ABSTRACT
The director, in staging a production of the Brecht/Weil opera, remembers best from the New York production 50 years earlier the (then) shocking appearance of the Messenger in the opera’s closing moments, when he came charging down the aisle, riding a palpably fake horse, with a paper-mâché head tied to the end of a broomstick, the sound of hooves two blocks of wood banged together. As he took the stage, the Messenger announced to everyone in the theatre that Macheath will not be executed, but has, instead, been given a “hereditary peerage,” a castle, and a “pension of ten thousand pounds.” Macheath cries out “Reprieved!”, and is echoed by Polly and the chorus. Actors in the present company described the announcement variously as “funny,” “not unexpected,” “absurd,” “ironic,” “logical in a bizarre sort of way given the world of Brecht and Weill,” and—most tellingly—“a sarcastic parody of the happy ending of all those saccharine musicals, even comic operas.” The pivotal line “Reprieved!” informed the concept for The Threepenny Opera: the casting, the bitter-sweet texture of the songs, the actors’ relation to the audience, the choreography, the costume, the set, the props, and, especially, the complex “mood” of the show.
