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List Price: $11.98 | | Label: Polygram Records
Salesrank: 151176
Released: October 25, 1990 |
| Our Price: $79.79 |
| Used Price: $5.97 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera Original Cast Album Track Listing:
1. Prologue - Gerald H. Price
2. Overture - Threepenny Opera Orchestra
3. Ballad of Mac the Knife - Gerald H. Price
4. Morning Anthem - Martin Wolfson
5. Instead-Of-Song - Charlotte Rae, Martin Wolfson
6. Army Song - John Astin, , , Paul Dooley, ,
7. Wedding Song - John Astin, , , Paul Dooley
8. Love Song - Jo Sullivan
9. Ballad of Dependency - Charlotte Rae
10. World Is Mean - Charlotte Rae, Jo Sullivan, Martin Wolfson
11. Melodrama and Polly's Song - Jo Sullivan
12. Pirate Jenny - Lotte Lenya
13. Tango Ballad - Lotte Lenya,
14. Ballad of the Easy Life
15. Barbara Song - Bea Arthur
16. Jealousy Duet - Bea Arthur, Jo Sullivan
17. How to Survive - Charlotte Rae
18. Useless Song - Martin Wolfson
19. Solomon Song - Lotte Lenya
20. Call from the Grave
21. Death Message
22. Finale: The Mounted Messanger - William Duell
23. Ballad of Mac the Knife [*] - Marc Blitzstein, Lotte Lenya
Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera Original Cast Album Reviews:
Historical document inexcusably mangled by rogue producer 
2009-05-16 - Once again, CD producer Brian Drutman has remastered and reissued an all-time classic theater recording with a carelessness and indifference to spacing the tracks that borders on professional malpractice. There should be at least 5-6 seconds between the end of each song and the beginning of the next. Not so in a Brian Drutman reissue. Mr. Drutman and his engineers (usually Chris Roberts) leave no more than 1-2 seconds from the end of one song to the beginning of the next on this extraordinary recording; sometimes the next track begins instantaneously. What was he thinking? Is this some kind of contemporary pop music DJ sensibility misapplied to an original cast theater recording? Whatever the reason, it is nothing but artistically irresponsible to not allow the listener a moment's pause to absorb such mighty coups de theatre as Lenya's "Pirate Jenny" before racing into the next cue. Vandalism! Fie, fie, fie. It's utterly disgraceful. Drutman and his cronies do much the same on their other Decca reissues of classic original cast recordings, but there they usually insert 3-4 seconds between tracks (not enough) instead of 1-2. This one is their worst. Butchery. Write a letter to Decca, theater lovers. And they price their hackwork at $18.99 no less!
excellent glimpse of the past 
2008-09-11 - This was a brilliant indiction of how the Threepenny Opera sounded off Broadway. The orchestrational sounds were clear and gave true atmosphere.Accompanying booklet gave excellent history of piece plus recording information. Used for 3rd year music undergraduate presentation.
Set the stage for the entire VIetnam protest era!
2007-12-17 - I happen to think this is a grand performance and the Blitzstein lyrics right on target, but forget all that for a moment and consider this:
This Theater de Lys program captivated a young and very hip New York City audience for three significant years---from 1954 to '57. There are two basic elements here that I find terribly important.
First, the essentially hostile attitude of the performers toward their public. When I saw it I recall the musicians coming out and actually thumbing their noses at the audience. Hey Mick Jagger, were you there by any chance? I assumed this was part of the atmosphere of the first production in Berlin back in the pre-Nazi Weimar days. But why was that relevant to New Yorkers in the "silent generation" 1950s?
Secondly, there is the basic concept around which the entire work is constructed---The poor, the hopeless, the great unwashed, taking to the streets in all their wretchedness to confront and seek to embarass and humiliate the establishment (read U.S. federal government instead of British Royalty). And of course the goal is to make it coincide with an important establishment politicaal event: Coronation Day.
Does anyone still remember the opening of the New York World's Fair in the mid-sixties? THe reverend Al Sharpton's threats of violence in the streets meant almost no one turned out to see or hear Lyndon Johnson's appearance at the World's Fair site.
Given the time frame, this version of the Threepenny Opera was more than prescient. It helpled create the methodology for the anti-war and pro-civil rights demos that followed just a few years later. Quite an achievement for an off broadway version of a 30 year old German musical comedy!
Hollywood showbiz 
2007-12-07 - Don't be fooled by the featuring of Lotte Lenya great though her Pirate Jenny may be. This is a sanitised showbiz version of Brecht which fails entirely as satire or political comment.
Worth much more than Threepenny
2007-05-08 - This production showcased the brilliance of Mr. Brecht, Miss Lenya, and Mr. Blitzstein. It also perfectly captured a slice of 1954 that was not well known-something dark, dramatic, humanistic and thoughtful. I remember my parents coming home after seeing this production, totally entranced. They immediately bought this album, and I wore it out over the years-thank goodness for CDs!
