The Threepenny Opera (1995)
Die Dreigroschenoper
Overview
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).
What is The Threepenny Opera about?
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). The Threepenny Opera is a Music movie, released on 1995-01-01, runtime 163 minutes.
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Directed by
Hans Hollmann, Barrie Gavin
Cast
- Friedrich Karl Praetorius as Macheath, genannt Mackie Messer
- Jürgen Holtz as Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum
- Ingeborg Engelmann as Celia Peachum, seine Frau
- Katherina Lange as Polly Peachum, seine Tochter
- Axel Böhmert as Brown, Polizeichef von London
- Dorothee Hartinger as Lucy, seine Tochter
- Carola Regnier as Die Spelunken-Jenny
- Wilfried Elste as Pastor Kimball
- Stephan Grossmann as Filch / Trauerweiden-Walter
- Michael Lucke as Ein Moritatensänger / Münz-Matthias
- Jörg Pose as Makenfinger-Jakob
- Waldemar Kobus as Säge-Robert
More like this
Sources
Details and the 9.0/10 rating from The Threepenny Opera on TMDB, also on IMDb. Back to Movie World.