Die Dreigroschenoper at the American Film Institute Catalog; The Threepenny Opera at Rotten Tomatoes; Criterion Collection essay on The Threepenny Opera by. Die Dreigroschenoper. Inhaltsangabe: 1. Akt. Mackie Messer heiratet Polly, die sich in ihn verliebt hat. Mackie oder Macheath ist ein Gauner, der sich als. Die Dreigroschenoper - German Literature. Die Dreigroschenoper. Co- author: Elisabeth Hauptmann. The Dreigroschenoper premièred at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin on 3. August 1. 92. 8 with Harald Paulsen as Macheath, Roma Bahn as Polly and Lotte Lenya as Jenny. The first published edition of the work, which appeared in 1. Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1. Bert Brecht. Unlike Gay’s work, the setting of the Dreigroschenoper is not 1. London, however, but London at the time of the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1. As Stephen Mc. Neff points out (see below, Mc. Neff, p. 7. 8), the Dreigroschenoper is not an opera: the music is disunited and interspersed with theatrical scenes. It is closer to being a musical, although because it is so deliberately unlike most American musicals, it would be more accurate to call it an anti- musical. Kurt Weill deliberately wrote the music so that it could be sung by actors, and not by trained opera singers (see below, Weill, p.
The Dreigroschenoper exuberantly exposes the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality and the justice system. The career criminal, Macheath, is outmanoeuvred by the more devious, so- called ‘respectable’ characters: the police chief Tiger Brown and the charitable businessman, Jonathan Peachum. In 1. 93. 1, Brecht published a new edition of the Dreigroschenoper which contained a number of very significant changes. Most printed editions in circulation are based on the revised 1. For a detailed analysis of the changes made by Brecht between the editions of 1. Steve Giles (1. 98. According to Giles (p. In the 1. 93. 1 version, Macheath also announces in Scene 4 that he plans to become a banker, because it is safer and more profitable. This anticipates his development in the Dreigroschenroman; Threepenny Novel of 1. In Scene 1 we are introduced to Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, who sells costumes and begging licences to beggars; anyone who tries to beg in London without a licence from Peachum gets beaten up. Peachum informs Frau Peachum that their daughter Polly’s new boyfriend is Mackie Messer (Mac the Knife). The couple sing ‘Der Anstatt- Dass- Song’; ‘The Instead- Of Song’. In Scene 2 Macheath (Mac) and Polly get married in a stable. The stable is furnished with goods which have been stolen by Mac’s men. Polly sings ‘Seeräuber- Jenny’; ‘Pirate Jenny’. Tiger Brown, the police chief arrives; he and Mac sing ‘Der Kanonen- Song’; ‘Cannon Song’. Tiger Brown tells Mac that Scotland Yard does not have any evidence against him. In Scene 4 Polly warns Mac that Scotland Yard is about to arrest him. Mac decides to leave town. He leaves Polly in charge of his gang, and bids her farewell. This scene is followed by an interlude in which Frau Peachum bribes Jenny to inform on Mac. The pair sing ‘Die Ballade der sexuellen Hörigkeit’; ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’. In Scene 5 Mac visits the prostitutes in Turnbridge. Jenny sneaks out to alert the police. Then she and Mac sing the ‘Die Zuhälterballade’; ‘The Pimp’s Ballad’. Mac is arrested by the police. In Scene 6 Mac enters prison, sees Tiger Brown, and stares at him accusingly. Mac is visited by his two wives, Lucy (the daughter of Tiger Brown) and Polly, who sing ‘Das Eifersuchtsduett’; ‘The Jealousy Duet’. Lucy claims she is pregnant by Mac. Mac escapes from prison. Peachum arrives and tells Tiger Brown that he had better catch Mac. Mac and Jenny sing ‘Denn wovon lebt der Mensch?’; ‘What keeps a man alive?’. This song contains the famous line ‘Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral’; ‘First comes feeding, then morality’. In Scene 7 Peachum prepares an army of beggars to disrupt the coronation procession. Jenny and the whores arrive and demand their money for betraying Mac. Frau Peachum refuses, since Mac has escaped. Jenny replies that Mac is now with Suky Tawdy. Tiger Brown and his men arrive and threaten to arrest the beggars. Peachum sings ‘Das Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens’; ‘The Song about the Inadequacy of Human Endeavour’. Peachum tells Tiger Brown there will be a riot if he does not arrest Mac. Brown gives in and heads to Oxford Street to arrest Mac. Jenny sings the ‘Salomon- Song’. In Scene 8 Polly