Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, August 31, 1928 (Conductor: Theo Mackeben) |
|---|---|---|
| Macheath ("Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife"), London's greatest and most notorious criminal | tenor/baritone | Harald Paulsen |
| Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, The "Beggar's Friend". Controller of all the beggars in London, he conspires to have Mack hanged | baritone | Erich Ponto |
| Celia Peachum – Peachum's wife, who helps him run the business | mezzo-soprano | Rosa Valetti |
| Polly Peachum – The Peachums' daughter. After knowing Mack for only five days, she agrees to marry him | soprano | Roma Bahn |
| Jackie "Tiger" Brown – Police Chief of London and Mack's best friend from their army days | baritone | Kurt Gerron |
| Lucy Brown – Tiger Brown's daughter. Also claims to be married to Mack | soprano | Kate Kühl |
| Jenny ("Ginny Jenny" or "Low-Dive Jenny"), A prostitute who was romantically involved with Macheath in the past. She is bribed to turn Mack in to the police. | mezzo-soprano | Lotte Lenya |
| Filch – The misfit young man who approaches the Peachums in hopes of beggar-training. | tenor | Naphtali Lehrmann |
| The Street Singer – sings 'The Ballad of Mack the Knife' in the opening scene. | baritone | Kurt Gerron |
| Smith – a constable | baritone | Ernst Busch |
| Walter | tenor | Ernst Rotmund |
| Matthias | tenor | Karl Hannemann |
| Jakob | tenor | Manfred Fürst |
| Jimmie | tenor | Werner Maschmeyer |
| Ede | tenor | Albert Venohr |
| Beggars, gangsters, whores, constables | ||
Read more about this topic: The Threepenny Opera
Famous quotes containing the word roles:
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—Ellen Lewis (20th century)
“Productive collaborations between family and school, therefore, will demand that parents and teachers recognize the critical importance of each other’s participation in the life of the child. This mutuality of knowledge, understanding, and empathy comes not only with a recognition of the child as the central purpose for the collaboration but also with a recognition of the need to maintain roles and relationships with children that are comprehensive, dynamic, and differentiated.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“It was always the work that was the gyroscope in my life. I don’t know who could have lived with me. As an architect you’re absolutely devoured. A woman’s cast in a lot of roles and a man isn’t. I couldn’t be an architect and be a wife and mother.”
—Eleanore Kendall Pettersen (b. 1916)