The Threepenny Opera

Cambridge Opera Handbooks

by Bertolt Brecht, Ralph Manheim (Translator/Editor), John Willett (Translator/Editor)

This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN: 0413390306.

First staged in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin (now the home of the Berliner Ensemble), The Threepenny Opera was Brecht’s first and most outstanding success. Based on John Gay’s eighteenth-century Beggar’s Opera, the play is a satire on the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic despite its setting 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 theater, it became a popular hit throughout the western world. Filmed three times, it remains one of Brecht’s best loved and most performed plays.

This new translation, first staged in 1975 at York Theatre Royal and subsequently at the Adelaide Playhouse and the Lincoln Center, New York, is by the joint editors of Brecht’s Collected Plays in English, John Willett and Ralph Manheim, who have also equipped this edition with Brecht’s own notes and discarded songs as well as with an extensive editorial commentary on the genesis of the play.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Drama, Theatre, German Literature, Fiction, Germany

124 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 1928

About the author

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."

There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays.

Reviews

[Lisa]

Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne...

Well, I think there are only a few authors who deserve the rare combination of the adjective "hilarious" with the serious topic "social criticism". One of them is Kurt Vonnegut, and the other - Bertolt Brecht!

Brecht is more commonly known for his plays than for this masterpiece of a novel, and I have postponed rereading it for years, thinking I knew my Brecht and wouldn't need a refresher. However, just like most really good books, this one grows with the experience of the reader, and I found myself laughing out loud several times reading about the financial crimes and sexual misbehaviours that are so well documented in our own times that it seems almost impossible to think Brecht didn't know anything about Trump and Brexit and the impact of social media on the human species.

Where there is money up for grabs, there won't be any decency - that is his theory, and it is a quite convincing one. But there will be big words to counterbalance the lack of honourable action. Brecht has all the best words, and he uses them freely to follow the development of Polly Peachum, Macheath, and the rest.

Begging is business, just like politics. O tempora o mores!

[Gabriel]

Me ha gustado muchísimo.

3.5 en realidad

Una obra de teatro con personajes que directamente tienen falta de moral y honor en una sociedad que prima el dinero y el llevarse un bocado de comida a la boca, por lo que terminan yendo por los caminos más oscuros para poder sostenerse en un ambiente precario y empobrecido. La corrupción, la ley, los negocios y el amor son varios de sus temas.

Por lo que es comprensible que sus personajes la mayoría sean ladrones, bandidos, extorsionistas, prostitutas, mendigos, etc. A la vez que se construye una crítica a la hipocresía de algunos, a la sobreexplotación, el abuso de poder y la poca remuneración del proletariado mientras muestra de manera objetiva los cambios sociales en una sociedad burguesa y capitalista con sus respectivas diferencias de clases sociales.

[Paul Bryant]

A three star rating for a novel I abandoned – that needs a word or two of explanation. At first I thought this was going to be a great sardonic, sarcastic, mordant, funny evisceration of the dog-eat-dog life of Victorian capitalism told through three intertwining tales of skullduggery that reveal how this whole thing is a racket from the tippy toppest of Her Majesty’s government down to the groveling no-legged beggar on the streets of Shoreditch.

And it is. But it goes completely wrong. And the humour drains away into a small puddle that a one-eyed three-legged cat drinks from.

So first we get a one legged soldier returning from the wars who fails in the retail trade and becomes a beggar, only to find that London beggars are mostly controlled by a certain Mr Peachum. He runs an establishment that provides all a beggar could need – false-bottomed trolleys for men with two legs to be able to pose as no-legged, and thin dogs for the blind beggars. Thin? Thin.

Their feeding was not at all simple; they had to look as miserable as possible and therefore had to be maintained on the verge of starvation. A blind man with a fat dog has very little prospect of exciting real pity. The public naturally reasons quite instinctively. Scarcely anyone looks at a thin dog; but if by chance the animal is well-fed, some sort of inner voice warns the giver that he might just as well throw his money down the drain. It is a fact that these people unconsciously seek a reason to withhold their money. A good dog must scarcely be able to stand up for weakness.

Now that’s a brilliant passage, and probably applies today. All of Britain’s major cities including my own have many beggars huddling in empty shop doorways all with their dogs. These modern beggars are not blind, of course, they are homeless. But their dogs are not thin! They are very well-kept! Our contemporary beggars need to read their Brecht!

Also, our author has some great sly descriptions of his characters. Here’s Polly Peachum :

She looked very pretty in her flimsy dress and was completely at her ease. As a matter of fact she was no doll but a large, well-formed girl. She was a full helping and no half portion.

So with good stuff like that in this novel, what could possibly go wrong?

After describing Peachum’s beggar business, Brecht turns to something called the B Shops – a late Victorian version of the Pound Shops we have here in the UK. These are run by our old friend MacHeath – Mack the Knife. You will remember him as a suave lethal gangster

When that shark bites with his teeth, babe
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves wears old MacHeath, babe
So there's never, never a trace of red

But in this novel he’s a middle aged paunchy businessman. So there’s a whole lot of complicated stuff about how he gets the cheap knock-off to sell in his B shops, and that gets really dull. Then, in comes the major complication. This is a scheme by a third guy called Coax to defraud the government by selling them three clapped out ships for the ongoing Boer War. Once Coax has coaxed seven greedy businessmen including Peachum into his defrauding scheme it turns out to be a honeytrap – it turns out that the real con is when he blackmails his business partners.

Brecht gets completely lost in the details of all these ever more intertwined and complex business imbroglios and leaves the reader behind. The sharp observations and wicked humour die away. It becomes ever more abstract, ever more turgid.

It becomes boring. It becomes very clear why Bertholt Brecht didn’t write another novel. He didn’t know how to.

