#mackie messer

[ghoulfool]

*rewatches the Threepenny Opera irl*

Me: better watch more adaptions…

And I Ooh- ✨😳

[sbfairywren]

A week ago, I went and saw my first opera. It was very good to the extent that it has taken over my music listening and made me start learning german again.

Ja, der Haifisch, sehr der hat Zähne!

Poor Mackie Messer... At least he has a £10,000 pension and is now a member of royalty and definitely got rescued.

[knistelfitz]

Die Dreigroschenoper - Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (akustisches Cover ...

[aqueervenus]

“I Vish I Ver Mackie Messer’s Girl” 2023

[weaversweek]

"Mack the knife" - Bobby Darin

1959 Music: Kurt Weill; lyric: Bertolt Brecht, translated by Marc Blitzenstein

Number four in Let's Do It, my personal fifty favourite singles from 1954-76. Gets the Elf, a bonus 11th mark.

Die Dreigroschenoper is a tale of Macheath "Mackie" Messer, a knife-wielding criminal of the London underworld. He's a complete anti-hero, saved from public execution by a deus ex machina. The show's overture is "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", sung in the production by a street singer before Mackie appears on stage.

The show - combining elements of opera, musical, and a jazz performance - and song were a huge success in 1920s Germany, where Weill and Brecht became heroes of the left. Their worldview is reflected in the piece: it portrays a capitalist scheme within the world of beggars, demonstrates the themes of estrangement and self-contradictory gesture.

Translated into English, The Threeppeny Opera flopped on Broadway in 1933. German culture fell out of fashion in the following years, and nobody tried again until an off-Broadway revival in 1954. For the opening number, Marc Blitzenstein took liberties with the text, removing some of Mackie's gorier crimes entirely, and adding a new verse to introduce the women in his play.

A hit show of 1954 will spawn hit singles, and Louis Armstrong's version is one of the strongest swing jazz versions. For this list, I'm going with Bobby Darin's interpretation, recorded for his 1958 standards album That's All. Darin had already featured "Mack the knife" in his live act, and approached the song with an extra bounce and verve, perhaps dulling some of the fear Mackie's meant to strike into our heart.

For me, the highlight is the increasing tone of the song. Darin goes up by a semitone in every verse, spiralling into excitement, racheting up the fear and the tension with every turn.

Bobby Darin had already established his credentials as a singer, "Splish splash" and "Dream lover" helped establish a lighter brand of rock and roll music, subsequently known as "bubblegum pop". Ill health ended his life in 1973.

[lorenzlund]

First cut is the deepest Festival2!

Schrieb u.a. die 'Moritat von/an Mackie Messer' ('Dreigroschen-Opa/Oper')

P(r)o-... . das 'maennliche Fass'.

,So don't go breakin' my hart!!' 'Bye-bye und Winke-Winke!'

... und Warmes! *Koerperwaerme 'Eiskalt erwischt!' /erfrischt! 'Auf ganz eiskalte Tour!'

'Bye! Winke Winke!'

[dieserbloghatkeinennamen]

Michael Rotschopf als Mackie Messer und das Ensemble der „Dreigroschenoper“. Foto: Kerstin Schomburg

„Dreigroschenoper“ am St. Pauli-Theater: Klassiker neu herausgeputzt

Nicht totzukriegen, diese „Dreigroschenoper“. Mit lautstarken Bravos und stürmischem Applaus feierte das Publikum am Samstagabend eine frische Version des Bestsellers von Bertolt Brecht und Kurt Weill über den Konkurrenzkampf zweier Unterweltgrößen. Dem Regie-Team aus Peter Jordan und Leonhard Koppelmann gelingt ein witziger Wurf – dank einer Reihe wundervoller DarstellerInnen.

Michael Rotschopf ist die Idealbesetzung eines coolen, heutigen Mackie Messer: Gangsterboss und Womanizer zugleich, zeigt er sogar noch kurz vor dem Galgen Nervenstärke – und eine charismatische Bühnenpräsenz! Seinen Gegenspieler Peachum, den durchtriebenen König der Bettler, verkörpert Gustav Peter Wöhler mit der ihm eigenen Komik souverän.

