Die Dreigroschenoper

Die Dreigroschenoper is about the devious gangster Macheath (Mackie Messer), who marries the daughter of the beggar king, Polly Peachum. Father Peachum tries to get Macheath sentenced to death to maintain his power. Betrayal, corruption and bribery show how this (under)world works. The opera begins with the world-famous Die Moritat von Mackie Messer and ends with a cynical deus ex machina, or unexpected denouement.

Kurt Weill's iconic music explores the boundaries of musical theater. In Die Dreigroschenoper, classical music, cabaret, jazz and chanson merge into a timeless and unique experience. 'Weill composes in a style of music that cannot be captured; it can rightly be called a connecting work of art,' said Limburg-based and internationally renowned conductor Enrico Delamboye.

Die Dreigroschenoper excites and confronts in a dynamic, high-artistic manner. 'The music sounds - in a positive sense - unpolished, a bit raw and sometimes almost attacking. Moreover, the connection of text and music has a very strong theatrical effect. As in the famous Mackie Messer: the sounds seduce, while the textual content sobers. That, and all those different styles requires a very high degree of artistry, from all of us,' says Delamboye. says Delamboye.

Opera Zuid has chosen Servé Hermans as its director of Die Dreigroschenoper. As artistic director of Toneelgroep Maastricht, he created and directed numerous successful plays. He also directed the spectacle musicals Dagboek van een herdershond and Het was Zondag in het Zuiden. With Die Dreigroschenoper he makes his debut as an opera director. "I find it interesting that it is such a social and topical piece. In Die Dreigroschenoper, power lies with a few people, in a society where the vast majority are destitute. Mirror that to the era in which we live. The opera, according to Servé Hermans, shows "its own autonomous world - recognizable, but not an environment in which the theater audience moves every day. The absurd, ironic situations hold up a mirror to us. How does Mackie's world relate to our own society? And who are we really laughing at?

Die Dreigroschenoper is a co-production of Opera Zuid, Theater aan het Vrijthof, Toneelgroep Maastricht, Philzuid and PLT Theaters. Die Dreigroschenoper is a play with music in a prologue and eight scenes based on The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, by Bertolt Brecht (text) and Kurt Weill (music) in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann.

• With free introduction at 19.15