Archived
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Threepenny Opera
Part of TRIN Berlin in the '20s & '30s and LPO 12/13 and The Rest is Noise
Royal Festival Hall
Saturday 2 March 2013Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera
(performed in German with English surtitles)
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Kurt Weill never set out to write a masterpiece - instead to provoke and entertain normal people with ready, urgent music that made a relevant political point.
The Threepenny Opera, though, has proved a longstanding touchstone. A surrealistic and riotous juxtaposition of 18th-century ballad texts, European swing and dance music, plus American jazz, all conceived on an operatic scale proved as nourishing as it did provocative.
Weill's is one of those rare seminal creations that remains ever-relevant, seen here in a production led by Ted Huffman and Vladimir Jurowski, and featuring 'post-modern cabaret diva' Meow Meow - herself a phenomenon in human form who has to be seen to believed.
The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall, 6pm and 9.45pm. Foyle Future Firsts present Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel - a chance to hear Weill and Brecht's first collaboration. Free.
PerformersLondon Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Mark Padmore Macheath `Mack the Knife'
Sir John Tomlinson Mr Peachum
Dame Felicity Palmer Mrs Peachum
Allison Bell Polly Peachum
Nicholas Folwell Jackie `Tiger' Brown
Gabriela Istoc Lucy Brown
Meow Meow Jenny
Max Hopp
Ted Huffman director