Die Dreigroschenoper

Staff

... Conductor	F. Charles Adler
... Producer	Seymour Solomon

Cast

... Polly Peachum	Liane
... Lucy Brown	Anny Felbermayer
... Street Crier	Helge Roswaenge
... Gin Mill Jenny	Hedy Fassler
... Mr. Peachum	Alfred Jerger
... Mrs. Peachum	Rosette Anday
... Macheath	Kurt Preger
... Brown	Frederick Guthrie

The song list for this recording has been verified as complete.

Tracks

We have used the titles on the jacket of the original LP issue of this recording, including the misleading title "Duet in Canon, for Macheath and Brown," which was retained exactly that way for the CD issue. Some of the other titles were altered slightly for the CD issue. We do not know if any were altered for the LP reissue.

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This recording was issued on the Vanguard label in early 1956. All issues of this recording we have found credit the Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera on the cover, while on the back cover the orchestra credit is for the Chamber Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. These credits are probably misleading. The orchestra players were, in all likelihood, from the orchestra of the considerably less renowned Vienna Volksoper (Vienna Folk Opera), and presumably the chorus was the Volksoper chorus.

The circumstances that led to this misleading credit were explained in an article titled "The Westminster Recording Company — A Short History," written by Jerome F. Weber, which apeared in the Winter 1996 issue of the International Classical Record Collector magazine. (The magazine has since been renamed Classical Recordings Quarterly.) From the article:

"'In 1951 Westminster engaged Kurt List (1913-70) as a producer. This coincided with the end of the Vienna Symphony era on Westminster, which concluded with a final session under [Hermann] Scherchen, Prokofiev's Scythian Suite and Lieutenant Kijé Suite (WL5091), promoted as another example of 'high fidelity'. In September 1951, Scherchen's first Westminster recording with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra appeared in the shape of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony (WL5089; WLP5089, 1/54). This orchestra was not drawn from members of the Vienna Philharmonic who played at the Staatsoper, as was the case in many operatic recordings. Rather, it was made up of players from the Volksoper. Both houses were under a single management, so the credit was technically correct. Vanguard / Bach Guild also recorded regularly with the Volksoper orchestra under the VSOO name."

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This recording is missing two major numbers, "Polly's Lied" and "Die Ballade von der Sexualle Hörigkeit." Both numbers had been cut during rehearsals of the original Berlin production. "Polly's Lied" was cut from the first published libretto (and possibly from the first published score), while "Die Ballade von der Sexualle Hörigkeit" was included only in an appendix in the published score so the choice to not include those two numbers is understandable. 

The "Eifersuchtsduet" ("Jealousy Duet") was cut in half for the recording, and the opening choral section of the last finale was also cut. These two internal cuts may have been made so that the recording could be issued on one LP.

Nonetheless, when this was issued in 1955, it was by far the most comprehensive German-language recording of the score.