L'opéra de quat'sous ・ Comédie-Française

"L’opéra de quat’sous" ("The Threepenny Opera") remains one the most famous and most frequently performed pieces in Germany.

Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill wrote this roaring review in 1928 with the intention of having actors perform it. It was immediately acclaimed. In London’s darkest suburbs, all the characters gravitate around the world of crime. Outlaw Macheath is busy hiding the existence of the many women he woos to one another. This opera parody’s core revolves around the songs; characters cynically imitate the audience’s bourgeois ways to shed light on their current moral confusion, comparable to that of our own era.
This new production prompted many first times: first ever collaboration between the Comédie-Française and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, where the show is scheduled to premiere on July 4, before the performances at the Salle Richelieu. This is also Thomas Ostermeier’s first time directing opera, while the production of this mythical piece is his third time working with the Troupe. The French translation is also brand new – the last one was fifty years old – and was specially ordered from Alexandre Pateau. To top it off, a never-released song, initially written for the French version of the opera but never performed, will be presented and conducted by Maxime Pascal, who went for the traditional way with a multi-piece orchestra. Thomas Ostermeier indicated that “the fashioning of the global aesthetics was inspired from the most interesting tendencies of the Russian theatre from 1917/1918; Meyerhold, Mayovsky, constructivism, Lizind’s work. A patchwork logic perfectly fitted to a polymorphic piece.

NEW PRODUCTION

Produced by
The Comédie-Française
The Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

This show premiered on July 4, 2023 at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

With the generous support of Aline Foriel-Destezet, great patron of the arts and sponsored by the Fondation pour la Comédie-Française.

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