The Threepenny Project

The Threepenny Project
Type:
Music - General
Description:
- What's all this then?
Well, we're trying to get musicians, singers, amateurs and pros involved in a compilation of covers from the Threepenny Opera.

- The what?
The Threepenny Opera, you know "Mack The Knife" etc...

- No I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't even like opera.
You don't have to. In fact it's better if you don't. We want the covers to be as outlandish and individual as possible. Go mad, rework the songs. Do a punk cover or a techno rendition if you like.

- Sounds mad. I'm still not sure. So what is this Threepenny Opera?
It's a morality play that was originally written in the 1930s in pre-Nazi Germany by the philosopher/playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. During Hitler's regime they fled to the States where the show was translated into English and soon made it onto Broadway, spawning famous songs such as 'Pirate Jenny' and 'Mack The Knife', inspiring legends such as Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Tom Waits, Ella Fitzgerald and many others to do their own versions. Even the Doors did a cover of a Kurt Weill song - you know 'Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)'? That's one of his although it's not in this particular play.
The Threepenny Opera is introduced as a play "performed by beggars, for beggars and is so cheap that even a beggar could afford to put it on". It rejected previous notions of what theatre could be and went against the grain of the hoity-toitiness that had run through previous plays of the time. Taking influences from classical music, but just as much modern jazz, folk and popular music of the time, many found it irksome while others found it fascinating. The Nazis however hated it passionately.
You can find out more about the Threepenny Opera, Brecht and Weill and the synopsis at these links:
http://www.threepennyopera
.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
ki/The_Threepenny_Opera

- Right. Okay, but I don't know any of these songs.
Well get yourself online and download it, or do it the old fashioned way and go to the shops or the library and get a copy. You should also be able to look up the chords and lyrics online if you look.

- I'm still very confused. What's this in aid of?
It's in the aid of fun really. We want each band/artist to pick a song to cover and if everything goes to plan we could make a short-run CD compilation and possibly even perform it live somewhere.

- What songs are we talking about here?
Here is the setlist for the Threepenny Opera, taken from the original soundtrack:
1. Prologue (Spoken Word)
2. Overture (Instrumental)
3. Ballad Of Mack The Knife, The
4. Morning Anthem
5. Instead-Of-Song
6. Army Song
7. Wedding Song
8. Love Song
9. Ballad Of Dependency
10. World Is Mean, The
11. Melodrama / Polly's Song
12. Pirate Jenny
13. Tango-Ballad
14. Ballad Of The Easy Life
15. Barbara Song, The
16. Jealousy Duet
17. How To Survive
18. Useless Song
19. Solomon Song
20. Call From The Grave
21. Death Message
22. Finale: The Mounted Messenger

this never happened :-(