![]() With the understanding that the show’s star, criminal Macheath, was created to poke fun at a politician, his lack of good qualities becomes far less surprising. Heins Senior, John Theodore Robert Walpole (1676-1745), Earl of Orford Norwich Civic Portrait Collection It’s reasonably well known that The Threepenny Opera was adapted from John Gay’s 18th century musical The Beggar’s Opera, but it takes a little more work to discover that Macheath was conceived as a rather blatant caricature of the first Englishman to win the title of Prime Minister - Robert Walpole. ![]() The popular versions of Threepenny’s famous Mack the Knife tune, sung by Sinatra and his ilk, have lyrics that omit and soften many of his worst crimes, and with their upbeat, jazzy rhythms (a bit different from Brecht’s original) make Macheath sound like a pretty swell guy. Pabst’s 1931 film of The Threepenny Opera, I was very struck by what a wicked man Mack the Knife was and how there was so little attempt to give him any really favourable qualities. Today she is here to talk about her new book which has just been released – Slick Filth: A Story of Robert Walpole and Henry Giffard. ![]() Her article last time was about her then latest book – The Cut of the Clothes: A Story of Prinny and Beau Brummell. ![]() I am delighted to welcome back a guest who writes under the pen name of Erato. ![]()
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