The threepenny opera

by Bertolt Brecht

Other authorsEric Bentley, Desmond Ivo Vesey

Paper Book, 1964

Description

This Student Edition of Brecht's satire on the capitalist society of the Weimar Republic features an extensive introduction and commentary that includes a plot summary, discussion of the context, themes, characters, style and language as well as questions for further study and notes on words and phrases in the text. It is the perfect edition for students of theatre and literature. Based on John Gay's eighteenth century Beggar's Opera, The Threepenny Opera, first staged in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, is a vicious satire on the bourgeois capitalist society of the Weimar Republic, but set in a mock-Victorian Soho. It focuses on the feud between Macheaf - an amoral criminal - and his father in law, a racketeer who controls and exploits London's beggars and is intent on having Macheaf hanged. Despite the resistance by Macheaf's friend the Chief of Police, Macheaf is eventually condemned to hang, until in a comic reversal the queen pardons him and grants him a title and land. With Kurt Weill's unforgettable music - one of the earliest and most successful attempts to introduce jazz to the theatre - it became a popular hit throughout the western world. The text is presented in the trusted translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett.… (more)

Status

Available

Call number

782.1

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

New York : Grove Weidenfeld, 1964.

User reviews

LibraryThing member SusieBookworm

I didn't realize when I started reading this that the play would be funny, but I found myself laughing frequently. Satire the drama is supposed to be, and satire Brecht does well. Admittedly, I didn't catch that he was satirizing specifically bourgeois society until almost the end (and I found

Brecht's notes much more confusing than helpful), but that didn't subtract from my enjoyability of the book. I had expected it to be a much harder read, quick only for its short length, but found it overall very accessible and entertaining. It also helped remind me of the basic plot of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, which I read a few years ago and also enjoyed. I only wish I knew what the music was like.

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LibraryThing member antiquary

One of my personal favorites, chiefly for "Mac the Knife"

LibraryThing member aulsmith

Threepenny Opera is Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's great diatribe against capitalism and the morality of the petit bourgeoisie, based loosely on an earlier English play, The Begger's Opera by John Gay. Brecht and Weill can make me angry about the plight of ordinary, even unlikeable, humans in a

way that no one else can.

For the non-German-reading English speaker, the biggest problem with this play is the translation. Marc Blitzstein did the translation that was produced on Broadway. Unfortunately, he had to cut material that wasn't deemed appropriate at the time in order to get it produced. There is an academic translation (sorry, can't remember the translator) that is much more accurate but reads like a plodding ox-cart. I heard that an unexpurgated version of the Blitzstein is available, but I haven't been able to find it yet. I recommend looking for that one if you can find it.

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LibraryThing member jwhenderson

When I read this I was already familiar with both Kurt Weill's music and the original Gay's Beggars' Opera that was inspiration for Brecht. This was part of my reading for a course focusing on the "Degenerate Art" of Nazi Germany.

LibraryThing member reganrule

Brecht's complex critique of capitalism. Not unlike the Sopranos or The Wire, Brecht offers us a view of disenfranchised members of society who use the tools of capitalism to further their personal success (on the black market). The farce of it (or the tragedy?) is that capitalism is prima facie

morally bankrupt, and that corporate entities are nothing but a conglomeration of Mack the Knives. Knaves all of them; exploiting one another to preserve their personal security.

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LibraryThing member 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.

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LibraryThing member tzelman

Entertaining cynicism--I'd love to hear the songs

LibraryThing member arewenotben

National Theatre, London. Probably more of a 3.5 as it drags in the 2nd half but when it's good, its majestic. Loved the very Brechtian staging and the general anarchism, catch it whilst you still can.

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