| Die Dreigroschenoper The Threepenny Opera | |
|---|---|
 Original German poster from Berlin, 1928 | |
| Music | Kurt Weill |
| Lyrics | Bertolt Brecht Uncredited:François Villon (four songs translated byK. L. Ammer) |
| Book | Bertolt Brecht |
| Basis | The Beggar's Opera byJohn Gay, translated byElisabeth Hauptmann |
| Premiere | 31 August1928:Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin |
The Threepenny Opera[a] (Die Dreigroschenoper[diːdʁaɪˈɡʁɔʃn̩ˌʔoːpɐ]) is a 1928 German "play with music" byBertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation byElisabeth Hauptmann ofJohn Gay's 18th-century Englishballad opera,The Beggar's Opera,[1] and four ballads byFrançois Villon, with music byKurt Weill. Although there is debate as to how much contribution Hauptmann might have made to the libretto, Brecht is usually listed as sole author and Hauptmann as the sole translator, which was probably an unfair oversimplification typical of the time.[2]
The work offers asocialist critique of thecapitalist world.[3] It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin'sTheater am Schiffbauerdamm.
With influences fromjazz and German dance music, songs fromThe Threepenny Opera have been widely covered and becomestandards, most notably "DieMoritat von Mackie Messer" ("The Ballad ofMack the Knife") and "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny").
The Threepenny Opera has been performed in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Russia, Italy, and Hungary. It has also been adapted to film and radio. The German-language version from 1928 entered thepublic domain in the United States in 2024.[4]
In the winter of 1927–28,Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's lover at the time, received a copy of Gay's play from friends in England and, fascinated by the female characters and its critique of the condition of the London poor, began translating it into German. Brecht at first took little interest in her translation project,[citation needed] but in April 1928 he attempted to interest the impresarioErnst Josef Aufricht in a play he was writing calledFleischhacker, which he had, in fact, already promised to another producer. Aufricht was seeking a production to launch his new theatre company at theTheater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, but was not impressed by the sound ofFleischhacker. Brecht immediately proposed a translation ofThe Beggar's Opera instead, claiming that he himself had been translating it[citation needed]. He delivered Hauptmann's translation to Aufricht, who immediately signed a contract for it. Brecht proposed Weill to write the music, and spent the next four months writing the libretto.[5]
Brecht used four songs by the French poetFrançois Villon. Rather than translate the French himself, he used the translations byK. L. Ammer (Karl Anton Klammer [de]), the same source he had been using since his earliest plays.[6]
The first act of both works begins with the same melody ("Peachum's Morning Chorale"/"An Old Woman Clothed In Gray"), but that is the only material Weill borrowed from the melodiesJohann Christoph Pepusch arranged forThe Beggar's Opera. The titleDie Dreigroschenoper was determined only a week before the opening; it had been previously announced as simplyThe Beggar's Opera (in English), with the subtitle "Die Luden-Oper" ("ThePimp's Opera").[7]
Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear:
With theDreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners ... Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art ... If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed ... In theDreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch.[8]
Weill claimed at the time that "music cannot further the action of the play or create its background", but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments."[9]
Weill's score shows the influence ofjazz and German dance music of the time.[10] The orchestration involves a small ensemble with a good deal of doubling-up on instruments (in the original performances, for example, some 7 players covered a total of 23 instrumental parts, though modern performances typically use a few more players).[11]
