenny Die Dreigroschenoper
Here is the 1989 movie remake, name was changed to “Mack the Knife”
More listening
The Threepenny Opera created a stir around the world, but especially in the United States. Songs like “Mack the Knife” we adopted into the jazz community and became standards. Here are a few of our favorite covers from the opera.
Mack the Knife: Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble
Pirate Jenny: Lotte Lenya, Nina Simone, Judy Collins
Act II Finale: “What Keeps Mankind Alive?”: Tom Watts, Pet Shop Boys