The Beggar's Opera

by John Gay, Bryan Loughrey (Editor), Bryan Loughrey (Introduction), T.O. Treadwell (Introduction)

Overview

The tale of Peachum, thief-taker and informer, conspiring to send the dashing and promiscuous highwayman Macheath to the gallows, became the theatrical sensation of the eighteenth century.

In THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, John Gay turned conventions of Italian opera riotously upside-down, instead using traditional popular ballads and street tunes, while also indulging in political satire at the expense of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Gay's highly original depiction of the thieves, informers, prostitutes and highwaymen thronging the slums and prisons of the corrupt London underworld proved brilliantly successful in exposing the dark side of a corrupt and jaded society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141920399
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	07/31/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	969,939
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Born in 1685, John Gay's first major success was THE SHEPHERD'S WEEK. It was followed by a number of other works, the most enduring of which is THE BEGGAR'S OPERA. Gay died in 1732, and is remembered as a popular and genial man whose self-penned epitaph reads 'Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought it once, and now I know it'. Loughrey and Treadwell worked together at Roehampton Institute and have both published in scholarly journals.

Editorial Reviews

...with Ilona Sekacz's complete musical overhaul, [Caird] raises the dramatic fever of the score to match Gay's wonderfully savage and scabrous script.

Observer (London)

Fresh as milk, horny as hell, a dream, a nightmare, a cross-section of an ant hill, John Gay's BEGGAR'S OPERA is like life. It is beautiful, it is there, and it goes on. And, in John Caird's sensationally seductive production you never want it to end...Here's variety before the word was invented.

Midweek Magazine

THE BEGGAR'S OPERA...is obviously full of zest and fascination...There is so much life and vigour in the whole thing...It was absolutely spell-binding...

Oxford Magazine

Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs.” —Plays International

From the Publisher

Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs.

Plays International