Customer Reviews

Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera); Berlin 1930

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As far as the record goes, the performances are wonderful. But -- there are many songs missing from the Three Penny Opera, and those that are included are sometimes presented in an abbreviated form. For instance, Barbara Song only has the last verse -- missing the wonderful wordplay and contrast with the earlier two verses.

Just to clear something up, from hearing the samples on this site I'm almost positive that the female voice on this CD is Carola Neher (who played Polly in the original cast), not Lotte Lenya. In my opinion Neher was a much more pleasant singer than Lenya. Sad to say, she'd end up in a Stalinist Death Camp a few years later after fleeing from the Nazis to the USSR. The digital remastering seems to be nice, again judging from the samples (my grandmother had the original record and it was very noisy and not clear at all.) This is pretty much all that is left of pre-Third Reich German recordings, of course life recording during an actual performance was totally out of the question back than.

This CD features Lotte Lenya with Mackeben conducting the original German cast of 1930. It has excerpts of the show only, but it's a fascinating glimpse into the original feeling of Kurt Weill's best known work. Lenya is bright and coldly perky. The sound is strctly old fashioned mono.

The review the complains of the abbreviated versions of the songs that are included on this CD, and that some of the songs are missing, misses the point. The Barbara song, which is mentioned by name, was set up by the Moritatssaenger in a way which makes it clear that the song was also truncated on the original 78 release from 1930...

Listen to this for what it's worth: it's great documentary, and includes two Mahoganny songs, some songs by Hollaender, etc...(also, check out the 1999 release of the Threepenny Opera on BMG, with Nina Hagen as Frau Peachum...)

I've loved the "Three Penny Opera" since I was associated with a production in college. This is a fine CD of the original Berlin cast.

Also, there are some French versions, some sung by Brecht, and some other Berlin songs of the day by Kurt Gerron, Marlene Dietrich, et al.