[Steven Godin]

First performed in Berlin 1928 this play had been initially received poorly, but went on to great success, by 1933, when Brecht was forced to leave Germany by the Nazi seizure of power, the play had been translated into 18 languages and performed more than 10,000 times on European stages, quite an accomplishment. The play offers a socialist view of Capitalism and takes place in London centering on one Jonathan Peachum who happens to be the boss of beggars. With the help of his wife he enrolls a new beggar, but soon after, his daughter Polly does not come from the previous night, leading a run in with gangs and the law.
As this was a play, reading was never going to match the real thing, especially as it contains music, but with a little imagination it's not hard to think what it would have been like up on stage, even whilst early Nazism looked on with evil eyes, and the fact Brecht used his plays to express his outrage and opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements, shows he was an important voice for those being oppressed.

[AiK]

При прочтении (не просмотре спектакля) эта пьеса не вызывает какого-то особенного эмоционального отклика, особенно в сравнении с другими пьесами Брехта, на мой взгляд, более сильными. Довольно банальный гротескный сюжет из жизни криминального мира и низов общества, которые необыкновенно коммерциализированы, символизирующие общество предфашистской Германии, но можно сказать, что и к современному обществу эта пьеса имеет отношение. Полиция в лице Пантеры Брауна принимает живейший интерес в делах дна, имея со всего этого свою долю. Немного удручает финал о помиловании приговоренного к повешению Мэкхита королевой с присвоением ему дворянского звания, замка и годовой ренты впридачу.
Из истории постановок этой пьесы стало ясно, что музыку к нему написал Курт Вайль и его озвучивали великие исполнители, такие как Луи Армстронг и Фрэнк Синатра, и стало любопытно, что же из этого вышло. А вышел замечательный музыкальный спектакль. Поэтому, наверное, нет смысла читать, надо смотреть и слушать.

[Alexander Carmele]

Opera buffa des Kleinkriminellen. Mackie Messer als Bürgerschreck.

Inhalt: 2/5 Sterne (unstrukturierte Gangsterstory)
Komposition: 3/5 Sterne (Provokation)
Leseerlebnis: 3/5 Sterne (Schenkelklopferlieder)

Brechts Version von John Gays und Johann Christoph Pepuschs The Beggar's Opera (1728) stammt aus dem Jahr 1933 und kann als eine Art Übergangsstück vom individualistisch-hedonistischen Stückeschreiber Brecht zur marxistisch-orthodoxen Version seiner selbst verstanden werden, wie sie in Die Maßnahme erscheint. In Die Dreigroschenoper herrsch noch das Lustprinzip vor:

Da steht nun einer fast schon unterm Galgen
Der Kalk ist schon gekauft, ihn einzukalken
Sein Leben hängt an einem brüchigen Fädchen
Und was hat er im Kopf, der Bursche? Mädchen.
Schon unterm Galgen ist er noch bereit.
Das ist die sexuelle Hörigkeit.

Das Stück lässt sich als ein Hochgesang auf den Hedonismus verstehen: Mackie Messer, der Held, auf den alle Frauen fliegen, Krimineller, Mörder, Draufgänger, Dieb und steckbrieflich Gesuchter gegen das Ordnungsprinzip, gegen die Struktur und Organisation. Mackie schießt alles in den Wind, tappt in alle Fallen, weil er von Moment zu Moment leben will. Von Voraussicht hält er nichts. Obwohl ihn alle mehr oder weniger verraten, lieben ihn doch auch alle, irgendwie, denn er bringt Schwung in den Laden:

Ja, renn’ nur nach dem Glück,
Doch renne nicht zu sehr,
Denn alle rennen nach dem Glück,
Das Glück rennt hinterher.
Denn für dieses Leben
Ist der Mensch nicht anspruchslos genug,
Drum ist all sein Streben
Nur ein Selbstbetrug.

In acht Bildern, mit vielen Schlager- und Saufliedern, mit Pep, Wein, Weib und Gesang lässt Brecht es in allen Ecken und Enden von Soho krachen. Seine Vorbilder bleiben, in dieser Zeit noch, François Villons Das Kleine und das Große Testament , von dem er schamlos abschrieb, und auch die Philosophie und Lebenseinstellung eines Max Stirners aus Der Einzige und sein Eigentum . Mit dem Ende markiert er ein deus ex machina, das gemäß des epischen Theaters zum Nachdenken anregt. Es führt über das Stück selbst hinaus, in welchem alle korrupt und raffgierig und notgeil sind. Eine neue Ordnung muss herhalten. Brecht findet sie im orthodoxen Marxismus.

Die Dreigroschenoper erscheint als Lustspiel, als Kneipen- und Bänkelgesang, als eine Form der Travestie-, Minne- und Satiregesang. Der Wortwitz bleibt restriktiv, die Sprache zum Schenkelklopfen einfach und provokant und die Figurenzeichnung karikierend. Spannung stellt sich nicht ein. Dynamik gibt es so gut wie gar nicht. Von Glaubwürdigkeit zu sprechen, geht am Schelmencharakter des Lustspiels vorbei. Was bleibt: Eine gute Zeit. Mehr aber auch nicht.