The Threepenny Opera was first performed at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in 1928[12] on a set designed byCaspar Neher. Despite an initially poor reception, it became a great success, playing 400 times in the next two years. The performance was a springboard for one of the best known interpreters of Brecht and Weill's work,Lotte Lenya, who was married to Weill. The production became a great favourite of Berlin's "smart set" — CountHarry Kessler recorded in his diary meeting at the performance an ambassador and a director of theDresdner Bank (and their wives), and concluded "One simply has to have been there."[13]
Critics did not fail to notice that Brecht had included the four Villon songs translated by Ammer. Brecht responded by saying that he had "a fundamental laxity in questions of literary property."[14]
By 1933, when Weill and Brecht were forced to leave Germany by theNazi seizure of power,[15] the play had been translated into 18 languages and performed more than 10,000 times on European stages.[16]
A French version produced byGaston Baty and written by Ninon Steinhof andAndré Mauprey was presented in October 1930 at theThéâtre Montparnasse in Paris. It was rendered asL'Opéra de quat'sous; (quatresous, orfour pennies being theidiomatically equivalent French expression forThreepenny).[17]
In 1930 the work premiered in Moscow at theKamerny Theatre, directed byAlexander Tairov. It was the only one of Brecht's works to be performed in Russia during his lifetime.Izvestia disapproved: "It is high time that our theatres ceased playing homage to petit-bourgeois bad taste and instead turned to more relevant themes."[18]
The first Hungarian performance of the play was at theComedy Theatre of Budapest (Vígszínház), on 6 September 1930. It was titledA koldus operája, which is a reference to Gay's original opera. The play was translated by Jenő Heltai, who mixed Weill and Pepusch' s music, and also Brecht and Gay's texts. The director was Ernő Szabolcs. The cast includedPál Jávor (Mackie),Franciska Gaal (Polly),Gerő Mály (Peachum) andElla Gombaszögi (Mrs. Peachum).[19]
America was introduced to the work by thefilm version ofG. W. Pabst, which opened in New York in 1931.[20]
The first American production, adapted into English by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky and staged byFrancesco von Mendelssohn, featured Robert Chisholm as Macheath. It opened onBroadway at theEmpire Theatre, on April 13, 1933, and closed after 12 performances. Mixed reviews praised the music but slammed the production, with the criticGilbert Gabriel calling it "a dreary enigma".[21]
In the United Kingdom, the first fully staged performance was given on 9 February 1956, underBerthold Goldschmidt, although there had been a concert performance in 1933, and a semi-staged performance on 28 July 1938. In between, on 8 February 1935Edward Clark conducted the first British broadcast of the work. It received scathing reviews fromErnest Newman and other critics.[22] But the most savage criticism came from Weill himself, who described it privately as "the worst performance imaginable … the whole thing was completely misunderstood". But his criticisms seem to have been for the concept of the piece as a Germanised version ofThe Beggar's Opera, rather than for Clark's conducting of it, of which Weill made no mention.[23][24]
The first Italian production, titledL'opera da tre soldi and directed byGiorgio Strehler, premiered at thePiccolo Teatro in Milan on 27 February 1956 in the presence of Bertolt Brecht. The cast included:Tino Carraro (Mackie),Mario Carotenuto (Peachum),Marina Bonfigli [it] (Polly),Milly (Jenny),Enzo Tarascio [it] (Chief of Police). The conductor wasBruno Maderna. Set designs were byLuciano Damiani andTeo Otto; costume design byEzio Frigerio.[25]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 31 August 1928[26] Conductor:Theo Mackeben |
|---|---|---|
| Macheath ("Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife"),London's greatest and most notorious criminal | tenor/baritone | Harald Paulsen |
| Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum,the "Beggar's Friend", controller of all the beggars in London; conspires to have Mack hanged | baritone | Erich Ponto |
