The Threepenny Opera

Overview

The Threepenny Opera proclaims itself "an opera for beggars," and it was in fact an attempt both to satirize traditional opera and operetta and to create a new kind of musical theater based on the theories of two young German artists, composer Kurt Weill and poet-playwright Bert Brecht. The show opens with a mock-Baroque overture, a nod to Threepenny's source, The Beggar's Opera, a brilliantly successful parody of Handel's operas written by John Gay in 1728. In a brief prologue following the overture, a shabby figure comes onstage with a barrel organ and launches into a song chronicling the crimes of the notorious bandit and womanizer Macheath, "Mack the Knife." The setting is a fair in Soho (London), just before Queen Victoria's coronation. In this production, Weill champion HK Gruber led the Ensemble Modern in a performance of Weill's complete original score, the first time it had been heard in Germany in many years. This production was broadcast on German television (3sat).

Details

Status

Released

Release date

January 1, 1995

Original language

English

Spoken languages

German

Countries

Germany

Production

3sat

Cast

Waldemar Kobus,Carola Regnier,Jürgen Holtz,Jörg Pose,Eva-Maria Strien,Renate Wicke,Corinna Schnabel,Stephan Grossmann,Michael Lucke,Katherina Langeand 5 more

Director

Barrie Gavin,Hans Hollmann

Writer

Bertolt Brecht,Elisabeth Hauptmann

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

IMDb

tt0134629