Die Dreigroschenoper

Despite its name, Die Dreigorschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) isn’t technically an opera at all—it’s a play with music. That’s part of the joke of a pitch-black satire whose humour conceals a serious point: that opera should be within the reach of all, that highbrow and lowbrow art can—and should—be one and the same thing. Premiered in Berlin in 1928, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s politically charged attack on capitalist society would become the greatest theatrical success of the Weimar Republic and, later, the longest-running musical show in history. But the phenomenon started in 1728 with the premiere of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Brecht and Weill adapted this lurid drama set among London’s thieves and low-lives, retaining in the end only one of Gay’s original songs and substantially altering the plot. Weill’s jazz-infused final score includes hits “Mack the Knife” and “Pirate Jenny”.