| Celia Peachum ("Frau Peachum"),Peachum's wife; helps him run the business | mezzo-soprano | Rosa Valetti |
| Polly Peachum,the Peachums' daughter; after knowing Mack for only five days, agrees to marry him | soprano | Roma Bahn |
| Jackie "Tiger" Brown,Police Chief of London and Mack's best friend from their army days | baritone | Kurt Gerron |
| Lucy Brown,Tiger Brown's daughter; claims to be married to Mack | soprano | Kate Kühl |
| Jenny ("Spelunken-Jenny"/"Low-Dive Jenny"/"Ginny Jenny"), aprostitute once romantically involved with Macheath; is bribed to turn Mack over to the police | mezzo-soprano | Lotte Lenya |
| Filch,a misfit young man who approaches the Peachums in hopes of beggar training | tenor | Naphtali Lehrmann |
| Street Singer ("Moritatensänger"),sings 'The Ballad of Mack the Knife' in the opening scene | baritone | Kurt Gerron |
| Smith,a constable | baritone | Ernst Busch |
| Walter | tenor | Ernst Rotmund |
| Matthias | tenor | Karl Hannemann |
| Jakob | tenor | Manfred Fürst |
| Jimmie | tenor | Werner Maschmeyer |
| Ede | tenor | Albert Venohr |
| Beggars, gangsters, whores, constables | ||
| Character | Original Berlin Production[27] | Film Version[28] | Original Broadway Production[29] | Theatre de Lys Revival[30] | Off-Broadway Revival[31] | Original West End Production[32] | US National Tour[33] | Paper Mill Playhouse Production[34] | US National Tour[35] | Film Version[36] | New York City Opera Production[37] | Mineola Theatre Production[38] | Broadway Revival[39] | Arena Stage Production[40] | Williamstown Theatre Festival Production[41] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | 1931 | 1933 | 1954 | 1955-1961 | 1956 | 1960 | 1961 | 1963 | 1965 | 1966 | 1968 | 1969 | |||
| Macheath ("Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife") | Harald Paulsen | Rudolf Forster | Robert Chisholm | Scott Merrill | Bill Owen | Scott Merrill | Curd Jürgens | Kurt Kasznar | James Mitchell | Per Nielsen Göran Graffman (voice) | Hugh Hurd | Charles Siebert | |||
| Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum | Erich Ponto | Fritz Rasp | Rex Weber | Leon Lishner | Frederic Downs | Eric Pohlmann | Frederic Downs | Mitchell Jason | Gert Fröbe | Stefan Schnabel | Edwin Steffe | Ulf Hakan Jansson Ingvar Kjellson (voice) | Robert Van Hooten | Louis Beachner | |
| Celia Peachum ("Frau Peachum") | Rosa Valetti | Valeska Gert | Evelyn Beresford | Charlotte Rae | Jane Connell | Lisa Lee | Estelle Parsons | Jane Connell | Hilde Hildebrand | Lilia Skala | Maggie Task | Zanza Lidums Ulla Sjöblom (voice) | Marcie Hubert | Peggy Pope | |
| Polly Peachum | Roma Bahn | Carola Neher | Steffi Duna | Jo Sullivan Loesser | Daphne Anderson | Jo Wilder | Didi Van Eyck | June Ritchie | Anita Höfer | Gail Johnston | Ellika Linden Helena Brodin (voice) | Laura Campbell | Elinor Ellsworth | ||
| Jackie “Tiger” Brown | Kurt Gerron | Reinhold Schünzel | Rex Evans | George Tyne | Richard Verney | George A. Cooper | Richard Verney | Lino Ventura | Ralph Herbert | Edward Grover | Arne Hogsander Jan Blomberg (voice) | Robert Prosky | Tony Capodilupo | ||
| Lucy Brown | Kate Kühl | N/a | Josephine Huston | Bea Arthur | Georgia Brown | Grace Lee Whitney | Buzz Halliday | Marlene Warrlich | Marion Brash | Barbara Cason | Lydia de Lind van Winjngaarden Meta Velander (voice) | Dimitra Arliss | Nancy Kenestrick | ||
| Jenny Diver ("Spelunken-Jenny"/"Low-Dive Jenny"/"Ginny Jenny") | Lotte Lenya | Marjorie Dille | Lotte Lenya | Maria Remusat | Anna Sten | Christiane Felsmann | Gypsy Rose Lee | Hildegard Knef | Martha Schlamme | Chita Rivera | Ellika Linden Ulla Sjöblom (voice) | Cynthia McPherson | Joyce Ebert | ||
| Charles Filch | Naphtali Lehrmann | Herbert Grünbaum | Herbert Rudley | William Duell | Victor Baring | N/a | Leonard Rogel | Walter Giller | Mathew Anden | Rudy Tronto | Arne Hogsander Haken Sarner (voice) | Ronny Cox | Austin Pendleton | ||
| The Street Singer ("Moritatensänger") | Kurt Gerron | Ernst Busch | George Heller | Gerald Price | Tige Andrews | Ewan MacColl | Tige Andrews | Bob Brooks | N/a | Sammy Davis Jr. | George S. Irving | N/a | Arne Hogsander Haken Sarner (voice) | Richard Bauer | Austin Pendleton |
