2011 Next Wave Festival OCT 2011 Donald Baechler, Red + Blue Rose (detail), 2011 BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival sponsor Published by: BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board The Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board Karen Brooks Hopkins, Threepenny President Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Opera BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Oct 4—8, 2011 at 7:30pm Approximate running time: three hours including one intermission A play by Bertolt Brecht Adapted from Elizabeth Hauptmann’s German version of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht Music by Kurt Weill Berliner Ensemble BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival sponsor Direction, Stage, Light concept by Robert Wilson Music direction by Hans-Jörn Brandenburg and Stefan Rager Leadership support for the Next Wave Costumes by Jacques Reynaud Festival provided by the Ford Foundation. Co-direction by Ann-Christin Rommen Co-design scenery by Serge von Arx The Threepenny Opera is part of Global Co-design costumes by Yashi Tabassomi Connections at BAM sponsored by MetLife Foundation. Dramaturgy by Jutta Ferbers and Anika Bárdos Leadership support for The Threepenny Lighting by Andreas Fuchs Opera provided by brigitte nyc; Mr. & Mrs. and Ulrich Eh Sid R. Bass; and The Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation, with additional support from the David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation. Performed in German with English titles, translated by Endowment funding for The Threepenny John Willett in 1976 Opera has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Used by arrangement with European American Music-Theater. Music Corporation The Threepenny Opera CAST Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum (head of a gang of beggars) Jürgen Holtz Celia Peachum (his wife) Traute Hoess Polly Peachum (their daughter) Stefanie Stappenbeck Macheath (head of a gang of crooks) Stefan Kurt Brown (London’s police chief) Axel Werner Lucy, his daughter Anna Graenzer Jenny Angela Winkler Filch, one of Peachum’s beggars Georgios Tsivanoglou Macheath’s gang, street bandits Walt Dreary Ulrich Brandhoff Matt of the Mint Martin Schneider Crooked Finger Jack Boris Jacoby Sawtooth Bob Winfried Goos Jimmy Dejan Buc´in Ed Jörg Thieme Smith, a police constable Uli Pleßmann Reverend Kimball Heinrich Buttchereit Betty Anke Engelsmann Old prostitute Ruth Glöss Dolly Ursula Höpfner-Tabori Vixer Marina Senckel Molly Gabriele Völsch A riding messenger Gerd Kunath A voice Walter Schmidinger THE THREEPENNY ORCHESTRA Banjo, cello, guitar, Hawaiian guitar, mandolin Ulrich Bartel Harmonium, piano, celesta Hans-Jörn Brandenburg Bandoneon Valentin Butt Trumpet Martin Klingeberg Timpani, percussion Stefan Rager Tenor & soprano saxophone, clarinet, bassoon Jonas Schoen Alto, soprano & baritone saxophone Benjamin Weidekamp Trombone, double bass Otwin Zipp Sound effects Joe Bauer The Threepenny Opera SYNOPSIS The Threepenny Opera proclaims itself “an opera for beggars,” and it was in fact an attempt both to satirize traditional opera and operetta and to create a new kind of musical theater based on the theo- ries of two young German artists, composer Kurt Weill and poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht. The show opens with a mock-Baroque overture, a nod to Threepenny’s source, The Beggar’s Opera, a brilliantly successful parody of Handel’s operas written by John Gay in 1728. The setting is a fair in Soho, London, just before Queen Victoria’s coronation. ACT I Act I begins in Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum’s shop, the boss of London’s beggars. He equips and trains them in return for a cut of their earnings. In the first scene, after enrolling a new beggar with his wife, the couple notice that their grown daughter Polly did not come home the previous night. The scene shifts to an empty stable where Macheath is about to marry Polly, once his gang has stolen all the necessary food and furnishings. No vows are exchanged, but Polly is satisfied, and everyone sits down to a banquet. Since none of the gang can provide fitting entertainment, Polly gets up and sings Pirate Jenny. The gang gets nervous when chief of police Tiger Brown arrives, but it’s all part of an act; Brown served with Macheath in England’s colonial wars and has prevented Macheath from being arrested all these years. The old friends duet in Cannon Song (Army Song). ACT II Polly tells Macheath that her father is arranging to have him arrested. He makes arrangements to leave London, and explains his bandit “business” to Polly so she can manage it. Before he leaves town, he stops at his favorite brothel, where he sees his ex-lover, Jenny. They sing the Pimp’s Ballad (Tango Ballad) about their days together, but Mrs. Peachum has bribed Jenny to turn Macheath in. Officer Brown apologizes, there’s nothing he can do, and Macheath goes to jail. After Macheath sings Ballad of the Easy Life, another girlfriend, Lucy (Brown’s daughter), and Polly show up at the same time, setting the stage for an