Michael Rotschopf: Gangster mit Charme

Das Pfund, mit dem die Regisseure wuchern, ist am St. Pauli Theater das Schauspiel-Ensemble, das in Gesang und Spiel seinesgleichen sucht. Michael Rotschopf glänzt und beängstigt als Mackie Messer, also als größter, triebgesteuerter Verbrecher von London. Der bringt sogar lässig das rollende R der Zwanzigerjahre über die Zunge. Gustav Peter Wöhler gibt einen verbitterten, zynischen Jonathan Peachum, König der Bettler, der brutal die Interessen der Elenden in eigenen Profit ummünzt. Er schleicht sich an wie ein Schakal. Seine Opfer haben keine Chance. Als mörderischer Prediger des Elends greift er gern auf Bibelzitate zurück, die er stets in neuen Lumpen präsentiert. Sensationell spielt Anne Weber seine desillusionierte Frau Celia.

Halunken unter sich: Gustav Peter Wöhler (links) als Peachum und Michael Rotschopf als Mackie Messer in der „Dreigroschenoper“ im St. Pauli Theater in Hamburg.FOTO: KERSTIN SCHOMBURG

Brecht im St. Pauli Theater

„Dreigroschenoper“ feiert umjubelte Premiere auf dem Hamburger Kiez

[mudwerks]

(via Die Moritat von Mackie Messer - Bertolt Brecht (1929)

[lafcadiosadventures]

balzac 🤝 brecht 🤝 john gay probably

[maarteroba]

De Bertolt Brecht a Pedro Navaja

En 1928 se entrenaba la Opera de los tres centavos (Die Dreigroschenoper) una obra teatral de Bertolt Brecht con música de Kurt Weill. Entre sus canciones destacó una: Die Moritat1 von Mackie Messer en ella presentaba a uno de los personajes principales de la obra, Mackie Messer, que más tarde será conocido en la versión inglesa como Mack the Knife (Mack el cuchillo). La canción cuenta los…

[ghoulfool]

Mackie Messer <33

[realmoftheacornking]

An 'nem schonen blauen Sonntag

On a beautiful blue Sunday...

[knistelfitz]

Die Moritat von Mackie Messer ( Die Dreigroschenoper ) | Kurt Weill / Be...

[citizenscreen]

Louis Armstrong and Lotte Lenya recording “Moritat von Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife)” in 1956, from Kurt Weill’s "The Three Penny Opera.”

[jazzstandardspoll]

Descriptions & Propaganda

Mack the Knife (Original title: "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer")

Composed by Kurt Weill , with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht (English lyrics by Marc Blitzstein )

Notable versions: Louis Armstrong (x), Ella Fiztgerald (x), Bobby Darin (x)

Propaganda:

Originally a last-minute addition to the German opera "Die Dreigroschenoper", it was translated into English in 1954 by Marc Blitzstein (it was translated beforehand in 1933, but that run of the opera was unsuccessful, and the 1954 translation is the base for most modern recordings). The following year, Louis Armstrong recorded a version of it in a swing style, and soon after Bobby Darin released (arguably) the most popular recording of the song, solidifying the murder-ballad as a jazz standard.

Additional neat little bit of information (cw mention of rape and arson): The 1954 translation is censored from the German version, as it removes the verses detailing rape and arson, and adds a verse naming several victims of Macheath. Lotte Lenya was the original star of the opera, and is mentioned by name in Louis Armstrong's recording during this additional verse.

St. James' Infirmary

Traditional

Notable versions: Louis Armstrong (x), Cab Calloway (x), Artie Shaw (x)

Propaganda:

i love how this song starts as a lament and then switches on a dime to such a cool, proud, almost bragging defiance of death. and of course that trumpet!! that trombone!!

imo this song exemplifies the rich tapestry of popular music and the links between the jazz standards, the blues, and the english, irish, and appalachian folk traditions. people sort of fight over whether this song is influenced by the unfortunate rake/rakes progress/young trooper cut down in his prime/etc., (musicologist a. l. lloyd’s theory) or not- there’s a whole book about it, “i went down to the st. james infirmary” by robert harwood.

but none of that really matters. if you love the blues and you love folk music this song is like a familiar hug, full of the themes and motifs you recognize but maybe can’t quite pin down. the mysterious origins are part of the fun. extra propaganda: if you know/love/have ever listened to “blind willie mctell” by bob dylan, this song is the father.

i like the way this one sounds but i also think it's historically/anthropologically pretty cool... it's part of the lineage of "the unfortunate rake" which also spawned popular folk songs like "streets of laredo" and possibly "house of the rising sun" (debated among experts but possible), but this one unlike those others was taken up by jazz artists starting in the 1920s and eventually came to be regarded as a jazz standard. fascinating stuff!