Below is probably my favorite song from Threepenny Opera, "Pirate Jenny" - a song sung by a barmaid who fantasizes about getting the power to lay waste to the men and women who underestimate her. It's a song I love hearing at auditions, actually.
Here's probably the most famous rendition performed by Lotte Lenya, composer Kurt Weill's widow and a favorite actress/collaborator with Brecht. She's a hell of a performer.
I think Lenya's performance gets at what Donovan was having trouble with - the whole "laugh when the characters weep, cry when they laugh" angle. Lenya's Jenny is clearly taking glee in her murder fantasy - smiling as she imagines murdering and laying waste to the town. By the end, though, Lenya skillfully takes you out of that joy of watching someone sing a song in a musical - it's chilling and disturbing, to me at least, when she smiles like a saint and wishes herself away.
Here's another piece from Threepenny Opera, "The Pimp's Tango" (here performed by Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper at the 2006 Tony Awards). Note that the song is a lovely, sexy number about a man who forced his girlfriend into prostitution to support him, then forced her to get an abortion.
How are we supposed to respond to this? On one level, it's a memory piece - but what they remember is pretty horrifying, although the nostalgia in the song takes it and complicates it.
Here are two performances of The Threepenny Opera's "The Army Song" or "Kanonensong" for you to hear:
This is in English. Listen to the lyrics.
Here it is in German. Note that the orchestration is weirder (it was Americanized so it could play to American audiences when the show was brought to America). Also, note how the lyrics work in German, I don't assume you speak German, but you can hear the rhythm and ways that it better interrelates with the music.
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Other clips I've found that might be helpful follow.
The above is a clip from the BBC documentary "Brecht and Epic Theatre," and contains the weep/laugh quote.
This is clip number 1 of a 3 part BBC documentary on Brechtian theatre. Watching all three might be really helpful.
