The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper) is a musical production. It is credited to composer Kurt Weill, playwright Bertolt Brecht, and translator Elisabeth Hauptmann, whose adaptation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera served as the inspiration for the new work. Brecht added poems French poet François Villon and British poet Rudyard Kipling to John Gay’s collection of sources — musical works composers such as Henry Purcell, George Handel, and John Eccles — for which he provided new words. Weill completely rescored the work, with the exception of one setting from Gay’s version.
The Threepenny Opera premiered in Berlin on August 31, 1928, at Theater am Sciffbauerdamm, as the first performance of Ernst Josef Aufricht’s new theater company. The principal roles were played actors from spoken theater, cabaret, and operetta, and the Lewis Ruth Band, a seven-piece jazz band, performed Weill’s score for 23 instruments. Lotte Lenya, Weill’s wife, created the role of Jenny.
The Threepenny Opera begins with a frame, just like The Beggar’s Opera. The Ballad Singer performs the ballad of Mack the Knife for the audience in the Prologue, and Jenny, a whore, points him out. Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the outfitter of a band of beggars, begins Act I negotiating with a new beggar for admission into his gang. His thoughts are elsewhere, however, on his daughter Polly, whom he is concerned is becoming too close to a highwayman known as Mack the Knife.
Polly and MacHeath are getting married in a nearstable, so Peachum’s concerns are justified. The off-duty Chief Constable of London, “Tiger” Brown, an old friend of MacHeath, is among the wedding guests. Polly tells her parents about her marriage at home, and Peachum, fearful that his daughter will reveal his business secrets, arranges for MacHeath to be arrested and hanged. The act comes to a close with the First Finale.
Polly goes to MacHeath’s hideout in Act II of The Threepenny Opera to warn him of her father’s plan. He instructs her on how to run his company while he is away. Jenny Driver betrays MacHeath to Mrs. Peachum and a constable, so he goes looking for her. When MacHeath is taken to prison, he dismisses a tearful Brown and tells Brown’s daughter Lucy that he is not married to Polly, whom he had previously broken up with. When Polly walks in, his lie is exposed, and the two women fight.
MacHeath, meanwhile, pays the warder to have his handcuffs removed. Polly is forced to leave Mrs. Peachum, and MacHeath persuades Lucy to assist him in his escape. Brown realizes he needs to have MacHeath re-arrested after Peachum reminds him that the public will blame him. The second act concludes with the second finale, which emphasizes that the need to eat takes precedence over morality.
The Threepenny Opera opens in Act III in Peachum’s shop, where the beggars are preparing a scene for the Coronation. Jenny betrays MacHeath’s location once more, and when Brown arrives to arrest Peachum and the beggars in order to keep the Coronation from being disrupted, they give him Jenny’s tip and direct his attention to MacHeath.
Polly pays Lucy a polite visit while trying to figure out where MacHeath is. Mrs. Peachum whisks her away to put on mourning clothes, as MacHeath has been sentenced to death hanging. MacHeath is out of money for bribes. MacHeath says his goodbyes to the world, but just as he’s about to be hanged, Peachum interrupts and says that an opera should have a happy ending. Brown appears as a royal messenger, rescuing MacHeath and elevating him to peerage.