Customer Reviews

Weill: The Threepenny Opera

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I own both this version and the Bruckner version of the Three Penny Opera. They are both great in their own right, and I love them both. I this version, Ute Lemper is wonderful! She has a masterful interpretation of Weill's and Brecht's vision, and I have gone on to purchase other works by her.

This version definitely is more sophisticated instrumentally. The union of Brecht as a revolutionary writer and Weill as a revolutionary composer was so momentous, and what they produced together so little, that I want to own every version of what they did together. I performed in a Brecht play, the Caucasian Chalk Circle, directed by a famous (then) East German director who was permitted to come to America then. Not one song was memorable. That dinamic of Weill and Brecht was not there. They truly made history in their few works together.

If you want to know about their dinamic, this version of The Three Penny Opera will give it to you. This version has many more dialogue links between the songs. You get the Ballad of the Pirate Jenny sung both the way it was first intended and the way it evolved (by Polly at her wedding and then by Jenny).

The minuses of this recording: I miss Lotte Lenya. I hate the translation provided with the CD. You just have to buy the other version (Bruckner) for that.

There was some discussion about what Brecht intended and whether this version supplied that. I have to say from my experience with a Brechtian director, this version is true. My German director made us study the paintings of Bosch to set the scenes, insisted on the innocence of certain characters. These Brechtian conventions are carried out totally. At the end when Mack the Knife is pardoned and you hear the collective "Ah," that is a Bosch scene.

The innocence of Ute Lemper is wonderful. Compared to the Bruckner version, she has a bit more defiance when she is trying to explain how she ended up with Mack the Knife. I just love it!

I purchased my first Weill recordings in 1960, the off-broadway Threepenny Opera, and Lenya's Berlin Theater Songs. I have treasured them all my life. Lenya was, of course, incomparable, but Ute Lemper carries on her special genius. This new recording is as near a perfect realization of this unique masterpiece. John Mauceri gives the unique orchestration nuance that even Klemperer missed in his masterful Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. Every member of the cast, even the bit roles, is perfect in the characterization. Kollo is the first performer since Harald Paulsen (the origninal Mackie Messer) to bring all of the tradition of Viennese operetta to this music. He is a miracle. Macheath has subtle characteriztion hitherto unknown except from Paulsen. Most noteworthy is the Jenny of Milva. Two delightful bonuses in the recording: a reprise in Act 2 of Seerauber Jenny by Milva (the Jenny) and the inclusion of Lucy Brown's aria after the Jealousy duet. There is brief dialog before most pieces which adds a dramatic integrity to the recording. I cannot find high enough praise for this new treasure.

I have both this version and Brückner-Rüggeberg's 1958 version. Really, both are worth listening to.

This version has, of course, much better sound quality and all the performers are notably better singers. This version was the first one I listened to (over and over again, in point of fact). Basically this recording confirms that, whether Brecht/Weill intended it or not, they created one of the best "muscials" of all time. The songs are very memorable and catchy. Even though I don't know German, they run through my head more readily than, say, the tunes from Cats. (I'm sure that Brecht/Weill are now rolling over in their respective graves :-)

When I first heard the older recording, I disliked it due to the seemingly lower quality. However, if you give it a chance, it really begins to grow on you. It was being performed as it was meant to be and the coarser quality fits the mood of all the songs well.

This recording has a wide range and variety of different performers and performing styles. Helga Dernesch (as Frau Peachum) has a very good, well-supported sound that breaks the barriers made by the female "light baritones" who usually take on the role of Frau Peachum. Her rendition of "The Ballad of Sexual Obsession" is stupendous, and her her handling of the dialogue isn't all that bad either. René Kollo is of very good voice in his performance of Mackie Messer, and his "Epitaph" and "Ballad of Gracious Living" are among the album's highlights. He and Dernesch's reading of the second Threepenny finale ("What Keeps Mankind Alive?") is not to be forgotten. Herr Peachum (the actor's name escapes me at the moment) is a very good actor, and handles his songs well (particularly the first act finale and his "Song of the Insufficiency of all Human Endeavour"). Ute Lemper (as Polly Peachum) tackles all of her songs with the great quasi-Cabaret-quality that she is known for, and she shines. My favorite performer on this album, though, is Milva, as Spelunken-Jenny. She absolutely takes the cake, in my humble opinion, and she is almost a rival to that grand dame of the Weill-Brecht rep, Lotte Lenya. Milva's husky, chanteuse quality is perfect, and perfectly captures those smokey, Berlin nights of the Weimar era, while still giving us shades of Jenny's violent past with Mack. Her interpretations of "The Ballad of Immoral Earnings" (with Kollo), "Pirate Jenny," and the "Solomon Song" are indescribably near perfection. The two different readings of "Pirate Jenny" (by Lemper and Milva) are very different, and very good. The few dialogue moments on this album are very good, and the liner notes contain the definitive translation of THE THREEPENNY OPERA, that by Ralph Manheim and John Willet. My one irritation is the deletion of the third (vulgar) verse of "The Ballad of Sexual Obsession."

