Kurt WeillRezensionen

I saw this, in Berlin I think, and I remember pieces from class, but I'm not sure I ever sat down and read it before.

Phoenix Falmouth

Brecht, Bertolt. The Threepenny Opera. 1928. Translated by Desmond I. Vesey and Eric Bentley. Foreword by Lotte Lenya. Grove Press, 1994.
Reviewers of The Threepenny Opera often mention its indictment of capitalism. Certainly, Brecht’s notes and “Tips” to actors suggest that is part of what he was after. He also says that he wanted to distance the audience from the action and characters to encourage it to respond intellectually to what it was seeing. Certainly, one could stage the play as an anti-capitalist rant, but the play offers so many levels of satire and parody, that to do so undersells. Its source, John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, was a satire of Italian opera. Threepenny was billed not as an opera or a musical but as a “play with music.” The hero, Macheath, is aware that he is a pop star, and comes out singing his own pop anthem, “Mack the Knife.” Jenny, originally played by composer Kurt Weill’s wife, Lotte Lenya, appears as a character in “Mack the Knife” and is the heroine of her own fantasy in the play’s other pop hit, “Pirate Jenny,” a.k.a. “The Black Freighter.” Besides the aesthetic parody, gender roles get attention, just as they did in the Gay original. Characters seem aware that they are playing to the audience, showing off their skillfulness at greed, crime, and seduction. We can enjoy it all, without ever thinking of capitalism. 4 stars.

Ambientada a principios del siglo XX, -La ópera de dos centavos- describe a partir de las vivencias de Macky Navaja, un rufián inglés, la cotidianeidad de los miserables de Londres. En el centro del planteo de la obra, encontramos a la humanidad y su destino, el desamparo y la maldad en la sociedad. Es un crítica severa al capitalismo, que con 16 actores en escena, invita al público a sacudir su conciencia, intentando moverlo a la reflexión.

1 Prologue
Performer – Gerald Price
0:17
2 Overture 1:54
3 The Ballad Of Mack The Knife
Performer – Gerald Price
3:19
4 Morning Anthem
Performer – Martin Wolfson
0:49
5 Instead-Of-Song
Performer – Charlotte Rae, Martin Wolfson
1:51
6 Army Song
Performer – Scott Merrill
2:15
7 Wedding Song
Performer – John Astin (2)
1:06
8 Love Song
Performer – Jo Sullivan (2), Scott Merrill
1:57
9 Ballad Of Dependency
Performer – Charlotte Rae
2:17
10 The World Is Mean
Performer – Charlotte Rae, Jo Sullivan (2), Martin Wolfson
2:45
11 Melodrama And Polly's Song
Performer – Jo Sullivan (2), Scott Merrill
2:32
12 Pirate Jenny
Performer – Lotte Lenya
4:03
13 Tango - Ballad
Performer – Lotte Lenya, Scott Merrill
4:35
14 Ballad Of The Easy Life
Performer – Scott Merrill
1:42
15 Barbara Song
Performer – Beatrice Arthur
3:17
16 Jealousy Duet
Performer – Beatrice Arthur, Jo Sullivan (2)
2:21
17 How To Survive
Performer – Charlotte Rae, Scott Merrill
3:13
18 Useless Song
Performer – Martin Wolfson
0:43
19 Solomon Song
Performer – Lotte Lenya
2:36
20 Call From The Grave
Performer – Scott Merrill
3:22
21 Death Message
Performer – Scott Merrill
3:01
22 Finale - The Mounted Messenger
Performer – William Duell
3:05
23 The Ballad Of Mack The Knife
Performer – Lotte Lenya, Marc Blitzstein
2:38

Der Silbersee
1 Fennimores Lied 3:08
2 Cäsars Tod 2:46
Die Dreigroschenoper
3 Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer 3:12
4 Salomon-Song
Harmonium – Wolfgang Meyer (2)
4:25
5 Die Ballade Von Der Sexuellen Hörigkeit 3:23
Berliner Requiem
6 Zu Potsdam Unter Den Eichen
Arranged By – Hazell*
2:08
7 Nannas Lied
Piano – Kai Rautenberg
3:42
Der Silbersee
8 Lied Das Lotterieagenten 4:42
Aufstieg Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny
9 Alabama-Song 4:39
10 Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet 4:28
11 Je Ne T'Aime Pas
Piano – Kai Rautenberg
3:42
One Touch Of Venus
12 I'm A Stranger Here Myself 3:01
13 Westwind 2:47
14 Speak Low 4:11

To read its average to watch its a 5/5, my favourite musical.

National Theatre, London. Probably more of a 3.5 as it drags in the 2nd half but when it's good, its majestic. Loved the very Brechtian staging and the general anarchism, catch it whilst you still can.

At times, Bertolt Brecht could be such a smarmy boor. And a little of that comes through Threepenny. Still, the music is wonderful. The words, in German, delightful and playful. Just too bad that it comes from a man who made a ritual of posing as the fake working man's hero.