argument that builds to Jealousy Duet. After Polly leaves, Lucy engineers Macheath’s escape. When Mr. Peachum finds out, he confronts Brown, threatening to unleash all of his beggars during Queen Victoria’s coronation parade, ruining the ceremony and costing Brown his job. ACT III Jenny demands her bribe money but Mrs. Peachum refuses to pay. Jenny reveals that Macheath is at Suky Tawdry’s house. When Brown arrives, determined to arrest Peachum and the beggars, he is horrified to learn that the beggars are already in position and only Mr. Peachum can stop them. To placate Peachum, Brown’s only option is to arrest Macheath and have him executed. In the next scene, Macheath is back in jail and is desperately trying to raise a sufficient bribe to get out again, even as the gallows are being assembled. Soon it becomes clear that no one can raise any money and he prepares to die. Then comes a sudden reversal: a messenger on horseback arrives to announce that Macheath has been pardoned by the Queen and granted a castle and pension. The cast then sings the finale, ending with a plea that wrongdoing not be punished too harshly. Who’s Who ROBERT WILSON (direction, stage, and light arts practice with resources from the humanities, concept), born in 1941 in Waco, Texas, is research from the sciences, and inspiration among the world’s foremost theater and visual from the visual arts. Watermill is unique within artists. His works for the stage unconventionally the global landscape of experimental theatrical integrate a wide variety of artistic media, performance, and regularly convenes the including dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, brightest minds from all disciplines to do, in music, and text. His images are aesthetically Wilson’s words, “what no one else is doing.” striking and emotionally charged, and his The Watermill Center supports projects that productions have earned the acclaim of integrate genres and art forms from diverse audiences and critics worldwide. The New view points and that break traditional forms York Times described Robert Wilson as “a of representation and cultural specifics. At the towering figure in the world of experimental core of Watermill’s programming lies the year- theater.” Wilson’s awards and honors include round support of artists in residence. Through two Guggenheim Fellowship awards (1971 and both the International Summer Program—a 1980), the nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in highly collaborative residency led by Wilson— Drama (1986), the Golden Lion for sculpture and through one to four week individual from the Venice Biennale (1993), the Dorothy residencies hosted from September through and Lillian Gish Prize for lifetime achievement June, Watermill annually welcomes over 150 (1996), the Premio Europa award from Taormina artists from around the world. This unparalleled Arte (1997), selection to the American Academy global residency program is complemented by of Arts and Letters (2000), and Commandeur educational programs with schools and other des arts et des lettres (2002), among others. local institutions, public events such as open Together with composer Philip Glass, he created rehearsals and lectures, tours of the building the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (at and grounds, and seminars and symposia. The BAM in 1984 and 1992). With productions Watermill Center itself is a 20,000+ square foot such as Deafman Glance, KA MOUNTain and flexible working space including a 6,000 volume GUARDenia Terrace, Life and Times of Sigmund research library, galleries, rehearsal and staging Freud (BAM, 1969), CIVIL warS (BAM, 1986), spaces, workshops, offices, and residences and Death Destruction & Detroit or a Letter situated on six acres of artist-designed and for Queen Victoria, he redefined and expanded landscaped grounds. The Watermill Collection theater. Wilson’s collaborators include diverse of over 7,000 art and artifact pieces spanning writers and musicians such as Susan Sontag, the history of humankind is integrated into Lou Reed, Heiner Müller, Jessye Norman, David all aspects of the building and grounds as a Byrne, Tom Waits, and Rufus Wainwright. Wilson reminder that the history of each civilization is has also left his imprint on masterworks such as told by its artists. The Magic Flute, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Madama Butterfly, A Dream Play (BAM, 2000), Peer JACQUES REYNAUD (costumes), born in Milan Gynt (BAM, 2006), The Threepenny Opera, in 1960, is a fashion and costume designer of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Berliner Ensemble, French and Italian descent. After high school, 2009), Lulu (Berliner Ensemble, 2011), and he attended university in New York and worked Krapp’s Last Tape. in the US and Europe. His first production was Peer Gynt, staged by Luca Ronconi. After that, The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary he worked at the Teatro della Scala in Milan, laboratory for the arts and humanities completed the Salzburg Festival, and the Lyric Opera of in 2006 on the Long Island, NY site of a former Chicago.