I just got this CD, and it's already on my list of favorites.

Similarly, I've listened to the older version in German, and oddly enough, I prefer this one. It doesn't really have to do much with the recording, but something about the tonalities of the opening comes across to me better in the newer version. The singers are fabulous. I was very impressed by the fact that the Ballad Singer really sounded like a street singer for once. Ute Lemperer, is, of course, fabulous as Polly. Mackie was fascinatingly . . .well, Mack the Knife-ish. The voice matches the character very, very well. As do they all.

Despite the fact that I like the Blitzstein adaptation very much, I prefer the original German. Why? Because there aren't any qualms about translation. I don't speak German very well, but I feel I understand what is meant better, just hearing the words. (I admit, I was always the kind to prefer a literal prose translation to the messed-up one that they forced to rhyme. I'm also the kind who never read books in translation when I didn't have to.)

It's a fabulous recording, a fabulous rendition, and a fabulous piece to own. Highly recommended!

`the threepenny opera' with music by Kurt Weill and libretto by Berthold Brecht, and starring Ute Lemper as Polly Peachum, performed in Berlin in 1990 should have been titled `die dreigroschenoper' as the work is performed entirely in its original German. Before this turns you off, I will suggest that the English translation of the lyrics of all the major songs in this opera are so well known that you will miss practically nothing by listening to this German performance.

I even rate it higher than the famous New York stage performance starring Lotte Lenya, based on the justly famous translation by Marc Blitzstein. Oddly, I like this performance because it is less polished, which is more in keeping with the authors' original intentions of doing a musical work which could be understood and appreciated by the poor of Berlin.

One important note is that while Fraulein Lemper is headlined on the cover, she does not appear in many numbers, and she certainly does not do the famous Lenya number, `Seerauber Jenny'. I still recommend this performance even over the New York stage recording from the 1950s.

Unfortunately, I have heard no other full German performance of `die dreigroschenoper' in many years, especially one starring Frau Lenya, but I assure you this one is a keeper!

Mauceri's is a fine version, to be sure, but for those who prefer it with more revolutionary urgency or 'edge', have listen to Wolfgang Rennert's superlative 1966 Frankfurter Oper recording available from Amazon.de

On Decca there are obvious discrepancies between the opera-singers, Rene Kollo and Helga Dernesch, and those in the cabaret tradition, notably the vibrant and provocative Ute Lemper (Polly Peachum) and the gloriously dark-voiced and characterful Milva (Jenny). That entails downward modulation in various numbers, as it did with Lote Lenya, but the changes from the original are far less extreme. Kollo is good, but Dernesch is even more compelling. The coordination of music and presentation makes for a vividly enjoyable experience, even if committed Weill enthusiasts will inevitably disagree with some of the controversial textual and interpretative decisions.

Kurt Weill

The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper)

John Mauceri
RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta
RIAS Chamber Choir

Rene Kollo - Macheath
Mario Adorf - Peachum
Helga Dernesch - Mrs Peachum
Uta Lemper - Polly
Milva - Jenny
Wolfgang Reichmann - Brown
Susanna Tremper - Lucy
Rolf Boysen - Ballad Singer

(London/Decca - Digital Recording)

This is a magnificent performance and it deserves a Sixth Star.
Highly Recommended.

This is the modern version to have. Overall a solid great cast, a descent modern, but not cold sound.

A safe buy.