"The Murder Ballad of Mack the Knife" from Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera. A startling array of vintage film footage from pre-World War II Germany underscores Daniel Belcher's 2018 performance of the restless, foreboding tune that recounts the gruesome crimes of the charming Macheath.

English Text:

BALLAD SINGER:
Oh, the shark’s teeth, you can see them always ready to attack;
but you won’t see Mackie’s knife-blade till you feel it in your back.

On a sunny Sunday morning there’s a dead man on the street
while a live one turns the corner: Mack the knife’s still on his feet.

Millionaires keep disappearing. Meyer Goldberg’s gone away.
Mack the knife spends Meyer’s gold now; how he got it we can’t say.

The police found Jenny Taylor with a knife-blade in her gut;
Mack the knife strolls by the harbor, says he never met the slut.

What about that fire in Soho? Seven kids died in the smoke.
Mack the knife stands in the crowd and laughs. No one asks him what’s the joke.

And that well-known teen-age widow, whose name the papers won’t reveal
she woke up and someone raped her. Mackie how’d that make you feel?

Featuring the Chamber Ensemble from the Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra.

For more information about the artists, visit https://blo.org/retro/.

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