The first weekend of The Threepenny Opera is over and the reviews are in! Here’s what people are saying:
“This Threepenny Opera is a provocative but, above all, lively and thoroughly entertaining presentation. It is clearly the most successful and brilliant of the mid-season mini-productions that the Madison Opera has brought us. And it demonstrates the debt we owe to the directorship of Allan Naplan.”
-John Barker, The Isthmus
“With a score by Kurt Weill, story by theater revolutionary Bertolt Brecht, and a translation by Marc Blitzstein, this “Threepenny” is smart, sardonic and utterly entertaining.”
-Lindsay Christians, The Capital Times
“So here’s the good news and the bad news: the production is full of strong contributions and still manages to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts, but all seven performances were sold out before last Friday’s opening.”
-Greg Hettmansberger, Local Sounds Magazine
“The production rises above potential artistic squalor while still reveling in the narrative’s seedy milieu. Threepenny’s wink-and-a-nod at the operatic genre, its audience and the social issues raised combine to create a work that masters its material rather than submerging beneath the weight of its parts.”
–Mike and Jean Muckian, Brava Magazine: Culturosity
“‘Threepenny Opera a Bankable Success’….Tracy Michelle Arnold is always wonderful in everything she does and she is wonderful in this role. Her cabaret twang is perfect for [Jenny] and she’s a lot of fun to watch.”
-Bill Wineke, Channel3000.com
“This weekend at the Overture Center, Madison Opera’s production of “The Threepenny Opera” will surely transform any predispositions about the art form with its entertainingly powerful message, wonderfully jazzy score and quirky humor.”
–Katie Foran-McHale, The Badger Herald
“….Madison Opera’s thoroughly engaging and stylishly energetic production.”
–Jake Stockinger, The Well-Tempered Ear
Thank you to the enthusiastic audiences that came out for Threepenny this weekend and to those who’ve already filled up the The Playhouse for next weekend: it is your support that has made this run an incredible success already! We’ll keep this page updated as more reviews come in, and if you’d like to learn more about Madison Opera’s production of The Threepenny Opera, visit our website, view this list of recent preview articles, or check out photos from the final dress rehearsal.
The final dress rehearsal for The Threepenny Opera was held last night in The Playhouse. Here’s an exclusive sneak peek of this sold-out production, which opens tonight….
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| Beggars and the prostitute Jenny Diver (Tracy Michelle Arnold) during the Overture. |
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| Mack the Knife’s gang: Walt Dreary (Bart Terrell), Bob the Saw (Paul Kennedy), Ready Money Matt (Alex Cotant), and Crookfinger Jake (Joseph Lullo). |
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| The newly weds Macheath (James DeVita) and Polly Peachum (Alicia Berneche). |
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| Mack and his girls: Molly (Meghan Randolph), Coaxer (Lisa Bozec Maletic), Betty (Kristen Hammargren), and Dolly (Leslie Cao), along with the women of the house, Marja Barger and Katya Kashaeva. |
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| Jenny Diver sings of her twisted pirate fantasy. |
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| The bell tolls for the notorious Mack the Knife. |
All photos by Andy Manis.
The Threepenny Opera has been generating lots of buzz in the local press. Here’s a round-up of previews, with insights from John DeMain, Dorothy Danner, Alicia Berneche, and Mackie himself, Jim DeVita.
Wisconsin Gazette, “Look out, old Mackie is back in town”
The Well-Tempered Ear, “Threepenny links great depression of today…”
The Examiner, “The Threepenny Opera: A fairy tale for our time?”
Madison Magazine, “A New Role”
77 Square, “APT actors star in dark, satirical Threepenny Opera”
The Isthmus, “The Threepenny Opera is a modern masterpiece about depravity”
A.V. Club Madison, “Despite it’s name, The Threepenny Opera isn’t an opera at all”
Photos by Andy Manis.
If you weren’t at Opera Up Close yesterday, you missed some seriously nformative and entertaining commentary on The Threepenny Opera. Here’s our recap of the event:
Sadly, this was our departing general director Allan Naplan’s last Opera Up Close. The audience started by giving him a warm and well-deserved ovation for initiating this signature program in Madison. Allan then proceeded to give us an in-depth overview of Kurt Weill’s life and work. What stood out was Weill’s perpetual “outsider” status: as a Jew in Germany on the eve of the Nazi takeover, and as a German in Paris, and eventually New York. It also seems, though, that this gave him a flexibility and fluidity between styles that really shaped his distinct sound, which draws from jazz, cabaret, operetta, and classical music. It was also interesting to learn the details of the challenging first production of
Threepenny in Berlin, which played to a skeptical opening night audience until the bawdy
“Army Song” riled them up.