| Smith | Ernst Busch | Vladimir Sokoloff | Gerald Hamer | Rome Smith | Charles Stanley | N/a | G. Kennedy Osborn | Hans W. Hamacher | David Smith | Rod Browning | Arne Hogsander | Howard Witt | Stephen Mendillo | ||
| Walt Dreary | Ernst Rotmund | N/a | Harry Bellaver | Paul Dooley | Joseph Elic | Charles Hill | Joseph Elic | Herb Edelman | Martin Berliner | Paul Andor | Dominic Chianese | Michael Meschke | Garrett Saunders | Richard Masur | |
| Matt of the Mint | Karl Hannemann | N/a | Anthony Blair | John Astin | George Murcell | Len Lesser | Henry Howard | Siegfried Wischnewski | John Garson | William J. Coppola | Jan Blomberg | Ned Beatty | David Ackroyd | ||
| Crook-Finger Jack | Manfred Fürst | N/a | Burgess Meredith | Joseph Beruh | Eddie Lawrence | Warren Mitchell | N/a | Marty Greene | Walter Feuchtenberg | Sol Frieder | Louis Guss | Heinz Spira | Jay Fletcher | Ashton Crosby | |
| Jimmy | Werner Maschmeyer | N/a | Francis Kennelly | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a | Stefan Wigger | Curt Lowens | N/a | N/a | N/a | N/a |
| Sawtooth Bob | Albert Venohr | N/a | George Heller | Bernard Bogin | Bernie Fein | George Tovey | N/a | Jack Whalen | Max Strassberg | Michael Haeusserman | Rod Browning | Folke Tragardh | Michael Procaccino | Stan Wiklinski | |
| Reverend Kimball | N/a | N/a | John Connolly | Donald Elson | Carroll Saint | Roland Randel | Donald Elson | Everett Fisch | Henning Schlüter | Henry Cordy | Charles Goff | N/a | Morris Engle | Robert Foster | |
| Character | West End Revival[42] | Boston Production[43] | Williamstown Theatre Festival Production[44] | Broadway Revival[45] | Delacorte Theater Production[46] | Kitty Carlisle Hart Theater Production[47] | Royal National Theatre Production[48] | Film Version[49] | Broadway Revival[50] | West End Revival[51] | Reprise Theatre Company Production[52] | ACT Production[53] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 1974 | 1976-1977 | 1977 | 1984 | 1986 | 1989 | 1994-1995 | 1998 | 1999 | |||
| Macheath ("Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife") | Joe Melia | Christopher Reeve | Raul Julia | Philip Bosco | Tom Pletto | Tim Curry | Raul Julia | Sting | Tom Hollander | Patrick Cassidy | Philip Casnoff | |
| Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum | Ronald Radd | Colgate Salsbury | Louis Beachner | C. K. Alexander | Jerome Dempsey | Joel Aroeste | Stephen Moore | Richard Harris | Alvin Epstein | Tom Mannion | Theodore Bikel | Steven Anthony Jones |
| Celia Peachum ("Frau Peachum") | Hermione Baddeley | Margo Martindale | Peggy Pope | Elizabeth Wilson | Gretel Cummings | Carole Edie Smith | Sara Kestelman | Julie Walters | Georgia Brown | Beverley Klein | Marilyn Lovell Matz | Nancy Dussault |
| Polly Peachum | Vanessa Redgrave | Jessica Richman | JoBeth Williams | Caroline Kava | Helena Binder | Sally Dexter | Rachel Robertson | Maureen McGovern | Sharon Small | Marguerite MacIntyre | Anika Noni Rose | |
| Jackie “Tiger” Brown | Dan Meaden | Patrick Clear | David Ford | David Sabin | David Pursley | Niall Buggy | Bill Nighy | Larry Marshall | Simon Dormandy | George McDaniel | Charles Lanyer | |
| Lucy Brown | Barbara Windsor | Cynthia Dickason | Donna McKechnie | Blair Brown | Penelope Bodry | N/a | Joanna Foster | Erin Donovan | Kim Criswell | Natasha Bain | Carrie Hamilton | Lisa Vroman |
| Jenny Diver ("Spelunken-Jenny"/"Low-Dive Jenny"/"Ginny Jenny") | Annie Ross | Tiina Cartmell | Virginia Vestoff | Ellen Greene | Lynnie Godfrey | Eve Adam | Julia Migenes | Suzzanne Douglas | Tara Hugo | Jonelle Allen | Bebe Neuwirth | |
| Charles Filch | Henry Woolf | Michael Toumanoff | Austin Pendleton | Ed Zang | N/a | Neil Daglish | Iain Rogerson | Jeff Blumenkrantz | Ben Albu | Jeremy Lawrence | Chris Ferry | |
| The Street Singer ("Moritatensänger") | Lon Satton | Scott Taylor | Austin Pendleton | Roy Brocksmith | N/a | Basil Henson | Roger Daltrey | Ethyl Eichelberger | N/a | Ken Page | Tom Blair | |
| Smith | Kevin Flood | Frederic Serino | Jack Milton | Glenn Kezer | Marc Jordan | N/a | Paul Stewart | Steven Law | David Pursley | Terence Maynard | Hal Robinson | Charles Lanyer |
| Walt Dreary | Declan Mulholland | Spiro Veloudos | John Basil | Max Gulack | John Ridge | N/a | Basil Henson | Roy Holder | Tom Robbins | Terence Maynard | Matthew Kimbrough | Patrick P. McNulty |
