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).
Release Date : Jan 01, 1995
Genres : Music
Production Company : 3sat
Production Countries : Germany
Original Language : Deutsch
Casts : Friedrich Karl Praetorius, Jürgen Holtz, Ingeborg Engelmann, Katherina Lange, Axel Böhmert, Dorothee Hartinger, Carola Regnier, Wilfried Elste, Stephan Grossmann, Michael Lucke, Jörg Pose
Director :
Status : Released
Budget : 0
Revenue : 0
