Mack the Knife, charming criminal, navigates London's underworld in this bitter musical satire on capitalism, adapted from The Beggar's Opera. Kurt Weill's music is jaunty and menacing; Brecht's lyrics are cynical beyond cynicism. First you eat, then comes morality: the line summarizes his view of human motivation. The opera premiered in Berlin in 1928 and was a sensation; Brecht and Weill fled the Nazis five years later. Mack escapes the gallows through a pardon that mocks justice itself. The shark has pretty teeth, dear, and he shows them pearly white.