Beggar's Opera, The

The Oxford Companion to British History | 2002 | 700+ words | Copyright

Beggar's Opera, The. John Gay's ballad opera began its record-breaking run at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 29 January 1728. A satire on Italian opera set in Newgate prison and making use of folk-tunes and popular songs, the ubiquitous references to statesmen, politicians, and ‘great men’ were interpreted as reflections on the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister, who, through the characters of Macheath and Peachum, was likened both to a highwayman and to the thief-taker and racketeer Jonathan Wild. Although the sequel, Polly, was suppressed, Bertolt Brecht subsequently extended the range of Gay's satire in Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) to indict the capitalist system tout court.

J. A. Downie

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-BeggarsOperaThe.html

JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-BeggarsOperaThe.html

Learn more about citation styles