Up next, assistant director Frank Honts offered a special presentation on Marc Blitzstein, the composer and writer who adapted Brecht’s original lyrics to English for the popular 1954-61 off-Broadway production. Madison Opera is using the Blitzstein adaptation, and as it turns out, the Blitzstein papers are archived right here in our city at the
Wisconsin Historical Society. Having combed that trove of information, Frank talked about Blitzstein’s famous, pro-union piece
Cradle Will Rock and his mentoring of Leonard Bernstein, who presented the first performance of his
Threepenny adaptation at Brandeis University in 1952. It was also comical to hear that Blitzstein’s famous “Mack the Knife” translation–later used by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin–was originally just called “Moritat,” a nod to the original German title (rhyming to “Moritat” didn’t work as well as “Knife,” in the end.) Frank also discovered that Blitzstein had originally toyed with setting his adaptation in San Francisco and New York, before sticking to Victorian London.
Blitzstein was a communist and was always sympathetic to the message of Threepenny, but we learned yesterday that he originally was put-off by Weill’s music. Later on, though, it stuck in his head, and he began to toy with a translation. He called Weill at home in 1950, and sang his translation of “Pirate Jenny” to both Weill and Lotte Lenya over the phone. They both loved it, and encouraged him to translate the whole opera. Weill died just months later, but Lenya would appear in the New York production of Blitzstein’s translation.
After Frank, it was John DeMain and Dorothy Danner’s turn. Both have extensive experience crossing the opera and musical theater boundary, so there was a lively discussion about how we define both genres. John’s opinion was that if it’s majority sung, then it’s an opera, and since Threepenny is majority dialogue, it’s musical theater. He then shared a fantastic anecdote about a dinner with Stephen Sondheim, where he asked Sondheim whether he thought Sweeney Todd was a musical or an opera. Sondheim replied that it had entirely to do with venue, which shapes the audiences expectation (“It’s opera when an opera company does it, and musical theater when it’s on Broadway.”) John also talked about Weill’s philosophy that there’s no opera or musical theater, but just good music and bad music. Dorothy, a former Broadway actress/dancer, revealed that she fell into opera directing while hanging behind-the-scenes with her opera-singer husband. She also shared that she approaches opera and musical theater the same way, but whether you’re working at an opera company or a theater company really impacts what your expectations are on day one. The conversation was lively, and it was incredible to hear these two pros chat and reminisce about their experiences.
Finally, Jim DeVita (Macheath) and Alicia Berneche (Polly) took the stage to talk about their roles. Jim, a classical actor noted for his work at American Players Theatre, talked about overcoming his fear of singing and his recent coaching sessions with John DeMain. He also talked about making the role of Macheath his own, and the challenges of the opera process (he compared the transition between theater and opera to what it would be like for a pilot being asked to fly a space shuttle.) Alicia, an acclaimed soprano who has performed across the country, thought that she had a leg up in this repertoire versus the traditional opera singer because she started out in straight theater. She also cited Dorothy–whom she has collaborated with frequently–for teaching her how to be herself onstage, breaking down the facade that opera sometimes invites. It was a fascinating discussion, and we’re so thankful this thoughtful group of artists took time out of their day for our Opera Up Close audience!
As usual, Allan closed the event with a segment on opera in popular culture, this time with a look at “Mack the Knife” through the ages. (My favorite had to be this
McDonald’s commercial.)
The next Opera Up Close will be for La Traviata, on Saturday, April 16th, from 1-3 PM in MMoCA’s lecture hall, hosted by yours truly.
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Alicia Berneche as Polly, Jim DeVita as Macheath, and
Tracy Michelle Arnold as Jenny Diver |
We are one week away from opening night of The Threepenny Opera, and the excitement is setting in. Having sat through rehearsal on Wednesday night, a few things strike me about Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece. It can be aggressive and gritty, but also surprisingly tender, and quite honest in its portrayal of longing. I was also surprised at how funny it can be – the humor is at turns witty and crass. There is of course an air of satire and irony, and yet, despite what Brecht may have intended, one can’t help but empathize with certain characters. In summary, The Threepenny Opera is every bit as entertaining and thought provoking as its reputation has led me to expect.
Two items of note:
1) If you don’t follow @MadOpera on Twitter, you may want to, or at least visit the site to view our live-updates and photos from rehearsals. Same goes for our Facebook page, where there’s always an interesting conversation or contest going on, like our recent Threepenny CD giveaway.
2) This is the 300th post on The MadOpera Blog. Thank you to all of the generous readers of the last two and half years!
