The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht

The Threepenny Opera Reviews

• 
  Ahmad Sharabiani

  Die Dreigroschenoper = The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht
  
  The Threepenny Opera was Brecht's first and greatest commercial success, and it remains one of his best-loved and most-performed plays. Based on John Gay's eighteenth-century Beggar's Opera, the play is set in Victorian England's Soho but satirizes the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic through its wry love story of Polly Peachum and "Mack the Knife" Macheath.
  
  عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «رمان دوپولی»؛ «اپرای سه پولی و صعود و سقوط شهر ماهاگونی»؛ «اپرای سه پولی»؛ نویسنده: برتولت برشت؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال1976میلادی
  
  عنوان: رمان دوپولی؛ نویسنده: برتولت برشت؛ مترجم ابوتراب باقرزاده؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، سال1349؛ در417ص؛ چاپ دوم سال1394؛ در447ص؛ شابک9789640016800؛ موضوع نمایشنامه های نویسندگان آلمان - سده20م
  
  عنوان: اپرای سه پولی و صعود و سقوط شهر ماهاگونی؛ نویسنده: برتولت برشت؛ مترجم شریف لنکرانی؛ تهران، خوارزمی، سال1359، در286ص؛
  فروست دوره آثار برشت پنج؛ چاپ دوم سال1389؛ شابک9789644871221؛
  
  عنوان: اپرای سه پولی؛ نویسنده: برتولت برشت؛ مترجم: علی اکبر خداپرست؛ تهران، البرز، سال1365؛ در104ص؛
  
  در «اپرای سه پولی» که نام نمایشنامه­ ای از «برشت» است؛ «برشت» به جامعه ی بورژوازی می­تازند، و با اشعار شیطنت آمیز، و سلاح تمسخر به همه ی آنها توهین می­کنند
  
  تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/03/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 02/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
• 
  Steven Godin

  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.
• 
  AiK

  При прочтении (не просмотре спектакля) эта пьеса не вызывает какого-то особенного эмоционального отклика, особенно в сравнении с другими пьесами Брехта, на мой взгляд, более сильными. Довольно банальный гротескный сюжет из жизни криминального мира и низов общества, которые необыкновенно коммерциализированы, символизирующие общество предфашистской Германии, но можно сказать, что и к современному обществу эта пьеса имеет отношение. Полиция в лице Пантеры Брауна принимает живейший интерес в делах дна, имея со всего этого свою долю. Немного удручает финал о помиловании приговоренного к повешению Мэкхита королевой с присвоением ему дворянского звания, замка и годовой ренты впридачу.
  Из истории постановок этой пьесы стало ясно, что музыку к нему написал Курт Вайль и его озвучивали великие исполнители, такие как Луи Армстронг и Фрэнк Синатра, и стало любопытно, что же из этого вышло. А вышел замечательный музыкальный спектакль. Поэтому, наверное, нет смысла читать, надо смотреть и слушать.
  
• 
  Meike

  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:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QXJ3...
  English version "Mack the Knife", sung by Louis Armstrong:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-lHr...
  
  "Die Seeräuber-Jenny", sung by Lotte Lenya in the movie version from 1931:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0cl...
  English version "Pirate Jenny", sung by Nina Simone:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7awW...
• 
  Jonfaith

  Or is it only those who have the money who can enter the land of milk and honey?
  
  There were stirrings when I read in David Simon's Homicide about the West Baltimore murders which didn't merit a line in the newspaper. Homo Sacer, Agamben
  
  Perhaps a phrase in the Sebald poem offered a subtle nudge to this reluctant reader. Perhaps it was an image of Ho Chi Minh in Fredrik Logevall's seminal Embers of War-- the thin, proud leader speaking to a congress of the French Communist Party, all of them white, bloated and indifferent?
  
  All those flickering images from Pabst's film--it is a shock that I didn't reach for this play before. The 18C play of John Gray is drenched in Brecht's mordant wit adapted, embellished and reborn with grim musings on sexuality and patriotism, emerging strident and timeless.
• 
  Tosh

  As a hardcore boho 'Beat' kid, I was raised with the soundtrack of Kurt Weil/Bertolt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera." In fact, Lotte Lenya was probably the first singing voice I heard after my Mom - who used to sing to me when I was a little child.
  