| Matt of the Mint | Victor Maddern | Jonathan Frakes | Marty Bell | Ralph Drischell | Gary O. Aldrich | Barry James | Clive Revill | Josh Mostel | Simon Walter | Michael G. Hawkins | Brian Keith Russell | |
| Crook-Finger Jack | Arthur Mullard | John Caron | Stuart Ross | William Duell | N/a | Michael Bryant | Russell Gold | Mitchell Greenberg | Jeremy Harrison | Philip Watt | Zachary Knower | |
| Jimmy | N/a | N/a | N/a | Robert Schlee | N/a | Martin Howells | Mark Northover | Alex Santoriello | Ben Albu | N/a | N/a | |
| Sawtooth Bob | John Hartley | Patrick Young | Purcell McKamey | K. C. Wilson | N/a | Paul Stewart | Clive Mantle | David Schechter | N/a | Sean Smith | Randall Gremillion | |
| Reverend Kimball | Derry Power | David Aston-Reese | Emery Battis | Rik Colitti | Paul Ukena, Jr. | N/a | Alan Haywood | John Woodnutt | Philip Carroll | Amanda Edwards | Hal Robinson | Dan Hiatt |
| Character | Theatre de Lys Revival Reunion Concert[54] | Williamstown Theatre Festival Production[55] | New York Reading[56] | Los Angeles Revival[57] | Broadway Revival[58] | BBC Radio Production[59] | Atlantic Theater Company Production[60] | Signature Theatre Production[61] | Royal National Theatre Production[62] | Off-Brand Opera Production[63] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2009 | 2014 | 2016 | 2026 | ||
| Macheath ("Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife") | Robert Cuccioli | Jesse L. Martin | Alan Cumming | Bjorn Johnson | Alan Cumming | Joseph Millson | Michael Park | Mitchell Jarvis | Rory Kinnear | George Abud |
| Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum | George S. Irving | David Schramm | Wallace Shawn | David Castellani | Jim Dale | Zubin Varla | F. Murray Abraham | Bobby Smith | Nick Holder | Joseph Pyfferoen |
| Celia Peachum ("Frau Peachum") | Charlotte Rae | Randy Graff | Christine Baranski | Pam Heffler | Ana Gasteyer | Ruth Alexander-Rubin | Mary Beth Peil | Donna Migliaccio | Haydn Gwynne | Aline Salloum |
| Polly Peachum | Jo Sullivan Loesser | Melissa Errico | N/a | Josie Gundy | Nellie McKay | Elen Rhys | Laura Osnes | Erin Driscoll | Rosalie Craig | Barbara Walsh |
| Jackie “Tiger” Brown | N/a | Jack Willis | N/a | Joe Hulser | Christopher Innvar | Conrad Nelson | Rick Holmes | John Leslie Wolfe | Peter de Jersey | Mahira Kakkar |
| Lucy Brown | Donna McKechnie | Karen Ziemba | N/a | Rebecca Metz | Brian Charles Rooney | Rosalie Craig | Lilli Cooper | Rick Hammerly | Debbie Kurup | Mary Testa |
| Jenny Diver ("Spelunken-Jenny"/"Low-Dive Jenny"/"Ginny Jenny") | Bea Arthur | Betty Buckley | Debbie Harry | Tish Hicks | Cyndi Lauper | Ute Gfrerer | Sally Murphy | Natascia Diaz | Sharon Small | Katrina Lenk |
| Charles Filch | William Duell | N/a | Dave Metz | Carlos Leon | Graeme Hawley | John Kelly | Aaron Bliden | Sarah Amankwah | Nicola Vazquez (as Krusti Kristi) | |
| The Street Singer ("Moritatensänger") | Charles Abbott | Laurent Giroux | N/a | Jimmy Kieffer | N/a | Heinz Karl Gruber | John Kelly | N/a | George Ikediashi | N/a |
| Smith | N/a | Kenneth Garner | N/a | Aaron Lyons | John Herrera | Peter Edbrook | N/a | Thomas Adrian Simpson | Matt Cross | Berit Palma (as Stuffy Stevie) |
| Walt Dreary | N/a | John Ellison Conlee | N/a | Jimmy Kieffer | Maureen Moore | Declan Wilson | N/a | Aaron Bliden | Andrew Buckley | Anthime Miller (as Pouty Petey) |
| Matt of the Mint | N/a | Jim Stanek | N/a | Will Kepper | David Cale | Kevin Harvey | N/a | Paul Scanlan | Jamie Beddard | Alexis Papaleo (as Tummy Tommy) |
| Crook-Finger Jack | N/a | Jack Noseworthy | N/a | Alex Wright | Adam Alexi-Malle | Sean Oliver | N/a | Sean Fri | N/a | N/a |
| Jimmy | N/a | N/a | N/a | Bruce Dickinson | Brooke Sunny Moriber | Graeme Hawley | N/a | Jessica Thorne | Hammed Animashaun | Paula Gaudier (as Pam / Young Polly) |
| Sawtooth Bob | N/a | Julio Monge | N/a | Aaron Lyons | Romain Frugé | Peter Edbrook | N/a | Ryan Sellers | Dominic Tighe | N/a |
| Reverend Kimball | N/a | Stephen Gabis | N/a | Maia Madison | Terry Burrell | Zubin Varla | N/a | Thomas Adrian Simpson | George Ikediashi | N/a |
Set inVictorian London, the play focuses onMacheath, an amoralantihero who leads a criminal gang, committing robbery, arson, rape and murder.