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Details – ab hier Spoilergefahr (zur Erinnerung für mich):
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Inhalt: Zusammenfassung/Inhaltsangabe: Macheath, Mackie Messer, treibt mit seiner Banditenbande sein Unwesen in Soho. Das Stück beginnt mit der Aufzählung seiner Untaten: 2 Morde, 30 Einbrüche, 23 Straßenüberfälle, Brandstiftung, weitere vorsätzliche Morde und Verführung von Minderjährigen. Jonathan Peachum, der eine Bettlerbande organisiert und mittels kommunikativer Täuschung zu Geld zu kommen versucht, sorgt sich um seine Tochter, Polly, die mit Macheath anbandelt und ihn nach nur wenigen Tagen in einem Pferdestall heiratet. Peachum außer sich sorgt nun dafür, dass Macheath, der bislang von seinem Polizisten-Buddy Brown geschützt worden ist, nun steckbrieflich gesucht wird. Polly warnt Macheath, übernimmt seinen Posten als Gangsterboss und bittet ihn, nicht ins Bordell zu gehen, wo er mit Sicherheit gefunden wird. Macheath geht aber ins Bordell, wo ihn Jenny, von Pollys Mutter vorgewarnt, an die Polizei verpfeift, vor allem auch, weil Macheath ihre Liebesbeziehung und Zuhälter-Prostituierte-Verbindung einseitig beendet hat. Macheath wird abgeführt. Im Gefängnis befürchtet nun Macheath, dass seine Affäre mit Lucy, der Tochter seines besten Freundes Brown, auffliegt und versucht den Wärter Smith zu bestechen. Schon besucht sie ihn, offensichtlich schwanger. Es kommt zu einer Eifersuchtsszene zwischen Polly und Lucy, die von Pollys Mutter unterbrochen wird. Nach der Szene hilft Lucy Macheath bei der Flucht. Brown will die Verfolgung nicht aufnehmen, Peachum droht, den Krönungszug empfindlich mit seiner Bande zu stören. Brown gibt nach und verfolgt Macheath. Jenny, als sie ihre Belohnung bei Peachum abholen will, verrät erneut seinen Aufenthaltsort, bei der Prostituierten Suky Tawdry. Peachum gibt Brown, der ihn verhaften will, Macheats Aufenthaltsort preis und droht mit einer Störung des Krönungszuges, sollte er nicht Macheath rechtzeitig gefangen nehmen. Brown gibt der Erpressung nach, derweil fährt Polly zu Lucy, um Macheats Aufenthaltsort zu erfahren. Lucy gibt zu, die Schwangerschaft nur vorgegeben zu haben. Sie versöhnen sich. Wieder unterbricht die Mutter. Macheath wurde wieder gefangengenommen, und Polly soll sich das Witwenkleid überstreifen. Macheath versucht das Geld zur Bestechung aufzubringen, aber seine Gang lässt ihn in Stich, geht lieber zum Krönungszug, auch Polly will ihm nicht das Geld geben. Spelunken-Jenny besucht ihn. Alle wohnen bei, wie er den Gang zum Galgen unternimmt. Kurz bevor er hängt, wird er anlässlich der Krönung begnadigt, bekommt ein Schloss und eine lebenslange Rente.
… also die Polizei ist korrupt, der Aufseher lässt sich bestechen, die Frauen fühlen sich von Verbrechern angezogen, nicht von braven Durchschnittsbürgern. Lieber mit Mördern durchbrennen, als ein langweiliges Leben führen. Mackie Messer erscheint wie das Stirnersche Individuum, das frei, spontan agiert. Pläne durchkreuzt er, schlägt er in den Wind. Er lässt sich treiben, wird als Frauenheld inszeniert, selbst Pollys Mutter verfällt ihm.
… viele geklaute, teilweise kaum umformulierte Francois Villon Verse. Eigenartiges Durcheinander, etwas anarchistisch angehaucht. Die Perspektive Brechts bleibt hedonistisch, anarcho-syndikalistisch, noch Banden- und Individuum-orientiert, mit einer Form des charismatischen Anführers wie Mackie Messer, individualistische Rachefeldzüge wie die von Seeräuber-Jenny, Unzuverlässigkeit, Unzurechenbarkeit der Triebe und Bedürfnisse, die über das Handeln dominieren. --> 2 Sterne

Komposition: Brecht erzeugt ein gelungenes Beispiel für das epische Theater, das irritieren und wahrnehmungserweiternd wirken möchte. Das Ende bleibt unverständlich, zu beliebig, zu sehr ein deus ex machina, um zu beruhigen. Eigentlich müsste Mackie Messer sterben. Diese Irritation funktioniert als Ansatzpunkt, wie aus der Gewaltspirale und der korrupten Welt zu entfliehen sei. Eine Möglichkeit wäre eben der Generalstreik, die Organisation der Unterdrückten – das epische Theater schreibt aber die Lösung nicht vor, sie legt sie nahe, engt den Problemlösungsraum nicht ein. Nicht wie in „Die Maßnahme“. --> 3 Sterne

Leseerlebnis: Hat mich streckenweise gelangweilt, bspw. die Möbelherumschieberei, oder diese Retardierung der zweiten Verhaftung von Mackie Messer, oder dieses dümmliche Eifersuchtsgeplänkel zwischen Polly und Lucy, überhaupt erscheint mir das Stück fast wie ein Skizze, sodass es kein Wunder nimmt, dass ein Roman über den Stoff von Brecht geschrieben wurde. Es ist ja eine Opera buffa über die Faulheit und Schlechtigkeit der Menschen. Mehr auch nicht. --> 3 Sterne

[Lee Foust]

Anyone who has ever even considered voting right wing should be tied to a chair and forced to remain seated until they have read this devastating novelistic critique of business, banking, imperialism, exploitation, murder, and poverty. All of your favorite Brechtian quotations are here ("What is a bank robbery compared with the founding of a bank") and all of the viscous wit and irony you would expect from the world's most entertaining political writer. The novel really is an amazing panorama of the horror of a society based upon hierarchical exploitation in which "The dying man dies and the sick man fights," as our anti-hero MacHeath puts it--what he really means is you will do anything for a buck and screw anybody in any way who gets in your way of doing whatever is necessary to get that buck.

It's to Brecht's credit that a book this sad is, at the same time, also quite funny. Some passages are both hysterical and devastating; MacHeath's discovery that profit-sharing actually earns him more rather than less money, Peachum's reasoning out that murder is the most efficient form of business, or his discovery of insurance as a means of squeezing even more blood money from the poor, the history of the Rothchild's bank disarming the world by being honest in business (they make a fortune simply because no one else has ever done that before!), and the fabulous set piece of Fewkoombey's dream-trial at the end, which takes on the preacher's exposition of Jesus' parable of the talents as God's commandment for all of us to live everyday as unprincipled capitalists or hapless slaves, whatever our lot may be. It's cultural satire at its best and opens up our empathy, or should, through irony--a hard thing to accomplish since the Reagan years and the death of empathy through irony.

On the downside, the novel is too long, really, for a modern reader, I think. The seemingly endless business machinations of MacHeath and Peachum go on for far too long to hold our interest--even if they are minutely described from all points of view in order to show us that no character ever understands another character's reasons for doing anything that they do. Hell, half the time the characters even misinterpret WHAT the other characters are doing. This is funny at first but wears us down in minutia after a while. Obviously my own view of the imperialist/capitalist machine is quite close to Brecht's so I blithely nodded through those passages until I got to the great set pieces and found myself laughing out loud frequently. It's worth the wade, though, to get to the great parts.

