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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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Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 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 February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-BeggarsOperaThe.html |
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Beggar's Opera, The
Beggar's Opera, The. First and most popular of ballad operas. In 3 acts, arr. and adapted by Christoph Pepusch to a lib. by John Gay. Prod. London, Jan. 1728; NY Dec. 1750. Its 69 tunes are mostly derived from popular ballads of the day. The plot deals with London low life, the ‘hero’ being the highwayman Macheath and the heroine Polly, and is a satire on contemporary politics and on It. operatic conventions. 20th-cent. vogue dates from London revival at Lyric, Hammersmith, in version re-orchestrated and re-harmonized by Frederic Austin which ran from June 1920 for 1,463 perfs. Other versions by E. J. Dent (Birmingham 1944), Britten (Cambridge 1948), Bliss (film, 1953), Jeremy Barlow (1980), and Muldowney (1982). Milhaud's 3-act L'Opéra des gueux (1937) is an arr. of The Beggar's Opera. The Gay-Pepusch sequel Polly, dating from 1729, was banned by the Lord Chamberlain for nearly 50 years. See also Weill, Kurt.
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Cite this article
MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-BeggarsOperaThe.html MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Beggar's Opera, The." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-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. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-BeggarsOperaThe.html JOHN CANNON. "Beggar's Opera, The." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-BeggarsOperaThe.html |
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