HK Gruber directs an all-star cast of Die Dreigroschenoper in performances across Europe
INTRODUCTION
Intermusica was delighted to produce and coordinate HK Gruber’s production of Kurt Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper at three major European venues in June 2009. The project was originally conceived as part of the maverick Austrian composer, conductor and chansonnier’s residency at the Konzerthaus Wien, which will host the fourth and final performance of the opera.
Gruber led the Klangforum Wien, the Chorus Sine Nomine and a stellar cast of singers including Ian Bostridge, Dorothea Roeschmann and Angelika Kirschlager in this unique masterpiece of musical theatre.
The production appeared in Hamburg at the Musikhalle, at London’s Barbican Hall and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, before convening in Gruber’s home city, Vienna for the culmination of both the project and Gruber’s residency.
Gruber is a passionate advocate of the music of Kurt Weill and recent projects have included conducting the opening concert of the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival in Der Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Die sieben Todsünden with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonie Orchester. He will conduct the latter work alongside his own Frankenstein!! with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra following the Dreigroschenoper tour.
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THE PRODUCTION
KURT WEILL Die Dreigroschenoper
Director HK Gruber
Dorothea Roeschmann Polly Peachum
Angelika Kirchschlager Jenny
Ian Bostridge Macheath
HK Gruber Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum
Christoph Bantzer Narrator
Florian Boesch Tiger Brown
Cora Burggraaf Lucy Brown
Hanna Schwarz Cecilia Peachum
Klangforum Wien
Chorus Sine Nomine
Chorusmaster Johannes Hiemetsberger
Sound Engineer Markus Aubrecht
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"The apparent simplicity of Kurt Weill's 'Threepennymusic' can easily become a stumbling block for any theatre production: indeed the composer himself experienced that difficulty. So it is always rewarding to bring the hidden symphonic treasures of this music to the centre of attention. That way one cannot fail to hear what a privilege it was for Brecht – the advocate of precise, simple phrases and thus the composers 'literary counterpart' – to collaborate with Weill.
Brecht loved the idea of the 'Threepenny Opera' on the concert stage and for that purpose wrote magnificent texts to be inserted between the musical numbers. Those narrative summaries – performed by an actor in the particular national language - offer the audience the overall picture and the vocal numbers can remain in the original German language without difficulty."
HK Gruber
Director
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About Die Dreigroschenoper
A milestone of 20th century musical theatre, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) was composed by Kurt Weill (1900-1950) and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). Now inextricably linked to the politically charged and hedonistic atmosphere of 1920s Berlin, Die Dreigroschenoper represented a completely new style of musical theatre. Weill and Brecht fused opera with the theatre and cabaret, creating a work impossible to catergorize, described as "by and for beggars" by Weill. The piece received its premiere at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm - a small theatre, not an opera house - in August 1928 with a cast without a single professional opera singer and instrumentalists that were drawn from dance bands.
An adaption of an early eighteenth-century piece, The Beggar's Opera, Die Dreigroschenoper is a satire set in Victorian London with a political subtext meant to cause a stir with its Marxist leanings and anarchic tendencies. The work became hugely popular both in Berlin and internationally, and was performed over 400 times in the two years following its premiere. Today it is recognised as a masterpiece of musical theatre.
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