[Meike]

With the "Threepenny Opera", Brecht unintentionally undermined his own poetic concept of the "epic theater" by having Kurt Weill compose some of the most stirring songs ever written in German. Brecht's theatrical concept was to turn away from illusion and immersion and to confront audiences with political realities and then discuss them dialectically in the course of the play - i.e., he wanted his audience to leave the theatre not entranced, but full of new awareness.

So while the texts of the "Threepenny Opera" are clearly written with this goal in mind, the reason why it became and has stayed so immensely popular is the accessible and rousing music - the combination of societal criticism and musical extravaganza was fresh and exciting when the musical drama (it's not really an opera) was first staged in Berlin in 1928.

While the story itself takes place in Victorian England (it was modeled after John Gay's The Beggar's Opera), Brecht citicizes his contemporary society in the Weimar Republic. The texts discuss the hybris of the bourgeoisie and how crime is a systemic problem in which the rich and the poor are entangled, but for different reasons. The story stars iconic characters like Mack the Knife (Mackie Messer), Low-Dive Jenny (Spelunken-Jenny) and Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the king of the beggars. I am generally critical of Brecht's heightened pedagocical impetus because it is sometimes short of condescension, and the aforementioned poetic concept also tends to lead to the creation of two-dimensional characters for the sake of argument, so honestly, I don't think it's a particularly well-crafted story, but the music counterbalances and elevates it to a degree that turns it into a must-hear.

And to be fair to old Berti, there are also some good punchlines: Every German knows the saying "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral" ("First comes the feeding, then morality") which means that it is easy for the well-situated to condemn the wrongdoings of the hungry and the desperate ("You gentlemen who tell us/ how to live properly,/ and how to avoid all sins and wrongdoings:/ First you must give us food,/ then we can talk./ (...) First comes the feeding, then morality." - sorry for the clumsy translation).

So do yourself a favor: Don't read this, listen to it or, even better, watch it live. Here are some links to the most popular songs:

"Die Moritate von Mackie Messer", sung by Brecht himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QXJ3...
English version "Mack the Knife", sung by Louis Armstrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-lHr...

"Die Seeräuber-Jenny", sung by Lotte Lenya in the movie version from 1931: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0cl...
English version "Pirate Jenny", sung by Nina Simone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7awW...

[Jonfaith]

Or is it only those who have the money who can enter the land of milk and honey?

There were stirrings when I read in David Simon's Homicide about the West Baltimore murders which didn't merit a line in the newspaper. Homo Sacer, Agamben

Perhaps a phrase in the Sebald poem offered a subtle nudge to this reluctant reader. Perhaps it was an image of Ho Chi Minh in Fredrik Logevall's seminal Embers of War-- the thin, proud leader speaking to a congress of the French Communist Party, all of them white, bloated and indifferent?

All those flickering images from Pabst's film--it is a shock that I didn't reach for this play before. The 18C play of John Gray is drenched in Brecht's mordant wit adapted, embellished and reborn with grim musings on sexuality and patriotism, emerging strident and timeless.

[Tosh]

As a hardcore boho 'Beat' kid, I was raised with the soundtrack of Kurt Weil/Bertolt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera." In fact, Lotte Lenya was probably the first singing voice I heard after my Mom - who used to sing to me when I was a little child.

Many years later I read the play/musical and was taken back at its cynical look in how society works. It's an amazing piece of theater and the music is and will always be superb.

[P.E.]

L'épopée sordide des gangs de Soho

Une pièce de théâtre moderne, partiellement inspirée de The Beggar's Opera, et dont le moteur principal est la rivalité terrible entre Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, directeur de la Société "L'ami des Mendiants", plus simplement qualifié de "roi des mendiants" et le bandit "Mackie", qui a ravi le cœur de sa fille Polly. Je me suis laissé dire que l'un des plus grands intérêts de cette pièce se trouve certainement dans ses morceaux de musique, dont par exemple :

- Seeräuberjenny (Jenny-des-Corsaires ou La Fiancée du pirate)
- Kanonen-Song (Chanson des cannons)
- Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens (Chant de la vanité de l'effort humain)


Pour ma part, j'ai plutôt aimé le côté très provocateur des personnages et de l'action et le texte des parties chantées, pour autant que je puisse juger de cette version traduite par Jean-Claude Hémery de l'allemand vers le français. Aimé aussi le rythme très enlevé de l'action.

Extraits :

'PEACHUM: [...] Ça s'amène tranquillement, persuadé qu'il lui suffira de faire le beau pour avoir son bifteck assuré. Que dirais-tu, si on venait pêcher les meilleures truites de ton étang ?

FILCH : Eh bien, c'est à dire, monsieur Peachum... je n'ai pas d'étang.'

****

'PEACHUM :
Bien sûr, je n'ai que trop raison :
Le monde est pauvre, l'homme mauvais.
Nous aimerions être bons,
Si les circonstances s'y prêtaient.'

****

'JENNY :
De quoi vit l'homme ? De sans cesse
Torturer, dépouiller, déchirer, égorger, dévorer l'homme.
L'homme ne vit que d'oublier sans cesse
Qu'en fin de compte il est un homme.'

****

'Cher public, nous y voilà :
Monsieur Macheath va être pendu,
Car vous savez bien qu'ici-bas
Chacun ne reçoit que son dû.

Mais pour que vous n'alliez pas penser
Que nous agissons cruellement,
Le héros ne va pas y passer :
Voici un autre dénouement.

Afin que vous voyiez, à l'opéra du moins,
La pitié l'emporter sur le droit,
Et parce que nous vous voulons du bien,
Voici qu'arrive le héraut du roi !'


