The Threepenny Opera ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. Although there is debate as to how much contribution Hauptmann might have made to the libretto, Brecht is usually listed as sole author and Hauptmann as the sole translator, which was probably an unfair oversimplification typical of the time.
The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.
With influences from jazz and German dance music, songs from The Threepenny Opera have been widely covered and become standards, most notably "" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") and "" ("Pirate Jenny").
The Threepenny Opera has been performed in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Russia, Italy, and Hungary. It has also been adapted to film and radio. The German-language version from 1928 entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.
Background Origins In the winter of 1927–28, Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's lover at the time, received a copy of Gay's play from friends in England and, fascinated by the female characters and its critique of the condition of the London poor, began translating it into German. Brecht at first took little interest in her translation project, but in April 1928 he attempted to interest the impresario Ernst Josef Aufricht in a play he was writing called Fleischhacker, which he had, in fact, already promised to another producer. Aufricht was seeking a production to launch his new theatre company at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, but was not impressed by the sound of Fleischhacker. Brecht immediately proposed a translation of The Beggar's Opera instead, claiming that he himself had been translating it. He delivered Hauptmann's translation to Aufricht, who immediately signed a contract for it. Brecht proposed Weill to write the music, and spent the next four months writing the libretto.
Brecht used four songs by the French poet François Villon. Rather than translate the French himself, he used the translations by (), the same source he had been using since his earliest plays.
The first act of both works begins with the same melody ("Peachum's Morning Chorale"/"An Old Woman Clothed In Gray"), but that is the only material Weill borrowed from the melodies Johann Christoph Pepusch arranged for The Beggar's Opera. The title Die Dreigroschenoper was determined only a week before the opening; it had been previously announced as simply The Beggar's Opera (in English), with the subtitle "Die Luden-Oper" ("The Pimp's Opera").
Writing in 1929, Weill made the political and artistic intents of the work clear: With the Dreigroschenoper we reach a public which either did not know us at all or thought us incapable of captivating listeners ... Opera was founded as an aristocratic form of art ... If the framework of opera is unable to withstand the impact of the age, then this framework must be destroyed ... In the Dreigroschenoper, reconstruction was possible insofar as here we had a chance of starting from scratch.
Weill claimed at the time that "music cannot further the action of the play or create its background", but achieves its proper value when it interrupts the action at the right moments."
Music Weill's score shows the influence of jazz and German dance music of the time. The orchestration involves a small ensemble with a good deal of doubling-up on instruments (in the original performances, for example, some 7 players covered a total of 23 instrumental parts, though modern performances typically use a few more players).
Premieres Germany The Threepenny Opera was first performed at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in 1928 on a set designed by Caspar Neher. Despite an initially poor reception, it became a great success, playing 400 times in the next two years. The performance was a springboard for one of the best known interpreters of Brecht and Weill's work, Lotte Lenya, who was married to Weill. The production became a great favourite of Berlin's "smart set" — Count Harry Kessler recorded in his diary meeting at the performance an ambassador and a director of the Dresdner Bank (and their wives), and concluded "One simply has to have been there."Hinton (2009), p. 56.
Critics did not fail to notice that Brecht had included the four Villon songs translated by Ammer. Brecht responded by saying that he had "a fundamental laxity in questions of literary property."
By 1933, when Weill and Brecht were 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. Summer 2009
France A French version produced by Gaston Baty and written by Ninon Steinhof and André Mauprey was presented in October 1930 at the Théâtre Montparnasse in Paris. It was rendered as ; (, or four pennies being the idiomatically equivalent French expression for Threepenny).
Russia In 1930 the work premiered in Moscow at the Kamerny Theatre, directed by Alexander Tairov. It was the only one of Brecht's works to be performed in Russia during his lifetime. Izvestia disapproved: "It is high time that our theatres ceased playing homage to petit-bourgeois bad taste and instead turned to more relevant themes."
Hungary The first Hungarian performance of the play was at the Comedy Theatre of Budapest (Vígszínház), on 6 September 1930. It was titled A koldus operája, which is a reference to Gay's original opera. The play was translated by Jenő Heltai, who mixed Weill and Pepusch' s music, and also Brecht and Gay's texts. The director was Ernő Szabolcs. The cast included Pál Jávor (Mackie), Franciska Gaal (Polly), Gerő Mály (Peachum) and Ella Gombaszögi (Mrs Peachum).
United States America was introduced to the work by the film version of G. W. Pabst, which opened in New York in 1931.
The first American production, adapted into English by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky and staged by Francesco von Mendelssohn, featured Robert Chisholm as Macheath. It opened on Broadway at the Empire Theatre, on April 13, 1933, and closed after 12 performances. Mixed reviews praised the music but slammed the production, with the critic Gilbert Gabriel calling it "a dreary enigma"."The Threepenny Opera in America", ThreepennyOpera.org, accessed 19 September 2016
United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, the first fully staged performance was given on 9 February 1956, under Berthold Goldschmidt, although there had been a concert performance in 1933, and a semi-staged performance on 28 July 1938. In between, on 8 February 1935 Edward Clark conducted the first British broadcast of the work. It received scathing reviews from Ernest Newman and other critics. But the most savage criticism came from Weill himself, who described it privately as "the worst performance imaginable … the whole thing was completely misunderstood". But his criticisms seem to have been for the concept of the piece as a Germanised version of The Beggar's Opera, rather than for Clark's conducting of it, of which Weill made no mention.Bertolt Brecht. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht – A Study from Eight Aspects, p. 30
Italy The first Italian production, titled L'opera da tre soldi and directed by Giorgio Strehler, premiered at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan on 27 February 1956 in the presence of Bertolt Brecht. The cast included: Tino Carraro (Mackie), Mario Carotenuto (Peachum), (Polly), Milly (Jenny), (Chief of Police). The conductor was Bruno Maderna. Set designs were by Luciano Damiani and Teo Otto; costume design by Ezio Frigerio.L'opera da tre soldi (1955–56) , photos, costumes; poster , Piccolo Teatro di Milano, accessed 27 June 2015.
Roles +RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 31 August 1928Conductor: Theo MackebenMacheath ("Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife"), London's greatest and most notorious criminaltenor/baritoneHarald Paulsen Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the "Beggar's Friend",controller of all the beggars in London; conspires to have Mack hangedbaritoneErich PontoCelia Peachum ("Frau Peachum"), Peachum's wife; helps him run the businessmezzo-sopranoRosa ValettiPolly Peachum, the Peachums' daughter; after knowing Mack for only five days, agrees to marry himsopranoRoma BahnJackie "Tiger" Brown, Police Chief of London and Mack's best friend from their army daysbaritoneKurt GerronLucy Brown, Tiger Brown's daughter; claims to be married to MacksopranoKate KühlJenny ("Spelunken-Jenny"/"Low-Dive Jenny"/"Ginny Jenny"),a prostitute once romantically involved with Macheath; is bribed to turn Mack over to the policemezzo-sopranoLotte LenyaFilch, a misfit young man who approaches the Peachums in hopes of beggar trainingtenorNaphtali LehrmannStreet Singer ("Moritatensänger"), sings 'The Ballad of Mack the Knife' in the opening scenebaritoneKurt GerronSmith, a constablebaritoneErnst BuschWaltertenorErnst RotmundMatthiastenorKarl HannemannJakobtenorManfred FürstJimmietenorWerner MaschmeyerEdetenorAlbert VenohrBeggars, gangsters, whores, constables
Casts (1920s–1960s)