This week, two operas: Kurt Weill's satirical "opera for beggars," The Threepenny Opera, and Leoncavallo's dramatic sad-clown tale, Pagliacci.
Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera
Max Raabe: Macheath (Mack the Knife)
HK Gruber: Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum
Nina Hagen: Celia Peachum
Sona MacDonald: Polly Peachum
Hannes Hellmann: Brown
Winnie Böwe: Lucy
Timna Brauer: Jenny
Jürgen Holtz: Narrator
Ensemble Modern
HK Gruber, conductor
Synopsis (via the Kurt Weill Foundation)
Ruggiero Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Plácido Domingo: Canio
Montserrat Caballé: Neda
Sherrill Milnes: Tonio
Barry McDaniel: Silvio
Leo Goeke: Peppe
Brian Etheridge/Peter Hall: Two Villagers
The London Symphony Orchestra / The John Alldis Choir
Nello Santi, conductor