Reviews for The Threepenny Opera

The average rating for The Threepenny Opera based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-07-01 00:00:00 Joe Ragano First performed in Berlin 1928 this play had been initially received poorly, but went on to great success, by 1933, when Brecht was forced to leave Germany by the Nazi seizure of power, the play had been translated into 18 languages and performed more than 10,000 times on European stages, quite an accomplishment. The play offers a socialist view of Capitalism and takes place in London centering on one Jonathan Peachum who happens to be the boss of beggars. With the help of his wife he enrolls a new beggar, but soon after, his daughter Polly does not come from the previous night, leading a run in with gangs and the law. As this was a play, reading was never going to match the real thing, especially as it contains music, but with a little imagination it's not hard to think what it would have been like up on stage, even whilst early Nazism looked on with evil eyes, and the fact Brecht used his plays to express his outrage and opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements, shows he was an important voice for those being oppressed.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-02-24 00:00:00 Jo Ellen Taube With the "Threepenny Opera", Brecht unintentionally undermined his own poetic concept of the "epic theater" by having Kurt Weill compose some of the most stirring songs ever written in German. Brecht's theatrical concept was to turn away from illusion and immersion and to confront audiences with political realities and then discuss them dialectically in the course of the play - i.e., he wanted his audience to leave the theatre not entranced, but full of new awareness. So while the texts of the "Threepenny Opera" are clearly written with this goal in mind, the reason why it became and has stayed so immensely popular is the accessible and rousing music - the combination of societal criticism and musical extravaganza was fresh and exciting when the musical drama (it's not really an opera) was first staged in Berlin in 1928. While the story itself takes place in Victorian England (it was modeled after John Gay's The Beggar's Opera), Brecht citicizes his contemporary society in the Weimar Republic. The texts discuss the hybris of the bourgeoisie and how crime is a systemic problem in which the rich and the poor are entangled, but for different reasons. The story stars iconic characters like Mack the Knife (Mackie Messer), Low-Dive Jenny (Spelunken-Jenny) and Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the king of the beggars. I am generally critical of Brecht's heightened pedagocical impetus because it is sometimes short of condescension, and the aforementioned poetic concept also tends to lead to the creation of two-dimensional characters for the sake of argument, so honestly, I don't think it's a particularly well-crafted story, but the music counterbalances and elevates it to a degree that turns it into a must-hear. And to be fair to old Berti, there are also some good punchlines: Every German knows the saying "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral" ("First comes the feeding, then morality") which means that it is easy for the well-situated to condemn the wrongdoings of the hungry and the desperate ("You gentlemen who tell us/ how to live properly,/ and how to avoid all sins and wrongdoings:/ First you must give us food,/ then we can talk./ (...) First comes the feeding, then morality." - sorry for the clumsy translation). So do yourself a favor: Don't read this, listen to it or, even better, watch it live. Here are some links to the most popular songs: "Die Moritate von Mackie Messer", sung by Brecht himself: English version "Mack the Knife", sung by Louis Armstrong: "Die Seeräuber-Jenny", sung by Lotte Lenya in the movie version from 1931: English version "Pirate Jenny", sung by Nina Simone: