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).
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
