Teatro Sociale, Bellinzona, 1st April 2022

The ill-famed quarter of London is the home of thieves, prostitutes and beggars. Their uncrowned king is Peachum. He makes a good profit from the people's pity by camouflaging the city's poor as pitiful cripples and collecting much of the money thus begged. The second figurehead of the dubious circles is the gangster Macheath, known as Mackie Messer. The blustering ruffian has risen to underworld stardom under the friendly eye of corrupt police chief Tiger Brown. Unfortunately, Mackie takes a liking to Polly, Peachum's daughter. The two secretly become engaged. When Peachum discovers the marriage, a bitter fight ensues between the two rivals: blackmail, bribery and denunciations are used to save Peachum and Polly's business. In the end Mackie ends up on the gallows, but the moon over Soho continues to shine above his head...

"The Threepenny Opera" is a study of the flaw in bourgeois society, for "first comes food, then comes morality". Yet Brecht's mischief, written over ninety years ago, seems like an analysis and commentary on the economic turmoil of the present.

Brecht was only 30 years old when he wrote his opera critical of capitalism, which was "meant to be as bilious as only beggars dream" and "so cheap that beggars can pay for it". "The Threepenny Opera", inspired by John Gay's English "The Beggars Opera", owes its success above all to the music of Kurt Weill. From "Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne" to "Schiff mit acht Segeln", the melodies of "The Threepenny Opera" have long since become classics.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was the most influential German playwright, lyricist and librettist of the 20th century. He was a co-founder and distinguished theorist of 'epic theatre'. His plays are still performed all over the world and his poems have been translated into almost every language in the world. His best-known works are 'Threepenny Opera', 'The Good Man of Sezuan', 'Mother Courage and Her Children' and 'The Unstoppable Rise of Arturo Ui'.

The German composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) achieved his fame through his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht ('The Threepenny Opera' 1928, 'Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny' 1930 or 'The Seven Deadly Sins' 1933). After the rise to power of the National Socialists, he emigrated to the United States in 1935. In the 1940s he was a successful musical composer on Broadway in New York. Kurt Weill's oeuvre includes operas, operettas, music for ballets and plays, musicals, works for orchestra, chamber music, songs and Chansons.

Further information:
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