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. In 2007, he designed costumes for Western Union communication research facility. Broch’s Out of the Air at the Piccolo Teatro di Founded by Wilson as a place for young and Milano. He has worked with Robert Wilson on emerging artists to work, learn, create, and grow numerous plays designing costumes for all of his with each other, Watermill integrates performing productions at the Berliner Ensemble. Stefan Kurt Photo by Lesley Leslie-Spinks Who’s Who

ANN-CHRISTIN ROMMEN (co-direction) STEFAN RAGER (music co-direction), born studied theater, film, and television sciences at in Munich in 1963, was founder of the Cologne University. She first worked as assistant pop music group the Jeremy Days. He later director at the Cologne Theatre, then met composed ballet, film, and theater music. Rager Robert Wilson in 1983 and worked with him worked on Kasimi and Karoline with Christoph on CIVIL warS in 1984. Since then, she has Marthaler at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus been assistant director for more than 40 Wilson in Hamburg, and with Robert Wilson and Lou productions. In 1990, she staged the Romanian Reed on Time Rocker and POEtry at the Thalia premiere of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine, Theatre in Hamburg. Together with Hans-Jörn and later on, staged Drifting and Tilting—Songs Brandenburg, he was the musical director for by Scott Walker at the Barbican Centre in Georg Büchner’s Leonce and Lena. He was the London in 2008. She has also worked with musical director for Georg Büchner’s Leonce and the contemporary dance ensemble Condanza, Lena and Frank Wedekind’s Lulu, directed by which has performed in festivals in Europe Robert Wilson with songs by Lou Reed. and Australia. At the Berliner Ensemble, she has been assistant director for Robert Wilson’s JUTTA FERBERS (dramaturgy) was born in Leonce and Lena, The Threepenny Opera, Cologne in 1957. She had her first position Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and Lulu. as a dramaturg in Landshut, Germany, then at the Schauspielhaus Bochum beginning in SERGE VON ARX (scenery co-design), born in 1983. After moving to the Burgtheater Vienna Zurich in 1971, studied architecture in Zurich in 1986, she worked on Shakespeare’s Richard and then worked for Cuno Brullmann and III, Bernhard’s Heroes’ Square, and several Roberto Ostinelli in Paris. In 1998, he became a premieres of plays by Peter Handke such as freelance journalist at Neue Zürcher Zeitung and The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other. later worked with Rolf Glittenberg. Since 1999, She was a lecturer at the Academy of Visual he has been a stage designer for Robert Wilson’s Arts in Vienna; has translated plays by Ibsen, theater productions. In 2005, he created the Shakespeare, and Marlowe; and collaborated on Giorgio Armani retrospective for the Guggenheim Richard II and Richard III with Thomas Brasch. Museum in New York (which traveled to Berlin, Since 1999, she has been dramaturg and London, Rome, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Milan) member of the Berliner Ensemble. With Robert and the Imagines del Cuerpo at Museu d’Art Wilson, she collaborated on Leonce and Lena, Precolombi in Barcelona. Since 2007, he has Shakespeare’s Sonnets, The Threepenny Opera, been head of the scenography department at the and Lulu. Norwegian Theatre Academy in Frederikstad. PERFORMERS HANS-JÖRN BRANDENBURG (music co-direction) is a composer and arranger of STEFAN KURT was born in 1959 in Bern, music for film and theater. Born in Bardowick, Switzerland, where he studied acting at the Germany, in 1957, he studied music in State School for Music and Theatre. He first Hannover and Hamburg. As musical director worked at Bochum Theatre under the direction at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, he of Claus Peymann, and in 1985, went to wrote music for Shockheaded Peter in 2001. the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg under Jürgen He collaborated with the Tiger Lilies and Kronos Flimm. In his first year there, he received a Quartet for The Gorey End, as well as directors prize for his performance in Carlo Goldoni’s Michael Bogdanov, Klaus Pohl, Michael Simon, The Servant of Two Masters (dir. J. Flimm). In and Frank Castorf. He first worked with Wilson 1990 he began working with Robert Wilson: as a musician and musical director on The Black The Black Rider, and Alice (1993); Time Rocker Rider in Hamburg. He and Stefan Rager were (1996); and at Berliner Ensemble: Flight Over the musical directors for Leonce and Lena. the Ocean (1997), Leonce and Lena (2003), Who’s Who