Macheath ("Mackie," or "Mack the Knife") marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. His attempts are hindered by the fact that the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, is Macheath's old army comrade. Still, Peachum exerts his influence and eventually gets Macheath arrested and sentenced tohang. Macheath escapes this fate via adeus ex machina moments before theexecution when, in an unrestrainedparody of a happy ending, a messenger from the Queen arrives topardon Macheath and grant him the title of baron.[64] The details of the original 1928 text have often been substantially modified in later productions.[65]
A draft narration by Brecht for a concert performance begins: "You are about to hear an opera for beggars. Since this opera was intended to be as splendid as only beggars can imagine, and yet cheap enough for beggars to be able to watch, it is called theThreepenny Opera."[66]
A street singer entertains the crowd with theillustrated murder ballad or Bänkelsang, titled "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" ("Ballad of Mack the Knife"). As the song concludes, a well-dressed man leaves the crowd and crosses the stage. This is Macheath, alias "Mack the Knife".
The story begins in the shop of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the boss of London's beggars, who outfits and trains the beggars in return for a slice of their takings from begging. In the first scene, the extent of Peachum's iniquity is immediately exposed. Filch, a new beggar, is obliged to bribe his way into the profession and agree to pay over to Peachum 50 percent of whatever he made; the previous day he had been severely beaten up for begging within the area of jurisdiction of Peachum's protection racket.
After finishing with the new man, Peachum becomes aware that his grown daughter Polly did not return home the previous night. Peachum, who sees his daughter as his own private property, concludes that she has become involved with Macheath. This does not suit Peachum at all, and he becomes determined to thwart this relationship and destroy Macheath.
The scene shifts to an empty stable where Macheath himself is preparing to marry Polly once his gang has stolen and brought all the necessary food and furnishings. No vows are exchanged, but Polly is satisfied, and everyone sits down to a banquet. Since none of the gang members can provide fitting entertainment, Polly gets up and sings "Seeräuberjenny", a revenge fantasy in which she is a scullery maid turning pirate queen to order the execution of her bosses and customers. The gang becomes nervous when the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, arrives, but it's all part of the act; Brown had served with Mack in England's colonial wars and had intervened on numerous occasions to prevent the arrest of Macheath over the years. The old friends duet in the "Kanonen-Song" ("Cannon Song" or "Army Song"). In the next scene, Polly returns home and defiantly announces that she has married Macheath by singing the "Barbarasong" ("Barbara Song"). She stands fast against her parents' anger, but she inadvertently reveals Brown's connections to Macheath which her parents subsequently use to their advantage.
Polly warns Macheath that her father will try to have him arrested. He is finally convinced that Peachum has enough influence to do it and makes arrangements to leave London, explaining the details of his bandit "business" to Polly so she can manage it in his absence. Before he leaves town, he stops at his favorite brothel, where he sees his ex-lover, Jenny. They sing the "Zuhälterballade" ("Pimp's Ballad", one of the Villon songs translated by Ammer) about their days together, but Macheath doesn't know Mrs Peachum has bribed Jenny to turn him in. Despite Brown's apologies, there's nothing he can do, and Macheath is dragged away to jail. After he sings the "Ballade vom angenehmen Leben" ("Ballad of the Pleasant Life"), another Villon/Ammer song, another girlfriend, Lucy (Brown's daughter) and Polly show up at the same time, setting the stage for a nasty argument that builds to the "Eifersuchtsduett" ("Jealousy Duet"). After Polly leaves, Lucy engineers Macheath's escape. When Mr Peachum finds out, he confronts Brown and threatens him, telling him that he will unleash all of his beggars duringQueen Victoria'scoronation parade, ruining the ceremony and costing Brown his job.
Jenny comes to the Peachums' shop to demand her money for the betrayal of Macheath, which Mrs Peachum refuses to pay. Jenny reveals that Macheath is at Suky Tawdry's house. When Brown arrives, determined to arrest Peachum and the beggars, he is horrified to learn that the beggars are already in position on the parade route and only Mr Peachum can stop them. To placate Peachum, Brown's only option is to arrest Macheath and have him executed. In the next scene, Macheath is back in jail and desperately trying to raise a sufficient bribe to get out again, even as the gallows are being assembled.