Una commedia surreale, che mette in scena prostitute, criminali ed imbroglioni senza filtri e senza moralismi; anzi, tutti i personaggi sono ben fieri della loro turpitudine, vista come l'unico modo per vivere e sopravvivere. E' un cinismo allegro però quello descritto da Brecht: i protagonisti sono macchiette bidimensionali che pensano solo ai propri interessi, ma consapevoli che la natura umana e in generale la società non permettono di fare altrimenti e lo accettano di buon grado, non certo tormentati da rimorsi di coscienza.
La critica al capitalismo e alla borghesia è evidente e feroce, non si salva nulla nella ricostruzione dell'autore: non la famiglia, non gli amici e nemmeno le istituzioni, come dimostra l'assurda conclusione. [SPOILER]-La Regina senza motivi apparenti decide di graziare il reo confesso Mackie ed elevarlo allo status nobiliare, in una parodia di lieto fine che dimostra come nulla sia da prendere sul serio in questa vita-[FINE SPOILER]
Purtroppo per quanto io abbia apprezzato la vivacità della storia ed il messaggio che vuole comunicare, è evidente che questo è un testo pensato per essere rappresentato: su carta si percepisce solo qualche eco della potenza comunicativa che deve avere a teatro, fra ballate rivolte al pubblico e cartelli che rompono la quarta parete. Stando così le cose non ne consiglio la lettura, è l'approccio meno indicato per una commedia basata quasi totalmente sulle atmosfere.½

CHECK SHELVES

CHECK SHELVES

CHECK SHELVES

Or is it only those who have the money who can enter the land of milk and honey?

There were stirrings when I read in David Simon's Homicide about the West Baltimore murders which didn't merit a line in the newspaper. Homo Sacer, Agamben

Perhaps a phrase in the Sebald poem offered a subtle nudge to this reluctant reader. Perhaps it was an image of Ho Chi Minh in Fredrik Logevall's seminal Embers of War-- the thin, proud leader speaking to a congress of the French Communist Party, all of them white, bloated and indifferent?

All those flickering images from Pabst's film--it is a shock that I didn't reach for this play before. The 18C play of John Gray is drenched in Brecht's mordant wit adapted, embellished and reborn with grim musings on sexuality and patriotism, emerging strident and timeless.

Brecht's complex critique of capitalism. Not unlike the Sopranos or The Wire, Brecht offers us a view of disenfranchised members of society who use the tools of capitalism to further their personal success (on the black market). The farce of it (or the tragedy?) is that capitalism is prima facie morally bankrupt, and that corporate entities are nothing but a conglomeration of Mack the Knives. Knaves all of them; exploiting one another to preserve their personal security.

The Threepenny Opera is Bertolt Brecht's savage satire on the bourgeois Weimar Republic, and his most performed and studied play. Edited and translated by Ralph Manheim and John Willett, this student edition contains commentary, analysis and context, as well as the full text of the play. One of the major dramatists of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht's plays include "The Life of Galileo," "Mother Courage and her Children" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," He died in 1956.

A fun play about Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam.

I didn't realize when I started reading this that the play would be funny, but I found myself laughing frequently. Satire the drama is supposed to be, and satire Brecht does well. Admittedly, I didn't catch that he was satirizing specifically bourgeois society until almost the end (and I found Brecht's notes much more confusing than helpful), but that didn't subtract from my enjoyability of the book. I had expected it to be a much harder read, quick only for its short length, but found it overall very accessible and entertaining. It also helped remind me of the basic plot of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, which I read a few years ago and also enjoyed. I only wish I knew what the music was like.

When I read this I was already familiar with both Kurt Weill's music and the original Gay's Beggars' Opera that was inspiration for Brecht. The street life with characters like MacHeath and Jenny comes alive in Brecht's drama. Weimar culture was home to many artists who challenge both tradition and the conventional view of life. Inspired by their imagination and the political-economic upheaval that was taking place in this era artists like Brecht and Weill were changing the nature of theater and the music hall. The era was all too short as the rise of the Nazi's and their devastating impact on culture would change the artistic world along with much else. This was part of my reading for a course focusing on the "Degenerate Art" of Nazi Germany.

Threepenny Opera is Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's great diatribe against capitalism and the morality of the petit bourgeoisie, based loosely on an earlier English play, The Begger's Opera by John Gay. Brecht and Weill can make me angry about the plight of ordinary, even unlikeable, humans in a way that no one else can.

For the non-German-reading English speaker, the biggest problem with this play is the translation. Marc Blitzstein did the translation that was produced on Broadway. Unfortunately, he had to cut material that wasn't deemed appropriate at the time in order to get it produced. Eric Bentley's academic translation is much more accurate but reads like a plodding ox-cart. I heard that an unexpurgated version of the Blitzstein is available, but I haven't been able to find it yet. I recommend looking for that one if you can find it.

A wonderful tribute to Kurt Weill and his music.

Bawdy, facetious, and unapologetically bleeding hearted, The Threepenny Opera is Bertolt Brecht's most playful and accessible critique of Western society.

One of my personal favorites, chiefly for "Mac the Knife"

Entertaining cynicism--I'd love to hear the songs

CHECK SHELVES