Voir aussi :

Claude gueux
Exégèse Des Lieux Communs
Faut pas prendre les cons pour des gens Fondation pour le Logement

[Amirsaman]

سرمایه‌داری چگونه سرمایه‌داری شد، به روایت برشت. جنبش اجتماعی جعلی چیست، به روایت برشت. تفاوت سیاست کهنه و نو چیست، به روایت برشت. برای یک نقد و نظر عالی درباره‌ی این رمان، مراجعه کنید به کتاب والتر بنیامین، فهم برشت، نشر بیدگل، فصل «رمان سه پولی»، با ترجمه‌ی احسان نوروزی: «داستایوفسکی دل‌مشغول روان‌شناسی بود؛ او جنایتکارِ نهفته در انسان را افشا می‌کند. برشت دل‌مشغول سیاست است؛ او جنایت نهفته در کسب و کار را افشا می‌کند.»

[Boadicea]

As Mary Poppins would put it: 'Practically perfect in every possible way'.

I'm missing theatre and concert performances in this era of Covid19 badly and the recent local literary festival has been postponed for 3 months until this most recent lockdown has eased.

So, a book of plays entices although can't quite encapsulate the sheer joy of live performance but this musical play comes so very close, particularly with those fantastic jaunty jazzy songs by Kurt Weill. Add in Lotte Lenya Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone and I'm in heaven....

Then there's the lyrics, this translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett of "The Ballad of Mack the Knife":

See the shark with teeth like razors.
All can read his open face.
And Macheath has got a knife, but
Not in such an obvious place.

See the shark, how red his fins are
As he slashes at his prey.
Mac the Knife wears white kid gloves which
Give the minimum away.

However, by the mid1950s, this is how it goes:

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth dear
And he shows 'em, pearly white
Just a jack knife has Macheath dear
And he keeps it way out of sight

When that shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows begin to spread
Fancy gloves though has Macheath dear
So there's never, never a trace of red.

Even better, in my opinion. Just a great number to introduce the anti-hero! Then, there's "Pirate Jenny", a similar vein.

It's a rollicking bawdy piece of musical theatre, adapted from The Beggar's Opera, written by John Gay in the early 18th century with plenty of cutthroat villians and suffering victims, as a parody of Handel's operas. It was adapted by a communist playwright and his collective and Jewish composer. Set in Victorian Soho, and first performed in 1928, it has travelled the world and is still performed in its entirety to this day. Comic, tragic and wonderful satire but plenty to make you think!

What more can I say, just brilliant....pum, pum, pum, pum....pum, pum, pum. (Goes off humming "Mack the Knife".)

[Matthew]

There is often a curious dramatic tension in the literature produced by Marxist and socialist writers. In theory, the writers subscribe to an optimist political belief system that predicts us heading for a world of greater fairness and equality for all. However, the actual fiction produced by many socialist writers is of a pessimistic nature, depicting the triumph of their enemies, and showing society in a sordid and degraded light.

There are exceptions. William Morris is capable of writing Utopias, and George Bernard Shaw is not ashamed to discuss higher topics such as religion and philosophy (Saint Joan, Man and Superman), although some of his earlier works deal with the world of slum housing and prostitution.

Threepenny Novel is similarly set in this rather grim world, in which there are no greatly sympathetic characters, and society is just a matter of powerful people dishonestly competing with one another and exploiting those beneath them.

The plot is incredibly convoluted, and I apologise if I misrepresent it. However, I will try to summarise a few key points. It is a modern reworking of John Gay’s play, The Beggar’s Opera, and indeed a reworking of Brecht’s own play, The Threepenny Opera. The action follows Peachum, a businessman who makes his money by getting people to pose as beggars and impose on people’s charity.

He is also involved in a dirty business deal with a corrupt businessman called Coax, who has persuaded his colleagues to buy some rotting ships for the Navy, and is using this knowledge to blackmail the others into agreeing to his terms. Fearing that he will be ruined by Coax, Peachum hopes to offer his daughter’s hand in marriage to Coax.

Unfortunately the sensual Polly has other ideas. She has become pregnant by another man and marries a man called Beckett, passing the child off as his. Beckett however is really MacHeath, another shady businessman who runs a chain of shops that sell unfeasibly cheap (and obviously stolen) goods.

Peachum hopes to persuade MacHeath to divorce Polly before Coax finds out, and his hope lies in one of MacHeath’s shop owners called Mary Sawyer, who feels betrayed by MacHeath’s marriage. However, MacHeath has another secret identity. He is The Knife, a gangster with a passion for murdering people, albeit in his past.

Mary Sawyer is found dead soon after, though we never learn what happened to her. MacHeath is arrested for it, and conducts his business from prison while he awaits his inevitable acquittal. However, Coax soon becomes a liability to both MacHeath and Peachum, and he is murdered too.

The story ends with a newly-released MacHeath, now more powerful than ever and in alliance with Peachum. Meanwhile an old soldier called Fewkoombey is wrongly accused of Mary Sawyer’s death and hanged.

The story offers us little real hope, and we occasionally have to remind ourselves that the characters whose fortunes we are following are not actually especially likeable, and that their aims are appalling. Not that we ever expect them to be stopped in their tracks.

This is not a world in which the better values have much of a chance. The world of commerce and the world of crime are interchangeable and the people who run society are merely gangsters out for profit. Essentially they are the petty criminals of yesterday who have realised that there is more profit to be made from running businesses corruptly than from burglary and robbery.

There is little family loyalty. Love is no lofty ideal, and sex gives no great pleasure. It is merely a matter of necessity. Polly Peachum will happily dupe her husband about the fatherhood of her baby and sleep with his colleague while he is in prison. Religion offers no comfort, and the one sermon we hear is an endorsement of the cut-throat capitalism we are witnessing.

There is no sympathy for the common man. We hear of bankrupt small shopkeepers, strikers treated brutally and soldiers going down with rotten ships leaving no survivors, but we are never encouraged to identify with them or care very much. Their only importance in the story is how this affects the fortunes of our anti-heroes.

The one remotely pitiable character is Fewkoombey, but Brecht makes no effort to engage our sympathies with him. We are informed from the beginning that he will be hanged later in the book, something that immediately distances him from us. He is also happy to kill Coax to save his own skin.

Indeed the characters are pawns, and Brecht has no great interest in them. The main failing of the book in fact is that it spends too much time on confusing intrigue described in minute detail at the expense of artistic purpose, entertainment or political message.

