Kurt Julian Weillwas a German composer, active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in Chicago, with Brecht, he developed productions such as his best-known work, the Threepenny Opera is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht and who, adapted from John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, "The Beggar's Opera" with Elisabeth Hauptmann.
 With Brecht, he developed productions such as his best-known work "The Threepenny Opera", which included the ballad "Mack the Knife". 
The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper ) is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann, adapted from John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, "The Beggar's Opera", with music by Kurt Weill and insertion ballads by Franois Villon and Rudyard Kipling. 
