Night Waves - Landmarks: The Threepenny Opera

Philip Dodd presents a Night Waves Landmark exploring one of the most groundbreaking pieces of musical theatre - Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera. In 1920s Weimar Berlin, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill took polite operetta and turned it into something jagged, political and contemporary. The Threepenny Opera became an international hit, an early talkie followed, as did stardom for Lotte Lenya. By the time the Nazis came to power and Brecht and Weill had fled Germany, there had been no fewer than 130 productions around the world. Without it there would have been no Cabaret, no Chicago, no Mack the Knife. Philip brings together a round table of guests to assess why The Threepenny Opera continues to intrigue. He is joined by singers Ian Bostridge and Kim Criswell, theatre director Stephen Unwin and translator Jeremy Sams.