Brecht, (Eugen) Bertolt (Friedrich) (1898-1956), German dramatist, producer, and poet. His interest in combining music and drama led to collaboration with Kurt Weill, for example in The Threepenny Opera (1928), an adaptation of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Brecht's later drama, written in exile after Hitler's rise to power, uses techniques of theatrical alienation and includes Mother Courage (1941) and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948)