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Kurt Weill’s Mack the Knife – not as jolly as you might think!
Mack the Knife comes originally from The Threepenny Opera, written by Bertolt Brecht to music by Kurt Weill and first performed in Berlin in 1928.
The piece was a damning critique of German society – its central character Mack is a serial killer and rapist, the brutal embodiment of corrupt power in a violent society.
Yet thanks to jolly musical arrangements like this one, the dark piece is today remembered mostly for its incredibly catchy tune.
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Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Orchestra | ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ National Orchestra of Wales |
Conductor | Otto Tausk |
This clip is from
Featured in...
Tunes for Tyrants - The Music
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Music presents longer extracts from some of the key performances from this series.
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