DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER

In the organizer's words:

Play by Bertolt Brecht (text) and Kurt Weill (music)

Small-time gangster wedding! In a stable in London's Soho district, the bandit Macheath, known as Mackie Messer, marries Polly Peachum, the beggar king's daughter. The happy couple are congratulated on their marriage by Macheath's henchmen and the Chief of Police Tiger-Brown, who has been friends with Mackie since their time together in the army and regularly turns a blind eye to his shady dealings. What neither Brown nor Polly know: Not only Polly, but also Brown's own daughter Lucy has succumbed to Macheath's seductive ways!
Polly's father, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, successful operator of the company "Beggar's Friend", also has a say in the secret marriage. Not only does he want the newlyweds divorced as quickly as possible, he also wants to see Macheath hanged for his misdeeds. His wife Celia sets a trap for Mackie Messer: she bribes the "whores of Soho", who promptly hand Mac over to the gendarmerie when he comes to visit them every Thursday, despite all their warnings. While Macheath plots to escape execution in Old Bailey's dungeon, Chief Constable Brown has other worries: the Queen of England's coronation procession is coming up - the last thing he needs is a looming uprising of the hungry and poor on London's streets ...

In 1928, the premiere of The Threepenny Opera struck a chord in the Weimar Republic with its unsparing analysis of political conditions. With the composer Kurt Weill, Brecht created an opera for "beggars, thieves and whores" - who, unlike the bourgeoisie, cannot afford morality.