Lotte Lenya and Wilhelm Bruckner-Rüggeberg's 1958 recording of Die Dreigroschenoper (The Three Penny Opera) was the last in a series of albums Lenya made or supervised of her late husband Kurt Weill's music for Philips starting in 1955.

By the time of the January 1958 sessions for Die Dreigroschenoper, Lenya found herself widowed once again; second husband George Davis collapsed and died of a heart attack three months before the session, just like her first husband.

That Lenya was able to pull up herself up by her bootstraps and participate in this recording was nothing short of a miracle, though in terms of performing in the role of Jenny, Lenya was the ultimate pro; she knew it in three languages and, in the end, sang it more than 2,000 times.

The 1958 Die Dreigroschenoper was the first complete recording of this work, and likewise the first to represent Weill's score and instrumentation exactly as it is on the page; seeing to it that this occurred without compromise was one of Lenya's duties in the session.