Social Responsibility in The Threepenny Opera

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Brecht uses The Threepenny Opera to discuss the function of social responsibility in a community. His analysis of social roles falls under two key points. Brecht describes the communal circle as public in a daze, a state of unconsciousness, to help it overlook the despairs and sorrows of life and its operas (Brecht and Surkamp 342). The reason for establishing the state of stupor is to enable the provision of relief, described as anesthesia (Brecht and Suhrkamp 342).

Moreover, Brecht stresses community responsibility from the public by demanding it to oppose victimization and social inequality (Brecht and Suhrkamp 342). The goal of Brecht’s work is to eliminate public exploitation and capitalism. Weill and Brecht use satire to analyze the responsibility of Mack, the criminal who fell in love with Polly, the daughter of Peachum, who controls the fake beggars. In this case, Weill and Brecht utilize the Opera’s mockery song, showcasing the true picture of the society rather than rejoicing love (Auner 89). In essence, Brecht and Weill try to make the public understand the idea of not overlooking the surface value of society, but the social injustices.

Weill and Brecht accomplish social responsibility roles by likening The Threepenny Opera to Handelian opera seria. According to Weill, composition of songs does not countersign towards a melodramatic portrayal of characters in any broad-spectrum or considerable way, rather, through unfolding music on a large scale such as an autonomous structure (“The Threepenny Opera” 5). Weill argues that the accurate picture can only be seen in music, not by a protagonist “assuming attitudes” while singing, but through indicating the true emotions or characters depicted (“The Threepenny Opera” 5).

Furthermore, Weill claims that to accomplish this social responsibility role, one should deliberately make the association between lyrics and music ambiguous (“The Threepenny Opera” 5). Furthermore, Weill stipulates that the goal of using satire songs is to eradicate the limits between art music and music for use (“Modernism and Music” 121). Therefore, Brecht’s epic theatre version was designed to teach the society social responsibility and cultural norms rather than amuse, and it used particular stage instruments to bring the viewers into the isolation effect. This separation approach allows the listeners to behave on stage through strange or apparently coerced involvement, thus, highlighting the two phases of society: the responsible and the corrupt one.

Brecht exploited the distancing effect of focusing the viewer’s accomplishment, also referred to as the actual existence. He chose the separation influence rather than the usual norm of concentrating on the viewer’s responsiveness to the play’s authenticity; the eccentric, phony realm formed on a platform. Since The Threepenny Opera leaves the viewer with no moral or happy ends, people can think about the problems. Perhaps, The Threepenny Opera’s greatest irony is that the amalgamation of Brecht’s comical technique and Weill’s attractive folk songs considerably generated Brecht a great profit-making success.

Brecht and Weill functioned in the Weimar Republic, encouraging aspects as free speech and encouragement of social justice through the art of music, thus furthering the concept of promoting social responsibility. They claimed that the present art ought to be an objective of the social annotation and interpretations (Brecht and Surkamp 343). They believed that it was their duty and responsibility to comment about the social injustices of their community. Therefore, The Threepenny Opera is a socialist commentary of the capitalist world that is most evident in the text of the finale.

Works Cited

Auner, Joseph. “Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.” New Music Taking Flight, edited by Frisch Walter, W. W. Norton & Company, 2013, pp. 82-89.

Brecht, Bertolt, and Peter Suhrkamp. “Modernism and Music”. Music, Social Responsibility, and Politics, edited by Daniel Bright, U of Chicago P, 2004, pp. 341-348.

Frisch, Walter. Music in The Nineteenth Century. W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.

Weill, Kurt. “The Threepenny Opera.” Concert version of ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’, edited by Stephen Hinton, U of Chicago P, 2004, pp. 1-7.

—. “Modernism and Music.” The New Music Theater, edited by Daniel Albright, U of Chicago P, 2004, pp. 121-348.

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