There are plenty of long speeches written in italics, but I am not sure what the purpose of those was, unless Brecht felt that they were particularly fine pieces of writing, or illustrative of important points. Either way, discussion is not especially subtle.

In fact, it is often the drawback of socialist and Marxist literature that there is little interest in character and surprisingly little real sympathy for poor people. George Bernard Shaw said that the poor could only be portrayed as figures of comedy or pathos. George Orwell depicts the beggars in his fiction as rather stupid and vacuous. Robert Tressell’s working class characters are gullible fools taken in by their employers.

I am generalising a little about socialist writings in this review, but it is true that there is a strong element of what I am saying in the literature produced by the left. We may well ask why socialist literature is so pessimistic and deals in such seamy subjects.

The explanation that a conservative might offer is that this pessimism reflects the socialist’s secret realisation that his/her ideals are wrong, and will never come to fruition. Even if we do not accept this sweeping statement, it is at least possible that there is an element of frustration and irritation in socialist writings.

The socialist lives in a world where things often do not seem to be going their way. The powerful enemies of the common man continue to rule the roost, and the common workers seem impervious to the ideals of the socialist that will supposedly make their world better. It is hardly surprising that it is difficult to stay positive in these circumstances.

However, there are other reasons. It is not the done thing for a socialist to write about the nicer sides of society. George Bernard Shaw may have been happy setting his plays in the drawing rooms of the wealthy, but most writers would feel that they have a duty to show the underside of society, and not to produce a cosy world of friendly bourgeois banter about how dreadfully unequal the world is. Indeed, why would the ruling classes be so concerned about the injustices that sustain them anyway?

Another important reason is polemic. The socialist who is writing about the affairs of the current age or (in Brecht’s case) the recent past is seeking to stir the reader up – to make them see life’s injustices, and to fight for a better future. The reader cannot be allowed to feel that everything in this world is going well, or what would be the need for socialism?

Threepenny Novel is a readable enough book, but it suffers from its obsession with the minutiae of criminal activity and intrigue at the expense of a more engaging story. It is difficult to follow all the machinations, and Brecht seems too much in love with these. It is hard not to wonder if the book afforded more pleasure to the writer than it does to the reader.

[Florian]

Brecht überzeugt immer mit seinem scharfen Blick auf die Gesellschaft, seiner treffenden Kapitalismuskritik und seinen aufschlussreichen moralischen Erzählungen. Auch aus diesem Roman lässt sich viel mitnehmen: Die Gauner und die Kapitalisten machen im Grunde dasselbe; die Deals, bei denen jeder versucht, den anderen über den Tisch zu ziehen und alles auf dem Rücken der Ärmsten ausgetragen wird, finden heute noch genauso statt. Gerade deshalb wirkt das Buch erstaunlich aktuell.

Erzähltechnisch hat der Roman jedoch Schwächen: Brecht verliert sich zu sehr in den Details der Geschäfte und Machenschaften: Am Ende kennt man alle Einzelheiten eines Investmentbetrugs mit maroden Kriegsschiffen, hätte sich das aber lieber kompakter gewünscht oder mehr über die Charaktere erfahren. Seine Stärke liegt eindeutig in seinen Bühnenstücken – die Romanform hat er ja dann auch nicht weiter verfolgt.

[Mahdi Bigdeli]

انسان با چه زندگی می‌کند؟ بی‌وقفه در حال شکنجه کردن، محروم ساختن، تکه پاره کردن، بریدن سر و دریدن انسان است.
انسان تنها در فراموشی زندگی می کند و بی وقفه فراموش می کند که انسان است.

[Lilirose]

Una commedia surreale, che mette in scena prostitute, criminali ed imbroglioni senza filtri e senza moralismi; anzi, tutti i personaggi sono ben fieri della loro turpitudine, vista come l'unico modo per vivere e sopravvivere. E' un cinismo allegro però quello descritto da Brecht: i protagonisti sono macchiette bidimensionali che pensano solo ai propri interessi, ma consapevoli che la natura umana e in generale la società non permettono di fare altrimenti e lo accettano di buon grado, non certo tormentati da rimorsi di coscienza.
La critica al capitalismo e alla borghesia è evidente e feroce, non si salva nulla nella ricostruzione dell'autore: non la famiglia, non gli amici e nemmeno le istituzioni, come dimostra l'assurda conclusione. La Regina senza motivi apparenti decide di graziare il reo confesso Mackie ed elevarlo allo status nobiliare, in una parodia di lieto fine che dimostra come nulla sia da prendere sul serio in questa vita
Purtroppo per quanto io abbia apprezzato la vivacità della storia ed il messaggio che vuole comunicare, è evidente che questo è un testo pensato per essere rappresentato: su carta si percepisce solo qualche eco della potenza comunicativa che deve avere a teatro, fra ballate rivolte al pubblico e cartelli che rompono la quarta parete. Stando così le cose non ne consiglio la lettura, è l'approccio meno indicato per una commedia basata quasi totalmente sulle atmosfere.

[Ghazalehsadr]

It is definitely difficult to rate a play, and more difficult even to rate an opera, because they are supposed to be seen and heard on a stage rather than read on pages where the music and songs and expressions cannot be reflected. So I am sure I would have given a better rating if I’d seen this play performed in fromt of me rather than reading of it in a book. All that aside though, the wit and humour and ideas behind this play are great enough to be enjoyed even on paper.

The Threepenny Opera, however, would’ve never existed without the revival of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera which is a description of 18th century London low life. The plot itself is almost entirely the same as Gay’s plot, but as opposed to London, here images of Berlin low life and bourgeois high life find expression through Brecht’s approach and the play becomes a critique of Germany of the early 20th century. As was his style, Brecht also creates a play with unique songs which shows one thing after another, where each scene existed for itself and the links between events were deliberately severed, generating a series of isolated images which the audience had to work to connect. So the performance is broken down into clearly marked segments.