  Many years later I read the play/musical and was taken back at its cynical look in how society works. It's an amazing piece of theater and the music is and will always be superb.
• 
  Mahdi Bigdeli

  انسان با چه زندگی می‌کند؟ بی‌وقفه در حال شکنجه کردن، محروم ساختن، تکه پاره کردن، بریدن سر و دریدن انسان است.
  انسان تنها در فراموشی زندگی می کند و بی وقفه فراموش می کند که انسان است.
• 
  Lilirose

  Una commedia surreale, che mette in scena prostitute, criminali ed imbroglioni senza filtri e senza moralismi; anzi, tutti i personaggi sono ben fieri della loro turpitudine, vista come l'unico modo per vivere e sopravvivere. E' un cinismo allegro però quello descritto da Brecht: i protagonisti sono macchiette bidimensionali che pensano solo ai propri interessi, ma consapevoli che la natura umana e in generale la società non permettono di fare altrimenti e lo accettano di buon grado, non certo tormentati da rimorsi di coscienza.
  La critica al capitalismo e alla borghesia è evidente e feroce, non si salva nulla nella ricostruzione dell'autore: non la famiglia, non gli amici e nemmeno le istituzioni, come dimostra l'assurda conclusione. La Regina senza motivi apparenti decide di graziare il reo confesso Mackie ed elevarlo allo status nobiliare, in una parodia di lieto fine che dimostra come nulla sia da prendere sul serio in questa vita
  Purtroppo per quanto io abbia apprezzato la vivacità della storia ed il messaggio che vuole comunicare, è evidente che questo è un testo pensato per essere rappresentato: su carta si percepisce solo qualche eco della potenza comunicativa che deve avere a teatro, fra ballate rivolte al pubblico e cartelli che rompono la quarta parete. Stando così le cose non ne consiglio la lettura, è l'approccio meno indicato per una commedia basata quasi totalmente sulle atmosfere.
• 
  Boadicea

  As Mary Poppins would put it: 'Practically perfect in every possible way'.
  
  I'm missing theatre and concert performances in this era of Covid19 badly and the recent local literary festival has been postponed for 3 months until this most recent lockdown has eased.
  
  So, a book of plays entices although can't quite encapsulate the sheer joy of live performance but this musical play comes so very close, particularly with those fantastic jaunty jazzy songs by Kurt Weill. Add in Lotte Lenya Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone and I'm in heaven....
  
  Then there's the lyrics, this translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife":
  
  See the shark with teeth like razors.
  All can read his open face.
  And Macheath has got a knife, but
  Not in such an obvious place.
  
  See the shark, how red his fins are
  As he slashes at his prey.
  Mac the Knife wears white kid gloves which
  Give the minimum away.
  
  However, by the mid1950s, this is how it goes:
  
  Oh, the shark has pretty teeth dear
  And he shows 'em, pearly white
  Just a jack knife has Macheath dear
  And he keeps it way out of sight
  
  When that shark bites with his teeth, dear
  Scarlet billows begin to spread
  Fancy gloves though has Macheath dear
  So there's never, never a trace of red.
  
  Even better, in my opinion. Just a great number to introduce the anti-hero! Then, there's "Pirate Jenny", a similar vein.
  
  It's a rollicking bawdy piece of musical theatre, adapted from The Beggar's Opera, written by John Gay in the early 18th century with plenty of cutthroat villians and suffering victims, as a parody of Handel's operas. It was adapted by a communist playwright and his collective and Jewish composer. Set in Victorian Soho, and first performed in 1928, it has travelled the world and is still performed in its entirety to this day. Comic, tragic and wonderful satire but plenty to make you think!
  
  What more can I say, just brilliant....pum, pum, pum, pum....pum, pum, pum. (Goes off humming "Mack the Knife".)
• 
  LauraT

  Non c'è niente da fare, il teatro va visto a teatro - e non letto su carta; Brecht poi, con tutte le sue canzoni, è assolutamente perdente in libro. Bella piece, ma sono certa che vista ed ascoltata - magari con la meravigliosa voce della da poco dipartita Milva - dal vivo debba fare tutto un altro effetto
  
  Voi che alla retta vita ci esortate
  e ad evitare il fango del peccato,
  prima di tutto fateci mangiare
  e poi parlate pure a perdifiato.
  Voi che alla vostra ciccia tenete e al nostro onore,
  date ascolto, sappiatelo, è così:
  solo saziato l'uomo può farsi migliore!
  Pochi discorsi, il punto è tutto qui.
  Della gran forma di pane, una fetta
  anche ai reietti e ai poverelli spetta.
• 
  Serenity

  2/10. I understand that this is one of the Great Masters of Theatre. I learned in class that Brecht made a tremendous impact on theatre and started his own theatrical tradition. I also learned that the whole signs-device and didactical bits were very novel in his time. But it really, really disappointed all of my expectations. I even saw it live and it definitely was a flop. It did not deliver on any of the promised scandal or excitement. The musical pieces were random and did not add much. The characters were all unlikeable and the plot rather boring. It's like an inferior version of Oliver Twist, and that is pretty much all I have to say about it.
• 
  Wiebke (1book1review)

  I listened to an audio play with all songs.
  I've seen this play before and really like it.
• 
  Raymond Walker

