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Beggar's Opera, The
Beggar's Opera, The, a ballad opera by J. Gay, produced 1728.
The play arose out of Swift's suggestion that a Newgate pastoral ‘might make an odd pretty sort of thing’. The principal characters are Peachum, a receiver of stolen goods, who also makes a living by informing against his clients; his wife and his daughter Polly; Lockit, warder of Newgate, and his daughter Lucy; and Captain Macheath, a gallant highwayman. Polly falls in love with Macheath, who marries her. Peachum, infuriated by her folly, informs against Macheath who is sent to Newgate. There he makes a conquest of Lucy, who, in spite of her jealousy towards Polly, secures Macheath's release. The play, which combines burlesque of Italian opera and political satire (notably of Sir R. Walpole) with some of Gay's most brilliant songs and scenes of genuine pathos, was an unparalleled success, and is said to have brought Gay some £800. (It was said to have made Gay rich, and Rich—the producer—gay.) A Brecht-Weill version, The Threepenny Opera, was first performed in 1928. |
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BeggarsOperaThe.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BeggarsOperaThe.html |
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Beggar's Opera, The
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 Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister.
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Cite this article
JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-BeggarsOperaThe.html JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-BeggarsOperaThe.html |
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