Brecht’s constant emphasis was that the audience should be actively critical rather than passively receptive of the play. He wanted to use drama to help the audience to establish new ways of acting upon their real world. He also understood the need for drama to be entertaining. So his intention was to develop a dialectical relationship with the audience with an interactive relationship involving the audience in consciously considering the situations and alternatives faced by the stage characters. Brecht’s criteria were to lay bear society’s causal network, showing the audience the ways in which human action is determined by people’s social positions and expectations. He wanted to show that what are assumed to be eternal truths are simply views that reinforce the power of those in power. He championed the working class by showing their capacity to resolve basic issues of survival.

[Begüm]

Öncelikle bir itirafta bulunmak istiyorum her şeyden önce çünkü bu kitabı okumak benim için çok kolay olmadı. Sanıyorum ki bunun sebebi ya çevirmenden kaynaklanıyor ya da yazarın üslubundan. Her ne kadar yorucu bir okuma olsa da okuduğum için memnunum. Çünkü kitabın alt yapısı gerçekten çok önemli noktalara değiniyor. Özellikle o son bölüm gerçekten çok etkileyiciydi. Diğer yazarlara kıyasla Brecht işçi sınıfını ele alırken aynı zamanda karşı sınıfı -yani elit kısmı- da ele alıyor bu kitapla beraber. Yani olayları iki farklı bakış açısından inceleme şansı yakalıyoruz böylece. Eğer sosyalizm, işçi sınıfını vs. konu alan kitapları seviyorsanız şans verebilirsiniz. Değerli eserlerden biri.

[LauraT]

Non c'è niente da fare, il teatro va visto a teatro - e non letto su carta; Brecht poi, con tutte le sue canzoni, è assolutamente perdente in libro. Bella piece, ma sono certa che vista ed ascoltata - magari con la meravigliosa voce della da poco dipartita Milva - dal vivo debba fare tutto un altro effetto

Voi che alla retta vita ci esortate
e ad evitare il fango del peccato,
prima di tutto fateci mangiare
e poi parlate pure a perdifiato.
Voi che alla vostra ciccia tenete e al nostro onore,
date ascolto, sappiatelo, è così:
solo saziato l'uomo può farsi migliore!
Pochi discorsi, il punto è tutto qui.
Della gran forma di pane, una fetta
anche ai reietti e ai poverelli spetta.

[Rhys]

An absolute masterpiece, and really I ought to give it 5 stars, but there was something just a little too distant about the characters, a little too cold, that has made me feel I must knock a star off. This is proibably unfair, as I suspect that Brecht's intention was to prevent the reader feeling any empathy with the main characters in this deadly farce.

The novel is a satire against capitalism, against big business, the immoral and amoral schemes that go on behind the scenes, the hypocrisy that is second nature to these manipulators, the cruelty of the system, the exploitation of the masses. Brecht shows how the finance men are essentially criminals, whether they have come from the upper classes, the middle classes, or even the lower classes. These predators are the "fittest", destined to survive and thrive at the expense of expendable people.

The action of this novel is savage, the tone is serene and philosophical. The quality of the prose is superb. The complexity of events mirrors the complexity of the real world: even the most devious and machiavellian of sociopathic geniuses can't control every factor, every variable, and their plans need constant adjustment in order to work. Here we have villains working against villains, betraying each other, occasionally joining forces, scheming themselves and others into holes of oblivion that they manage to crawl out of only by causing great suffering to others.

When I was younger and I read mostly fantasy, the great Michael Moorcock stated in one of the introductions (or afterwords) to one of his books that Brecht was a significant early influence on him. This is why I first became interested in Brecht.

Brecht was marvellous and his work remains marvellous.

[Serenity]

2/10. I understand that this is one of the Great Masters of Theatre. I learned in class that Brecht made a tremendous impact on theatre and started his own theatrical tradition. I also learned that the whole signs-device and didactical bits were very novel in his time. But it really, really disappointed all of my expectations. I even saw it live and it definitely was a flop. It did not deliver on any of the promised scandal or excitement. The musical pieces were random and did not add much. The characters were all unlikeable and the plot rather boring. It's like an inferior version of Oliver Twist, and that is pretty much all I have to say about it.

[Christina]

Das wird sicher nicht mein liebster Brecht. An manchen Stellen blitzt zwar ein subtiler Humor durch, der mir sehr gut gefällt. Insgesamt bleibt die Geschichte doch eher blass. Die Musik ist natürlich ein Highlight, auf dem Papier wirken die Texte aber einfach nicht ganz so gut. Besser gefallen haben mir die im Anhang aufgeführten alternativen Texte aus den 40ern.

[Wiebke (1book1review)]

I listened to an audio play with all songs.
I've seen this play before and really like it.

[Andreas Breunig]

Was ist ein Dietrich gegen eine Aktie? Was ist ein Einbruch in eine Bank gegen die Gründung einer Bank? (S. 94)

Die Dreigroschenoper war eine interessante Erfahrung. Auf der einen Seite gefällt Brechts marxistische Kritik und einige Formulierungen sind sprachlich herausragend, andererseits gefällt die Komposition nicht, ist die Handlung über weite Strecken willkürlich, sind die Charaktere unschlüssig und inkohärent. Während die Moriat von Mackie Messer zu Recht berühmt-berüchtigt ist, auch der Schlusschoral toll und besonders in der zweiten Hälfte immer wieder treffende Aphorismen zu finden sind, sind viele der Lieder und Unterhaltungen holprig oder beliebig. Daher unentschlossene drei Sterne von mir.

Das Gesetz ist einzig und allein gemacht zur Ausbeutung derer, die es nicht verstehen oder die es aus nackter Not nicht befolgen können. Und wer von dieser Ausbeutung seinen Brocken abbekommen will, muß sich streng an das Gesetz halten. (S. 75)

Interessant ist es dann noch, ein vielverwendetes Brecht-Zitat im vom Autoren beabsichtigten Zusammenhang zu sehen und damit nicht (dies passiert durchaus anderswo im Stück) als Kritik an menschlicher Unmoral, sondern vielmehr als Kritik an der strukturellen Gewalt, die diese erzeugt:

Ihr Herrn, die ihr uns lehrt, wie man brav leben
Und Sünd und Missetat vermeiden kann
Zuerst müßt ihr uns was zu fressen geben
Dann könnt ihr reden: damit fängt es an.
Ihr, die ihr euren Wanst und unsre Bravheit liebt
Das eine wisset ein für allemal:
Wie ihr es immer dreht und wie ihr's immer schiebt
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral. (S. 69)

Und so entsteht aus dieser Kritik ein 1948 ergänzter Schlusschoral, der grandios sein könnte, wenn das vorangegangene Stück Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe gewesen wäre; doch zur Dreigroschenoper, zum Mörder und Vergewaltiger Macheath passt er nicht.

