Theatre
The Threepenny Opera
Die Dreigroschenoper
Bertolt Brecht · 1928
Synopsis
In the London district of Soho, on the eve of a coronation, Peachum has turned begging into a business: he equips the city's beggars to move passers-by and takes half of their earnings. His daughter Polly secretly marries the bandit Mackie Messer in a stable furnished with stolen objects. Peachum and his wife resolve to hand their son-in-law over to the police, but Brown, who heads the London police, is an old friend of the bandit.
Context
The play adapts John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, of 1728, from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann, whose share in the text was long played down, with ballads by Villon in Karl Klammer's translation, which Brecht neglected to credit. Written in four months with music by Kurt Weill, it premiered on 31 August 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin and became the greatest German theatrical success until 1933, the year it was banned. In 1931 Pabst made two films from it, shot together, in German and in French.
Who it is for
A play with music in a prologue and eight scenes; the songs, beginning with the ballad of Mackie Messer, have long lived outside the play.
Prizes and reception
Translated into eighteen languages and performed more than ten thousand times on European stages before 1933, it carried the song of Mackie Messer around the world.