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The Threepenny Opera

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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Threepenny Opera is a celebrated play by Bertolt Brecht, first performed in 1928 in Berlin. It is a sharp satire of the bourgeois society during the Weimar Republic era, cleverly set in a fictional Victorian Soho. The story critiques social hypocrisy and corruption, drawing inspiration from John Gay's 18th-century The Beggar's Opera. With music by Kurt Weill, the play integrates early jazz influences, creating a distinctive theatrical experience that resonated worldwide.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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This edition, featuring John Willett and Ralph Manheim's classic translation alongside Anja Hartl's insightful commentary, is perfect for students, scholars, and enthusiasts of theatre and cultural history, particularly those interested in German literature and musical theatre.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

One of Bertolt Brecht's best-loved and most performed plays, The Threepenny Opera was first staged in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin (now the home of the Berliner Ensemble).

Based on the eighteenth-century The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, the play is a satire on the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic, but set in a mock-Victorian Soho.

With Kurt Weill's music, which was one of the earliest and most successful attempts to introduce the jazz idiom into the theatre, it became a popular hit throughout the western world.

This new edition is published here in John Willett and Ralph Manhein's classic translation with commentary and notes by Anja Hartl.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781350205284

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 February 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Methuen Drama

Contributors:

  • Translated by Ralph Manheim
  • Translated by John Willett
  • With Elisabeth Hauptmann
  • Edited by Anja Hartl
  • Translated by Ralph Manheim
  • Translated by Ralph Manheim

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 8.0mm

Width: 124.0mm

Height: 193.0mm

Weight: 160g

Pages: 152

About the Author

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and writing have had a considerable influence on the theatre. John Willett (1917-2002) was the greatest English-language authority on Brecht. The foremost translator and editor of Brecht's drama, poetry, letters, diaries, theatrical essays and fiction, Willett produced a dozen volumes for Methuen Drama on the greatest modern German writer. Ralph Manheim (1907-1992) was an American translator of German and French literature. In collaboration with John Willett, Manheim translated the works of Bertolt Brecht. The Pen/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, inaugurated in his name, is a major lifetime achievement award in the field of translation. He himself won its predecessor, the PEN translation prize, in 1964. Anja Hartl is Assistant Professor at the Department of Literature, Art and Media Studies at the University of Konstanz, Germany. She has published essays on contemporary British theatre, Brecht and Shakespearean adaptation. Her research focuses on political theatre, adaptation studies, Shakespeare and Victorian fiction. She is the author of Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama in the Methuen Drama Engage series.

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