Verfolgt das kleine Unrecht nicht; in Bälde Erfriert es schon von selbst, denn es ist kalt:
Bedenkt das Dunkel und die große Kälte In diesem Tale, das von Jammer schallt.
Zieht gen die großen Räuber jetzt zu Felde Und fällt sie allesamt und fällt sie bald:
Von ihnen rührt das Dunkel und die große Kälte Sie machen, daß dies Tal von Jammer schallt. (S. 109)

[Monica]

Quando il crimine paga

Ballad opera liberamente ispirata a L'opera del mendicante di John Gay, che mette a nudo una società corrotta, ipocrita e profondamente diseguale. Attraverso una satira tagliente, Brecht denuncia la borghesia e il capitalismo descrivendoli come non meno parassitari e immorali della criminalità stessa.

Al centro della storia ci sono Mackie Messer, un delinquente elegante e spietato, e Peachum, un imprenditore che gestisce un impero basato sull’elemosina organizzata. Quando Mackie seduce e sposa Polly, la figlia di Peachum, si crea un cortocircuito tra mondo criminale e borghese: il matrimonio tra i due diventa quindi simbolo di una fusione perfetta tra illegalità e potere legittimo.

Il titolo è già di per sè una dichiarazione satirica: i “tre soldi” stanno ad indicare un’opera di basso valore sia economico (per poveri, mendicanti e banditi) sia morale e sociale, proprio come i suoi protagonisti. Ed è anche un modo ironico per prendere le distanze dalle “grandi” opere liriche, pompose e borghesi.

Ammetto che i testi teatrali non sono proprio il mio genere e, in questo caso, ho fatto ancora più fatica a farmi coinvolgere: i dialoghi sono spesso interrotti da canzoni che all’inizio mi spiazzavano. Ma ho scoperto che questo è un tratto distintivo di Brecht, legato alla sua idea di "teatro": le canzoni servono infatti a creare un effetto di straniamento, cioè a spezzare l’immedesimazione per spingere lo spettatore a una riflessione critica.
Probabilmente mi sarò persa qualche riferimento specifico alla società inglese e alla monarchia, ma ho apprezzato le espressioni colorite (per non dire proprio sporche e brutali!) che attraversano tutta l’opera: linguaggio duro, diretto, volutamente basso, usato non per scioccare ma per mostrare senza filtri la miseria morale della società.
E tra delinquenti in giacca e cravatta e poveracci con il cappello in mano, Brecht ci mostra che il confine tra legalità e crimine è, in fondo, solo una questione di classe.

[Geret]

kes on suurem kurjategija: see, kes röövib panga või see, kes selle asutab

[Eileen]

“Was hilft da Freiheit? Es ist nicht bequem, Nur wer im Wohlstand lebt, lebt angenehm!”

Ich hatte mir mehr erhofft. Dafür, dass das Stück aufzeigen soll, dass “Bettler” und “Huren” sich nicht allzu sehr vom normalen Bürgertum unterscheiden, waren mir die Charaktere alle etwas zu unsympathisch. Da gehen meine aktuellen Moralvorstellungen wahrscheinlich am historischen Kontext vorbei. Wahrscheinlich hätte mir das Stück auch wesentlich besser gefallen, wenn ich es nicht gelesen sondern gesehen hätte (so wegen Theater und Gesang). Den Anhang mitsamt Erklärungen und zeitlichen Einordnungen fand ich jetzt auch nicht sooo aufschlussreich.

[Igor Korousic]

Is it true? Is it exeggerated? Can it be that behind faces smiling but not showing teeth, faces with eyes made up but without sparks, can it be that behind talking about fog and giving a penny to a begger, there's nothing but cold left-brained selfishness winning in the rat race?
It can't be like that, people were supposed to be good in essence, people were given a pound in a form of love and respect for other people. People are surely not animals, they evolved further than the chimpanzees. They don't eat their neighbour's children for some reason.
The question is why don't they do that? Would they do that if it was socially acceptable? Would they do that under right circumstances? Would they do that if nobody knew?
I thought that they would and then when I finished this book it only enforced my belief. Threepenny novel is as cruel as i do believe people are.
Perhaps someone will think that the world has become more 'civilized' since the beginning of the 20th century and therefore this book is not a real account of life nowadays. Perhaps someone will say we've gotten better and in case we haven't we have institutions, laws and codes now which would make this story impossible in 2010.
It's a superb book!

[beesp]

Il mondo in cui viviamo è un mondo sordido e meschino, in cui non c'è posto per la bontà d'animo e la sincerità.
Il personaggio più puro è il veterano Fewkoombey, che trova parola soltanto all'inizio e alla fine del romanzo, ma poi si perde nei meandri delle manovre dei suoi padroni, scompare e così ogni bussola morale. C'è spazio soltanto per l'inganno, per la ricerca del profitto, sfrenata e spietata, per il delitto senza rimorso.
Forse qualcuno trova un po' di spazio per rendersi conto della crudeltà della propria vita, ma è un attimo passeggero, che si lava via col denaro o con il successo.
Leggere un libro del genere fa male all'anima, dà fastidio. Ci tira in faccia il meccanismo crudele su cui si fonda la nostra società capitalistica. Non è facile, e sicuramente non richiede poca forza.
Almeno Brecht alla fine ci ha concesso un morso più dolce, una carota dopo le batoste. Perché si può pensare che un giorno forse riusciremo a svegliarci dal nostro sogno di potere e di sangue, e riusciremo a smettere di appropriarci del tempo, dei beni, del lavoro di altri.