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Acclaimed Productions of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and The Threepenny Opera Revived

Sep. 01, 2011

Acclaimed Productions of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and The Threepenny Opera Revived

This fall, highly acclaimed productions of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and The Threepenny Opera return to stages in Australia and Europe. Both productions were sold out in their original runs.

In Australia, last season’s Malthouse Theatre/Victorian Opera production of The Threepenny Opera travels to Sydney for a September 1-24 run at Sydney Theatre Company (Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, Artistic Directors). The much-lauded production, directed by Michael Kantor and conducted by Richard Gill, features Eddie Perfect as Macheath.

The work remains sharply pertinent. As Michael Kantor’s superb production… demonstrates, Brecht’s crooked mirror reflects our time of political and financial turmoil with uncomfortable familiarity…. Weill’s sublime music… serves to remind us how deeply he has influenced 20th-century popular music, from Tom Waits to Danny Elfman…. This is entertainment in the best sense of the word.
– The Australian

In the UK, the Opera Group/Young Vic production of Street Scene, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical in 2008, embarks on a tour of the UK, beginning with a run at the Young Vic followed by a stop in Vienna at Theater an der Wien. Street Scene is directed by John Fulljames; Keith Lockhart conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in London (September 15–20) and Vienna (September 25-26); and Tim Murray conducts the Southbank Sinfonia in Basingstoke, Edinburgh, Newport, and Hull (October 3-15).

Is it opera or musical? Formal definitions seem academic when confronted by a show of such passion and power.… A show that deserves to be seen.
– The Guardian

A huge ensemble thrillingly registers the climactic moments of an extraordinary opera-musical.
– Evening Standard

Next month the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival presents The Threepenny Opera performed by the Berliner Ensemble on October 4 through 8. The production is directed by Robert Wilson with music direction by Hans-Jörn Brandenburg and Stefan Rager.

Learn more on the life and work of Kurt Weill, and find detailed information on Street Scene and The Threepenny Opera at www.kwf.org.

Find out more on the production at BAM here.

For details on the productions, visit www.sydneytheatre.com.au andwww.theoperagroup.co.uk.

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