  Known (i suppose) more for the creation of mack the knife (later to become a popular song) and brecht for his art; this has much more to offer than at first appears. It can be brutal and as damaging as life could be then but tis' not without its humanity from unlooked for sources. Its nature is shocked and dirty much as any dickens novel could be seen from the outside. Harshness then was just a fact of life and brecht saw it as such. An arbitary force from heaven sent to make us all need redemption. The pain and the piss and the shit all horrors sent by divine god to make us know that this life is simply a vale of tears and eternal happiness waits for us in death. The horror that was mack the knife was simply a way of setting us free free from all; to happinies, for is that not all we humans are. A means to and end. Eternal damnation or salvation.
• 
  Angie

  #40
  Η ΟΠΕΡΑ ΤΗΣ ΠΕΝΤΑΡΑΣ
  Bertolt Brecht
  
  🎼"Αξιότιμες κυρίες, δεσποινίδες και κύριοι. Σήμερα θα δείτε και θ'ακουσετε ένα έργο για ζητιάνους. Κι επειδή έτσι που'ναι φτιαγμένο τούτο το έργο, μόνο μυαλά ζητιάνων θα το'χαν σκεφτεί, γι'αυτό το'παμε "Όπερα της πεντάρας" . Είναι μια Όπερα για γέλια,γελάστε λοιπον όσο θέλετε. Κι αν κανένας ενοχληθεί επειδή τούτη εδώ η σαχλαμάρα μοιάζει τόσο με τη ζωη...ε....τι να κάνουμε... ας παρηγορηθούμε πως αυτό που'ναι σήμερα έτσι, αύριο θα 'ναι αλλιώς. " 🎵
• 
  Amaranta

  Ruffiani, mendicanti, delinquenti e meretrici in scena per una commedia dell’assurdo. L’ingiustizia vince in un ribaltarsi dei ruoli. Il deus ex machina della Regina giunge sul finale non per far valere la giustizia ma per salvare un delinquente. Tre soldi che Brecht guadagna benissimo.
• 
  Garrett Zecker

  I have to say that this is one of the greatest things I have ever read. It is a play that is a fantastic reflection on the gutterly people that inhabit every city, and it shows a compassionate, entertaining reflection of them that criticizes the bourgeois and those in power. I think it also correctly showcases the true monster that is the human man. I think that, no matter what the man we are talking about, we all have the spirits of Mackie and Peachum buried somewhere in our hearts. This is a dazzling play that I have decided I totally want to be a part of... Having read it before I have seen it is an interesting experience, and the next step is to watch the videos I just found on YouTube of a Northweatern University performance that looks really great...
  
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9sMDm...
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNbnAF...
  
  In hindsight, I am angry that I missed the Cummings/Lauper performances from a couple of years ago. This is almost a new favorite play, or at least in the top 5...
• 
  saïd

  Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln
  Und die anderen sind im Licht.
  Und man sieht nur die im Lichte
  Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht.

  Brecht zielt mit der Dreigroschenoper auf die Entlarvung der korrupten Bourgeoisie. Auf der einen Seite erscheint der Bettlerkönig Peachum als Musterbeispiel des Geschäftemachers, für den Not und Armut nichts anderes sind als Mittel zum Zweck; auf der anderen Seite entpuppt sich der skrupellose Verbrecher Mackie Messer als Prototyp sogenannter bürgerlicher Solidität. Peachum mobilisiert die Bettlermassen, organisiert eine Demonstration des Elends und droht, den Krönungszug zu stören, falls der korrupte Polizeichef Tiger-Brown sich weigern sollte, Mackie Messer zu verhaften, der Peachums Kreise störte.
• 
  Andi

  Came to this thru the cast album, and of course the iconic song.
  I needed the story to fill in all the blanks and I am currently reading the material it was sourced off of: The Beggars Opera.
  If you can get past some of the biblical preaching and cut to the chase, which to me is the baser impulses of man and the wry, sarcastic and nasty ass character of McHeath and how he gets it over on everyone, well its a hell of a story, Also the 1976 cast album with the wonderful Raul Julia as McHeath is totally worth the effort to find and listen to.
• 
  Nicholas During

  I don't really have anything to say about this book. Read it in anticipation of the Robert Wilson production a Berlin company at BAM, which I saw last night.
  
