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Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera at Signature Theatre

Mar. 31, 2014

Kurt Weill’s <em>The Threepenny Opera</em> at Signature Theatre

Eighty-five years after The Threepenny Opera first took Europe by storm, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s groundbreaking work remains one of the world’s best-loved and most popular works of musical theater. This month, the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre in Virginia presents The Threepenny Opera for the first time, in a production directed by Matthew Gardiner and music directed by Gabe Mangiante. The production opens April 22 and runs through June 1. Threepenny can also be seen this month in New York at the Atlantic Theater Company, directed by Martha Clarke and starring F. Murray Abraham, Laura Osnes and Michael Park, now through May 4; in Texas at Amarillo Opera with Lotte Lenya Competition winner Maren Weinberger as Polly (April 5-6); in a UK touring production by Graeae Theatre Company (through May 10); and in Germany at Nationaltheater Mannheim (April 20, 28) and Schauspiel Leipzig (April 21; May 1, 13).

Other Weill-Brecht works are also enjoying the spotlight this month: Sir Mark Elder conducts The Seven Deadly Sins at The Hallé in Manchester, UK on April 10; Festspielhaus Baden-Baden presents Mahagonny Songspiel alongside Hindemith's Lehrstück, performed by members of the Berlin Philharmonic on April 15 and 19; and from April 25 through 27, San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle performs Mahagonny Songspiel paired with Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias, led by Nicole Paiement and with stage direction by Brian Staufenbiel.

On the concert stage, renowned violinist Kolja Blacher plays Weill’s Violin Concerto on April 13 and 14 with the Sinfonieorchester Aachen and conducted by Kazem Abdullah.

For more information on Kurt Weill, please visit www.kwf.org.

Details on The Threepenny Opera at the Signature Theatre can be found at www.signature-theatre.org.

Kurt Weill
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
play with music after John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera"; in three acts
German translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann
adaptation and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht
2S, 2Mz, T, Bar, B-Bar and speaking roles
asax(fl, cl, bsax).tsax(ssax, bsn, bcl)-tpt.tbn(db)-banjo(vc, gtr, Hawaiian gtr, mandolin, bandoneon)-timp/perc (tpt 2)-harm (cel, pno)
full evening

The Seven Deadly Sins (1933)
ballet chanté in nine scenes
lyrics (Ger) by Bertolt Brecht


for soprano, 2 tenors, baritone, bass, dancer and corps de ballet
2(2pic).1.2.1-2.2.1.1-timp.perc-hp.pno.bnj(gtr)-str


35'

Mahagonny Songspiel (1927)
Text (Ger) by Bertolt Brecht
English translation by Michael Feingold
2S, 2T, 2B; orchestra
2cl(bcl).asax-2tpt.tbn-timp.perc-pno-2vn
30’

Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra (1924)
2(pic).1.2.2-2.1.0.0-timp.perc-4 double basses
33’ 

Paul Hindemith
Lehrstück (1929)
text (Ger.) by Bertolt Brecht
English translation by Geoffrey Skelton
for tenor, baritone/bass, speaker, actors, choir and orchestra
2tpt.2flugel horn.2tenor hn.2tbn.tba (extension or substitution of horn, saxophone or woodwinds is possible)
50' 

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