A Winter’s Tale (2005), and The Threepenny She appears in Wilson’s productions of The Opera (2007). Kurt has also made numerous Threepenny Opera and Shakespeare’s Sonnets. appearances in German film and television. In Recently, she performed in Claus Peymann’s 1995 and 1997 he won the prestigious German production of Freedom and Democracy I Hate TV Grimme-prize. You, a contemporary political play by Mark Ravenhill. ANGELA WINKLER was born in Templin, Germany. From 1971 to 1978 she was a TRAUTE HOESS, born in 1950 in Weilheim, member of the most influential theater company Germany, studied at the Otto-Falkenberg Actors in Germany, the Schaubühne, where she worked School in Munich. She was a member of the with directors Peter Stein and Luc Bondy. Since legendary free theater group Beetroot before 1980 she has worked with famous directors joining the Berliner Ensemble, Burgtheatre in Germany and internationally, foremost with Vienna, and Cologne Theatre. She has worked Peter Zadek. She was elected actress of the with many renowned directors such as Robert year for her performance in Chekhov’s The Wilson, Werner Schroeter, Heiner Müller, Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Dimiter Gotscheff, Jürgen Kruse, Peter Palitzsch, and in 2000 she received the Gertrud-Eysoldt- Leander Haussmann, Karin Henkel, and Günter Ring for her performance as Rebekka West in Krämer. In Müller’s legendary production of Ibsen’s Rosmershol (all directed by P. Zadek). The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (1995) Hoess Her international film career began in 1968 played Betty Dullfeet. She has appeared in when she played the lead in The Lost Honour German film and television, working with Rainer of Katharina Blum (dirs. Volker Schlöndorff and Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Lars Margarethe von Trotta) and as Oscar’s mother Montag, and Andreas Dresen. In 2003 she in the Oscar-winning film The Tin Drum (dir. received the Austrian Nestroy actor’s prize for her Schlöndorff). performance as Anne in Thomas Bernhard’s play Over All the Mountain Tops. ULRICH BRANDHOFF, born in 1985 in Bad Frankenhausen, studied at the Max Reinhardt JÜRGEN HOLTZ, born in 1932 in Berlin, seminar in Vienna, where he played in different studied at the Theatre Institute in Weimar and productions including Peer Gynt, Richard III, and the Theatre School Leipzig in the GDR, where Hamletmachine. Before becoming a member of he worked at theaters in Erfurt, Brandenburg, the Berliner Ensemble in 2011, he won the “best and Greifswald. In 1964 he moved to Berlin actor in a leading role” award at an international and worked at Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg- theater school conference in Warsaw. He Square, and for almost 10 years at Deutsches appears as Eduard Schwarz in the Robert Wilson Theatre. In 1974 he first performed at Berliner production of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu. Ensemble in Strindberg’s Miss Julie, directed by Einar Schleef, and worked with Heiner Müller ANNA GRAENZER, born in 1981 in Wurzburg, in his play The Misson at Volksbühne. In 1983 Germany, studied at the University of Arts in he worked in the theater in Munich and then Berlin. Before becoming a member of Berliner worked in Frankfurt for many years. In 1993 Ensemble she played Marie in Georg Büchner’s he was awarded the Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring Woyzeck at Deutsches Theatre. At BE she prize for acting and was named actor of the debuted in Christa Wolf’s play Medea.Voice year for his one-man performance in Rainald (dir. Tanja Weidner), played Wendla in Spring Goetz’s Katarakt. Since 2000 he has been a Awakening by Frank Wedekind and Recha in member of Berliner Ensemble where he has Lessing’s Nathan the Wise (both directed by worked with George Tabori, Claus Peymann, Claus Peymann), and played Grusche in Brecht’s Thomas Langhoff, Peter Stein (Wallenstein, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (dir. Manfred Karge). 2007; Oedipus at Kolonos, 2010), and Robert Traute Hoess Photo by Lesley Leslie-Spinks Who’s Who

Wilson (The Threepenny Opera, 2007; and directors of Berliner Ensemble. From 1992 Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 2009). on, poet and playwright Heiner Müller worked at the theater as director and author until his STEFANIE STAPPENBECK, born 1974 in death in 1995. Since September 1999, Claus Potsdam, was discovered by a TV talent search Peymann has been artistic director of the Berliner at the age of 11 and at 18, performed at the Ensemble. Since then, the “BE” has again Deutsches Theater in Gerhart Hauptmann’s Der become one of Germany’s leading internationally Biberpelz directed by Thomas Langhoff. She renowned theater companies, uniting the finest also performed at the Maxim Gorki Theater, actors and directors such as Robert Wilson, Hamburger Kammerspiele, and the Berliner Peter Stein, Claus Peymann, Peter Zadek, Ensemble and was nominated twice as “talented George Tabori, Luc Bondy, Thomas Langhoff, young actor” by Theater Heute. She won the Boy Manfred Karge, Andrea Breth, and others. At Gobert Award in 2000. She also won several the heart of the Berliner Ensemble’s work today awards for Margarethe von Trottas’ movie Dunkle is contemporary theater, including German- Tage in 1998 and has appeared in more than 80 language debut performances of Elfriede Jelinek, television and movie productions. Peter Handke, and Botho Strauss, but also modern interpretation of classics. The repertoire AXEL WERNER, born in 1945, worked as a comprises more than 38 plays by German writers baker before studying at the Ernst Busch acting such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Max Frisch, school in Berlin. He worked at different theaters and Heinrich von Kleist, and of course a range of in the GDR before becoming a member of plays by Bertolt Brecht, including The Resistable Berliner Ensemble in 1989, where he has played Rise of Arturo Ui, Mother Courage and Her more than 65 parts over the years, including Children, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and many Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Lessing’s The Jews more. In 2010, more than 224,000 people (both directed by George Tabori), and Brecht’s attended the 640 shows of Berliner Ensemble, long-running plays Mother Courage and The making it the most frequented repertoire theater Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. With Robert Wilson in Berlin and all of Germany. The most recent he worked on Leonce and Lena, and since Brecht production, The Threepenny Opera, 2007 he has played Tiger Brown in Wilson’s staged by Robert Wilson, has been performed production of The Threepenny Opera. He has more than 150 times and is touring around the also appeared in German film and television. world. In 2011 Wilson produced Lulu, with music and songs by Lou Reed, for the BE. His BERLINER ENSEMBLE—THEATER AM productions of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (2009) SCHIFFBAUERDAMM with music by Rufus Wainwright and Leonce The Berliner Ensemble theater company was and Lena (2003) continue to run in the BE founded by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel repertoire. For more information and photos visit in 1949 and moved into its current venue, berliner-ensemble.de (in German). the historical Theatre at Schiffbauerdamm, in 1954. The theater itself (next to the former border crossing at the Friedrichstraße station) was built in 1892, and in 1928, Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, with the music of Kurt Weill, was performed there for the first time, marking the beginning of Bertolt Brecht’s world career. After Brecht and his wife, actress Helene Weigel, founded the company, Benno Besson, and Peter Palitzsch, and later Matthias Langhoff, Manfred Karge, Ruth Berghaus, and Einar Schleef were