Ever since its first production took Berlin by storm in 1928, Die Dreigroschenoper has been widely seen as one of the most important music-theatrical works of the twentieth-century as well as an icon of Weimar culture. Still, through seventy-two years and literally thousands of productions, the work had never been available in an authoritative edition. The new edition reconciles the many confusions of detail in the three key sources that emerged from that famed original 1928 production: Weill’s manuscript, the published libretto, and the published piano-vocal score. But the editors went far beyond those three items to consult several dozen other documents, from the original, hand-written instrumental parts to Weill’s correspondence with his publisher Universal Edition, to contemporaneous press reviews and recordings.

The result is a corrected, self-consistent version true to the historical state of the work that first so electrified its audiences. The edition presents not just the musical text but the complete dialogue and stage instructions in their proper sequence as well. Included are many features never before published. For instance, the original production included six pieces of instrumental stage music based upon a few of the work’s most popular songs. The editors were able to reconstruct five of these from the instrumental parts and have included them in a special appendix. Another appendix offers additional strophes that could be used by performers as alternatives or supplements to four of the songs in the main text.

The new edition is co-edited by Stephen Hinton, one of the pre-eminent Weill scholars active in the world today, and Edward Harsh, the first Managing Editor of the Kurt Weill Edition.