Soon it becomes clear that neither Polly nor the gang members can, or are willing to, raise any money, and Macheath prepares to die. He laments his fate and poses the 'Marxist' questions: "What's picking a lock compared to buying shares? What's breaking into a bank compared to founding one? What's murdering a man compared to employing one?" (These questions did not appear in the original version of the work, but first appeared in the musicalHappy End, another Brecht/Weill/Hauptmann collaboration, in 1929 – they may in fact have been written not by Brecht, but by Hauptmann).[67]
Macheath asks everyone for forgiveness ("Grave Inscription"). Then a sudden and intentionally comical reversal: Peachum announces that in this opera mercy will prevail over justice and that a messenger on horseback will arrive ("Walk to the Gallows"); Brown arrives as that messenger and announces that Macheath has been pardoned by the queen and granted a title, a castle and a pension. The cast then sings the Finale, which ends with a plea that wrongdoing not be punished too harshly as life is harsh enough.
1. Ouverture
2. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer ("The Ballad ofMack the Knife" – Street singer)
3. Morgenchoral des Peachum (Peachum's Morning Choral – Peachum, Mrs Peachum)
4. Anstatt-dass-Song (The "Instead of" Song – Peachum, Mrs Peachum)
5. Hochzeits-Lied (Wedding Song – Four Gangsters)
6. Seeräuberjenny (Pirate Jenny – Polly)[b]
7. Kanonen-Song (Cannon Song – Macheath, Brown)
8. Liebeslied (Love Song – Polly, Macheath)
9. Barbarasong (Barbara Song – Polly)[c]
10. I. Dreigroschenfinale (First Threepenny Finale – Polly, Peachum, Mrs Peachum)
11. Melodram (Melodrama – Macheath)
11a. Polly's Lied (Polly's Song – Polly)
12. Ballade von der sexuellen Hörigkeit (Ballad of Sexual Dependency – Mrs Peachum)[d]
13. Zuhälterballade (Pimp's Ballad or Tango Ballad – Jenny, Macheath)
14. Ballade vom angenehmen Leben (Ballad of the Pleasant Life – Macheath)
15. Eifersuchtsduett (Jealousy Duet – Lucy, Polly)
15b. Arie der Lucy (Aria of Lucy – Lucy)
16. II. Dreigroschenfinale (Second Threepenny Finale – Macheath, Mrs Peachum, Chorus)[e]
17. Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens (Song of the Insufficiency of Human Struggling – Peachum)
17a. Reminiszenz (Reminiscence)
18. Salomonsong (Solomon Song – Jenny)
19. Ruf aus der Gruft (Call from the Grave – Macheath)
20. Grabschrift (Grave Inscription – Macheath)
20a. Gang zum Galgen (Walk to the Gallows – Peachum)
21. III. Dreigroschenfinale (Third Threepenny Finale – Brown, Mrs Peachum, Peachum, Macheath, Polly, Chorus)
The ambivalent nature ofThe Threepenny Opera, derived from an 18th-centuryballad opera but conceived in terms of 20th-centurymusical theatre, has led to discussion as to how it can best be characterised. According to critic and musicologistHans Keller, the work is "the weightiest possiblelowbrow opera forhighbrows and the most full-blooded highbrow musical for lowbrows".[68]
The Weill authorityStephen Hinton notes that "generic ambiguity is a key to the work's enduring success", and points out the work's deliberate hybrid status:
For Weill [The Threepenny Opera] was not just 'the most consistent reaction to[Richard] Wagner'; it also marked a positive step towards an operatic reform. By explicitly and implicitly shunning the more earnest traditions of the opera house, Weill created a mixed form which incorporated spoken theatre and popular musical idioms. Parody of operatic convention – ofRomantic lyricism and happy endings – constitutes a central device.[7]
The work's opening and closing lament, "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer," was written just before the Berlin premiere, when actorHarald Paulsen (Macheath) threatened to quit if his character did not receive an introduction; this creative emergency resulted in what would become the work's most popular song, later translated into English byMarc Blitzstein as "Mack the Knife", and now ajazz standard thatLouis Armstrong,Bobby Darin,Ella Fitzgerald,Sonny Rollins,Frank Sinatra,Peggy Lee,Michael Bublé,Robbie Williams and countless others have performed.[69] In 2015, the Library of Congress added the recordings of "Mack the Knife" by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin to theNational Recording Registry. It has been named one of the hundred most popular songs of the twentieth century.[69]
In 1986, American fast-food chainMcDonald's launched anadvertising campaign featuring a new mascot "Mac Tonight" loosely based on the lyrics "Mack the Knife" featuring a parody of the song. The advert, which was associated with a 10% increase in later diners in some Californian restaurants at the time,[70] led to alawsuit byBobby Darin's son, Dodd Mitchell Darin.[71] The lawsuit concerned the parody created by McDonald's stated that it was in violation ofcopyright law. The case was settled outside of court without requiring a court hearing. Following this the mascot was mostly dropped from McDonalds marketing.[72]
"Pirate Jenny" is another well-known song from the work, which has since been recorded byNina Simone,Judy Collins,Tania Tsanaklidou, andMarc Almond, among others. In addition,Steeleye Span recorded it under the alternative title "The Black Freighter". Recently, the drag queenSasha Velour has made an adaptation by the same name for an installment of One Dollar Drags, an anthology of short films.[73]
Under the title "What Keeps Mankind Alive?", this number has been recorded by thePet Shop Boys on the B-side of their 1993 single "Can You Forgive Her?", and on two albums.Tom Waits covered it on two albums, andWilliam S. Burroughs performed it in a 1994 documentary.