visits Lucy in the Old Bailey and butters her up. She asks Lucy where Mac is; Lucy doesn’t know and admits that she is not pregnant. She looks out of the window and sees that Mac has been recaptured. Frau Peachum arrives with a widow’s dress for Polly. In Scene 9 Macheath is in his cell, about to be hanged. He asks his men Matthias and Jakob to bring all their money so that he can bribe the guard, Smith, to let him escape. Matthias and Jakob return too late. A huge crowd has gathered to witness the execution. Mac sings a farewell ballad, but he is saved by the royal messenger who announces that Mac is acquitted and made a member of the nobility. Brecht wrote thirteen tips (‘Winke’) for actors appearing in the Dreigroschenoper; amongst other things, he advises them to read the ballads of the great French poet François Villon (1. The best sound recording of the Dreigroschenoper was made in 1. Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra, conductor and director Wilhelm Brückner- Rüggeberg, with Erich Schellow as Macheath, Johanna von Kóczián as Polly and Lotte Lenya as Jenny. It is available as a CD and download: 0. In 1. 93. 4, whilst in exile from Hitler and the Nazis, Brecht published the Dreigroschenroman; Threepenny Novel, a fictional reworking of the opera in which Macheath becomes a successful businessman and the director of a bank. Film Version and Court Case (Dreigroschenprozeß)Brecht and Weill sold the film rights to the show to Nero Film AG, signing a contract on 2. May 1. 93. 0. The contract included a ‘Mitbestimmungsrecht’; ‘right of co- determination’, in the production of the film. On 1. 8 August 1. Brecht to withdraw from the film in return for payment. Brecht refused, and Nero Film AG claimed he was in breach of contract. August 1. 93. 0 the company’s lawyer informed Brecht that the film would be made without his participation. Brecht sued Nero in the civil courts and the case was heard from 1. October 1. 93. 0. Brecht lost the case and he was ordered to pay costs. The film, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, premiered on 1. February 1. 93. 1, with Rudolf Forster as Macheath, Carola Neher as Polly and Lotte Lenya as Jenny. Brecht wrote an account of the case, ‘Der Dreigroschenprozeß’, which contains reflections on modern media (see Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (BFA), vol. For a full study of the court case and Brecht’s essay on it, see reading list below, Steve Giles (1. The second film version of the Dreigroschenoper appeared in 1. Wolfgang Staudte. An English language adaptation, Mack the Knife, directed by Menahem Golan, appeared in 1. The work was also made into a TV film in 2. Joy H. Calico, Brecht at the Opera (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2. Steve Giles, ‘Rewriting Brecht: Die Dreigroschenoper 1. Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch 3. Steve Giles, ‘From Althusser to Brecht: Formalism, Materialism and The Threepenny Opera’, in New Ways in Germanistik, ed. Richard Sheppard (Oxford: Berg, 1. Stephen Hinton (ed.), Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera, Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1. Peter Hutchinson, ‘Brecht, Die Dreigroschenoper’, in Landmarks in German Drama, ed. Peter Hutchinson (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2. Stephen Mc. Neff, ‘The Threepenny Opera’, in The Cambridge Companion to Brecht, ed. Peter Thomson and Glendyr Sacks, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2. Ronald Taylor, ‘Opera in Berlin in the 1. Wozzeck and The Threepenny Opera’, in Culture and society in the Weimar Republic, ed. Keith Bullivant (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1. Kurt Weill, ‘Correspondence about The Threepenny Opera’ [first published 1. January 1. 92. 9], in The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, ed. Anton Kaes, Martin Jay and Edward Dimendberg (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1. Further Reading on the Film Version and Court Case (Dreigroschenprozeß)Steve Giles, Bertolt Brecht and Critical Theory: Marxism, Modernity and the Threepenny Lawsuit, 2nd revised edn (Bern: Peter Lang, 1. Owen Hatherley, Militant Modernism (Winchester and Washington, DC: O Books, 2. Chapter 4: 'Alienation Affects', pp. Further Reading in German. Bertolt Brecht, ‘Der Dreigroschenprozeß. Ein soziologisches Experiment’, in Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (BFA), vol. Schriften 1. 1. 91. The Threepenny Opera - playing at the National Theatre in London until October 2. The Threepenny Opera website.
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