Mack the Knife

"Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928.

Crimes of Macheath

The song attributes many crimes to Macheath:

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• a dead man on the Strand
• a rich man, Schmul Meier, disappeared for good
• Jenny Towler, killed with a knife in the chest
• Seven children and an old man killed in an arson fire
• Rape of a child widow (minderjährige Witwe) in her bed

The arson and rape were omitted from the Blitzstein version.

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