  Pretty incredible play. In terms of putting on a production that is unlike almost anything else, this is it. Obviously Robert Wilson is a big star, and skilled at what he does, but the text itself has so much potential in it, and it's fun to think about after seeing it all the ways you could push it out.
• 
  Anna

  My favourite Brecht play of all time. But is it a good read? Not really because to state the obvious: this is not a "read", it's a play (or rather a musical) and plays are for playing out on stage. Although one of Brecht's special gifts was to write plays that are infinitely readable, this one's strength lies way more in the musical score by Weill (see "Mac the Knife"/ "Pirate Jenny") than the story itself, which is a potpourri of well known classics stewed up in true Brecht style.
• 
  Theut

  Duro, spietato e allo steso tempo ironico e surreale. E' la vita del sottobosco umano, in cui il più sano ha la rogna... Forte la messa alla berlina della società dell'epoca, sono curiosa di vederlo rappresentato a teatro.
• 
  Lina

  Clubbed me over the head with it's ideology. Headache.
  
  (Die Subtilität geht solange zum Theater, bis sie Brecht.
  
  Das Brecht auf Meinungsfreiheit.
  
  Aua, aua, mein Kopf.)
• 
  Anto_s1977

  Il protagonista di questo testo teatrale è Mackie Messer, un delinquente londinese.
  Makie è il leader di una banda di ladri, che svolge la propria "attività" nel quartiere di Soho.
  L'uomo è apprezzato dalle donne, passa le sue notti con le prostitute e si fa proteggere dal suo amico commissario di polizia, un uomo corrotto che pensa prevalentemente ad accumulare denaro con i loro traffici.
  Polly, la figlia del "re dei mendicanti", fugge da casa e sposa l'uomo. Ciò crea una gran confusione nella vita familiare, tanto che il padre della ragazza pretende l'impiccagione del delinquente più famoso di Londra.
  Mackie viene tradito non una, ma bensì due volte, dalle prostitute e dalla propria eccessiva sicurezza nella protezione della polizia.
  Il finale è un po' strambo: una grazia sul filo del rasoio dalla regina in persona, il cui corteo deve sfilare per le strade di Londra proprio quel giorno.
  La storia in sé l'ho gradita, ma poichè il testo è infarcito di testi musicali che lanciano messaggi al pubblico, penso che renda molto di più a teatro.
• 
  Gina

  Mir hat das Drehbuch sehr gut gefallen! Ich hatte aber auch eine Verfassung mit Erklärungen, die mir wirklich gut geholfen haben. Allgemein hat sich die Geschichte aber flüssiger gelesen als gedacht. Die Dreigroschenoper regt auch einen zum Nachdenken an, aber hatte für mich auch einige "humorvolle" Elemente, wenn man es so nennen kann. Gerade den Protagonisten Macheath mochte ich sehr gerne.
• 
  WortGestalt

  Was soll man zu solch einem Klassiker groß sagen, wenn man keine ausführliche Rezension schreiben will, es ist halt die Dreigroschenoper und allein vom Personal her schon ganz wunderbarer Stoff für Krimileser. Aber das Stück gehört halt auf die Bühne, das Lesen ist fein, aber im Theater macht es mehr her. Rein zur Lektüre bleibt ja da noch der Dreigroschenroman.
• 
  Xenia

  Fav. quote: "Um Gottes Willen, will man Sie hopsnehmen?"
• 
  Christian McKay Heidicker

  Yes, I only watched the movie, but the adapted play is out of print and it was way too good not to write a review on it.
  
  I came across The Three Penny Opera in the nerdiest way possible. Yup, the comic route. The most recent volume of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has beggars and prostitutes belting out heart-wrenching opera of cutting morality and justified anger.
  
  This isn't the first time Moore has led me to fine literature/stage work. After reading the first two volumes of League, I went out and read Dracula, Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, and She. Later I read an interview with Moore that said he fully intended to whet his reader's appetite to search out the source material for his work. Apparently he wanted to steer his readers to eighteenth century opera with this last installment.
  
  A quick search led me to The Beggar's Opera, which was interesting enough, the history more than the play itself. I discovered John Gay's original work was the inspiration for the 1930's production of The Three Penny Opera, the direct inspiration for Moore's latest installment.
  
  This German film blew the original out of the water. Jenny's pirate song (
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0clERjQ...) haunted me for nights after hearing it. Mack the Knife was much more conniving and detestable. The songs catchy enough to keep whistling, devastating enough to make me swagger, and engaging enough to start them over again the moment they finished.
• 
  Gustl

  Particolarmente adatta alla rappresentazione scenica, con un impatto visivo curioso dovuto ai cartelli e uditivo grazie alle musiche di Kurt Weill. Per il resto una storia di tradimenti a girandola e una organica denuncia di rapporti umani difficili nella società borghese. Piacevole l'interazione dei personaggi con il pubblico e nel finale interviene nientedimeno che Herr Brecht, in un curioso accenno di metatomanzo. Vorrei vederlo a Teatro.
• 
  Kirsten

  I saw this, in Berlin I think, and I remember pieces from class, but I'm not sure I ever sat down and read it before.
• 
  Bélix

  Vraiment cool bien que les personnages féminins ont la profondeur d'un pédiluve