Who's his friend, Low-Dive Jenny?

If I remember right, I think I'd meant for it to be Polly Peachum, but it very well could be Low-Dive Jenny. Which-ever, I'm not picky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QQBoO8VrjA

Nanu...!

There's a recording of Max Raabe singing this that I'd like to offer up, but, I can't find it anywhere online..

That's my favourite opera in the world; I even have a vinyl pressing of it from 1966! Though generally I prefer listening to the English NYSF Revival version.
♫And Macheath has got a knife, but not in such an obvious place. ♩
Heh, I can imagine this being the Ballad of Immoral Earnings, where they reminisce of their time together~ ♬ But what would I not give to see that whore house where we used to live? ♪

It is a pretty great bit of theater, and while I have two recordings of it (1988 Berlin RIAS ensemble, with Uta Lemper as Polly Peachum, and another from 1990 that I got solely because I'm in love with Max Raabe, who they have singing Mackie), and have seen it live at least once, I'm not nearly as familiar with it as I should be. Alas!

I think I drew this after seeing the 1931 G. W. Pabst film adaptation, which is pretty great in its own right. It certainly gets the 'feel' right for me, it has Lotte Lenya as Jenny, and Weill did the music, so I suppose that means the liberties they took are alright.

Oh yeah, Max Raabe is gorgeous! Seeing as I thought it was an opera I think you know it way better than me, and I once recorded the tango (the Ballad of Immoral Earnings). I'm going to go ahead and watch the film as soon as I can get my hands on it!

Oh, I think they (whoever they are) consider Threepenny Opera an opera, like they do with Beggar's Opera, or uh, some other ballad opera that I'm sure someone's written and that they consider important, so no worries there :)

I don't know opera very well at all, and it's all a muddle to me. Is operetta the same thing as a comic opera? Does it come down to the number of acts? If opera must be sung in it's entirety, why is The Magic Flute considered an opera? Or Purcell's King Arthur, of that matter? Does it matter?

I just like some music, and not others, and I'm okay with that :)

I do recommend the film, though. They mix some things up plot wise, if I remember right, but it's well done. Worth seeing!

They are the academics, the great categorizers. Of course, nothing is black and white so many works jump from category to category. Operettas and comic operas are pretty much the same thing, basically characterized by gentler, happier music an stories than opera seria (literally a serious opera), usually they're shorter as well but not necessarily. The Magic Flute is indeed an opera and so is any opera by Purcell, but in the Baroque period the form was in its infancy so it can't be categorized in the same way as more 'recent' operas. As for it mattering or not, I guess it doesn't, but like all language it allows some form of organization and communicability to things that would otherwise stay silent or unclear.

I got a copy! I'll be watching it as soon as I have a block of a couple of hours completely free. A musician's life is hectic, haha!