Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill

The Threepenny Opera (eBook, PDF)

Redaktion: Hartl, Anja / Übersetzer: Willett, John; Manheim, Ralph

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

One of Bertolt Brecht's best-loved and most performed plays, The Threepenny Opera was first staged in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin (now the home of the Berliner Ensemble).

Based on the eighteenth-century The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, the play is a satire on the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic, but set in a mock-Victorian Soho.

With Kurt Weill's music, which was one of the earliest and most successful attempts to introduce the jazz idiom into the theatre, it became a popular hit throughout the western world.

This new edition is published here in John Willett and Ralph Manhein's classic translation with commentary and notes by Anja Hartl.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK
• Seitenzahl: 152
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. Februar 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781350205277
• Artikelnr.: 63070240

Autorenporträt

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and critical writings have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-W0409-300 / Kolbe, Jörg / CC-BY-SA

Inhaltsangabe

Chronology Contexts
Historical, social and cultural
Political and social climate of the 1920s
Cultural context: the Roaring '20s
Significance of the play for Brecht and for political theatre
18th century context
20th century context
Britain vs. Germany; London/East London Genres
Opera/music/theatre
a new theatrical genre
Adaptation
John Gay, The Beggar's Opera
Hybridity: low
and highbrow, emphasis on fun, entertainment in Brechtian theatre
Satire Themes
Who is who? Bourgeois and/or beggar?
Role of the institutions (police, royal family, state)
Corruption, money
Exploitation, human trade, poverty
Morality, asocial vs. social
Love and sexuality, prostitution
Resistance and change
Which opportunities for change are envisioned by the play? Characters Male characters
Peachum empire
Macheath
Tigerbrown Female characters and sexual politics of the play
Mrs Peachum
Polly
Jenny Play as performance
Brechtian principles of theatre
making > emphasis on dialectical theatre > theatricality > actor
audience relationship > deus
ex
machina ending
Music > Kurt Weill's composition > Brechtian opera > The significance of the songs Academic debate
Central strands in scholarship (comparative readings, focus on music and operatic genre) Production history
German productions (Berliner Ensemble; new production announced for January 2021)
English productions
International success (and problems which ensued: misinterpretation, commercialisation, etc.)
Der Dreigroschenprozess (The Threepenny Trial by Bertolt Brecht)
Simon Stephens's recent new version at the National Theatre, UK
Joachim Lang's film Mackie Messer
Brechts Dreigroschenfilm Behind the scenes Interview with playwright Simon Stephens Further reading and viewing THE THREEPENNY OPERA Additional texts Notes