The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera (2008) was a musical theatre production by The Norwegian Theatre, based on the work by Bertolt Brecht (libretto) and Kurt Weill (music). The production was performed at the theatre's main stage.

Georg Malvius directed it.

Paul-Ottar Haga played the role of Mack the Knife.

Information

(Objekt ID 32884)
Object type Production
Premiere April 3, 2008
Produced by The Norwegian Theatre
Based on The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill
Audience Adults
Audience size 25581
Number of events 52
Language Norwegian Nynorsk
Keywords Musical theatre, Theatre
Running period April 3, 2008  
Duration 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an interval
Website Det Norske Teatret
More

At the webpage of The Norwegian Theatre the following, among other things, is written about The Threepenny Opera:

"This year 80 years have passed since the first time Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's classic music theatre production was performed in Berlin. Still the plot is scarily close to the experience of today's modern metropolises, such as Oslo, for example. Here the crooks and minor criminals act as if they're the best of citizens, begging and prostitution are organised as respectable bourgeois enterprises. This, obviously, is to make us draw the conclusion that the bourgeois respectable is really what is criminal. Or, to put it another way, as in one of the many well-known songs from the play, '...food is the first thing, morals follow on'."

SOURCE:

The Norwegian Theatre, detnorsketeatret.no, 17.10.2012, http://www.detnorsketeatret.no/index.php?option=com_play&view=play&playid=197

Performance dates
April 3, 2008Hovudscenen, The Norwegian Theatre Opening night
Press coverage

Lillian Bikset, Dagbladet, Lojalitet til salgs (literally: Loyalty for sale), 04.04.2008, http://www.dagbladet.no/tekstarkiv/artikkel.php?id=5001080049008&tag=item&words=tolvskillingsoperaen:

"The aesthetics belong in part to The Godfather and in part to Camden Market. Rudely simplified one may say that so do the themes. Georg Malvinus adds some twists to The Threepenny Opera, but is mainly true to the original script of Brecht's. The director is the only true one. More than greed and vulgarity, far more than cruelty, this is The Threepenny with betrayal as currency. Betrayal due to one's own interests, due to cowardice, due to short-sightedness. Betrayal because betrayal is easier than fidelity. In every detail the theme is underlined - most elegantly in The Pimp's Ballad, an onstage highlight with its multi-direction tango choreography. Musically highlights are many. The theatre uses Halldis Moren Vesaas' Norwegian version from 1992, a translation which is becoming to Brecht's layer-upon-layer language, and also in sync with Kurt Weill's intricate melodies."