Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (Dreigroschenoper) 1928
Parody:
As with other forms used by Brecht in epic theatre, such as allegory and parable, the parody refers to something outside itself, re-presents something else and is not a self-contained piece of drama which would allow the audience to become involved in its world. A sort of comparative reading or viewing is needed, cross-referencing to other things.
The Threepenny Opera refers parodically to a play which was itself a parody – John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera of 1728. This satire of eighteenth-century political life in London was a critique of Walpole and the corruption of those in power. It was based formally on Handelian opera, which it lampooned. The revival at the Lyric Hammersmith ran from 1920 and was hugely successful (also in the context of the 1920s revival of Handel’s music).
Written 200 years later, Brecht’s is a travesty of it in some respects (most of original plot, but new music).
He satirises and subverts the operatic tradition and the opera-going public, as a new group of opera-goers emerges after the War, a wealthy group who expected more boisterous fun.
This is about an underclass, but regardless of class, all sing with the same emotion – noble does not mean exclusively of the nobility.
Brecht’s play targets aspects of the Weimar Republic, not as specifically as Gay’s attack on people, it is the system which is corrupt. National socialists saw Jews and communists as subversive of genuine German culture (degenerate / cultural bolshevism). 1928 urbanised society shared some of the social conditions of Gay’s time.
Staunen (‘amazement’) is the main technique – the unexpectedness for the spectator of that kind of music with that kind of play, a mix of high and popular culture (as Gay’s composer had mixed classical and popular tunes also). There is a mix of genres, jazz, dance music, operetta and Wagnerian tunes – centuries of musical styles to draw on for Kurt Weill (who broke off from writing the opera Mahagonny to work on this play).
Epic delivery – ‘discontinuities’ - actors step outside of their characters to sing; narrative is broken off, songs almost announced as in cabaret. The lighting goes up when the songs start, banners raised on which the words appear – not all the songs relevant to the text of the play.
Cast sang each other’s numbers on different evenings in the original production. They were to be actors ‘acting’ the role of singers – staccato style, unusual pitch, speech rhythms against the rhythm of the music (not supposed to be good, trained singers).
‘Happy Ending’ – a swipe at the theatrical and operatic convention of the aristocracy or the deus ex machina coming in to solve all the problems at the end. Macheath is pardoned, recitative, fanfares and big finale.