Threepenny Opera, The, is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the German composer Kurt Weill (see Weill, Kurt). The title is a translation of its German name Die Dreigroschenoper. Lyrics for the songs were written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann. Brecht based the words on a German translation of The Beggar's Opera (1728), a musical play by the English dramatist John Gay about criminals and corrupt public officials in London. Brecht also based some of his lyrics for The Threepenny Opera on poems by Rudyard Kipling of England and Francois Villon of France. The Threepenny Opera was first performed in Berlin on Aug. 31, 1928.