After World War II, the first stage performance in Berlin was a rough production ofThe Threepenny Opera at theTheater am Schiffbauerdamm.Wolf Von Eckardt described the 1945 performance where audience members climbed over ruins and passed through a tunnel to reach the open-air auditorium deprived of its ceiling. In addition to the smell of dead bodies trapped beneath the rubble, Eckardt recollects the actors themselves were "haggard, starved, [and] in genuine rags. Many of the actors ... had only just been released from concentration camp. They sang not well, but free."[74]Barrie Kosky produced the work again at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in 2021.[75] The production travelled to theRuhrfestspiele in 2022,[76] theInternationaal Theater Amsterdam,[77]Teatro Argentina, Rome,[78] theEdinburgh International Festival in 2023,[79] to the 2024Adelaide Festival[80] and theBrooklyn Academy of Music in 2025.[81]
ThePabst filmThe Threepenny Opera was shown in its French version in 1931. In 1937 there was a production byErnst Josef Aufricht at theThéâtre de l'Étoile which failed, though Brecht himself had attended rehearsals. The work was not revived in France until after World War II.[17]
In London,West End andOff-West End revivals include:
In 2014, the Robert David MacDonald and Jeremy Sams translation (previously used in 1994 at theDonmar Warehouse) toured the UK, presented by theGraeae Theatre Company withNottingham Playhouse,New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich,Birmingham Repertory Theatre andWest Yorkshire Playhouse.[89]
In 1946, four performances of the work were given at theUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, andNorthwestern University gave six performances in 1948 inEvanston, Illinois.[90] In 1952,Leonard Bernstein conducted a concert performance of the work at theBrandeis University Creative Arts Festival in the Adolph Ullman Amphitheatre,Waltham, Massachusetts, to an audience of nearly 5,000.Marc Blitzstein, who translated the work, narrated.[91]
At least fiveBroadway andOff-Broadway revivals have been mounted in New York City.
Regional productions include:
German directorG. W. Pabst made a1931 German- and French-language version simultaneously, a common practice in the early days of sound films.
Another version,Die Dreigroschenoper [de], was directed byWolfgang Staudte inWest Germany in 1963, starringCurd Jürgens as Macheath,Hildegard Knef as Jenny,Gert Fröbe as Peachum, andSammy Davis Jr. as Moritat singer.
In 1989 an American version (renamedMack the Knife) was released, directed byMenahem Golan, withRaul Julia as Macheath,Richard Harris as Peachum,Julie Walters as Mrs Peachum,Bill Nighy as Tiger Brown,Julia Migenes as Jenny, andRoger Daltrey as the Street Singer.[99]
In October 1978,BBC Radio 3 broadcast a complete radio production of the Ralph Manheim/John Willett translation directed by Ian Cotterell andElaine Padmore to celebrate the 50th anniversary ofThe Threepenny Opera 's publication.[100] The cast includedPaul Bentley as Macheath,Sarah Badel as Polly (with her songs being sung by Elaine Padmore),Johanna Peters as Mrs Peachum,Harold Kasket as Mr. Peachum,Jan Waters as Lucy,Julia McKenzie as Jenny,Peter Pratt as Tiger Brown, Roderick Horn as the Ballad Singer andJohn Hollis as The Narrator.
In 2009,BBC Radio 3 in collaboration with theBBC Philharmonic broadcast a complete radio production of the Michael Feingold translation directed by Nadia Molinari with the music performed by the BBC Philharmonic.[101] The cast includedJoseph Millson as Macheath,Elen Rhys as Polly/Whore, Ruth Alexander-Rubin as Mrs Peachum/Whore,Zubin Varla as Mr. Peachum/Rev. Kimball,Rosalie Craig as Lucy/Whore, Ute Gfrerer as Jenny,Conrad Nelson as Tiger Brown andHK Gruber (who also conducted the orchestra) as the Ballad Singer.
Recordings are in German, unless otherwise specified.
Newsletter of the literary division of theAmerican Translators Association.Summer 2009
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