Customer Reviews

The Beggar's Opera

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I was particularly interested in seeing this opera since it started in a new epoch in the development of English musical theater, drawing a line under the age of triumphal procession of Italian opera, represented at that time in London, in 1728, by George Frederich Handel. The Beggar's opera was directed against politicians such as Robert Walpole, and also against the kind of Italian opera seria represented by Handel. Having read so much about this critical piece, it was necessary to see and hear it myself.

The result exceeded all expectations. First of all, it has a tremendously witty text, written by the English poet and dramatist John Gay (1685-1732). At almost every turn, in every line there is a joke, mocking idealism, societal hypocrisy, corruption in all its forms, naiveté, love, gender stereotypes and on and on. The text in its wittiness reminds of Oscar Wilde sharp tongue, and explains why this opus has become so sweeping famous, causing hoots of laughter by every phrase. In addition to the smarts of the text, it is also well-rhymed, which adds to the `ballad" idea of this opera.

The music is a compilation of tunes drawn from every imaginable source - contemporary opera, ballads, Irish trot, Irish howl, and folk songs - and arranged so as to form a whole connected by the dialog. The arranger and collector of the music, John Christopher Pepusch, included some "serious" music as well, provided only that every music piece was tuneful and popular. The trick that made it so incredibly hilarious was to parody well-known pieces from the noble and sublime - In Act II, Scene II Pepusch uses crusader's march from Handel's opera Rinaldo - only instead of heroic crusaders marching, here a gang of thieves singing their song "Let us take the road" on that music; the whole scene must have created a tremendously funny caricature on Handel's operatic grandeur. In Scene IV there is Lillibulero by Henry Purcell used, and Scene XIII ends with "Green sleeves" tune; and the whole opera is sewn as such; its contemporaries surely found its parodies extremely funny.

One notices immediately how this Beggar's Opera inspired modern creations, such as "Aufstieg Und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill; the theme of a man betrayed by whores bears an unmistakable resemblance in Act II, Scene V "I seize you, Sir, as my prisoner". Naturally, another creation of the same team - "Die Dreigroschenoper" is rather an adaptation two hundred years later of the same text. Generally, in all these three operas, the theme of the extreme importance of money in Western society is striking to someone who was not born into such culture.

I love the mise-en-scene here, drawn as from pictures of William Hogarth with his series ""Marriage à-la-mode" - every detail is carefully reproduced, including black syphilitic spots on just about everyone, excluding Polly and Lucy, perhaps signifying their innocence and faithfulness to the libertine Captain Macheath, and Peachums, who are not infected since they only profit from the decline in mores, while knowing how to protect themselves.

Also I was happy to finally see the famous scene of fighting between Polly and Lucy (Act II, Scene XIII "Where is my dear husband?") - a parody of the notorious fight on stage between two rival opera divas of that time in London - Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni; the fight happened during the performance of Giovanni Bononcini's opera "Astianatte", and it was a talk of the town for a long time. The audience must have had enormous fun seeing this caricature in the Beggar's Opera. But for Handel and Italian Opera in London this added to the emerging trouble.

The success of The Beggar's Opera was a serious blow to the prestige and financial standing of the Italian opera, at whose head was Handel. For him, it truly had serious consequences and a longer term effect that Handel could realize or was willing to concede. In particular he seems not to have noticed the change of taste that had taken place in the a large number of the leading intellectual and societal figures. He looked around for a new ally for his new opera plans and found one in Heidegger. The two men founded, in the ruins of as it were of the Royal Academy of Music, a new opera company financed by their own capital. All the leading, crowd-pulling singers had abandoned the sinking ship of the Academy and had already left England. Handel traveled to Europe to call them back, but without success - Cuzzoni had refused to go back to London, Bordoni in the meantime had married the composer Johann Adolf Hasse, and Senesino demanded unacceptable terms. Handel had finally gathered a new team of singers, and a new period in his art began, with premier of new operas - Lotario in 1729, Partenope, Poro, Ezio and finally his masterpiece opera Orlando in 1733. Yet this time new challenges were present for Handel, such as Opera of the Nobility with Nicola Porpora as composer and musical director there.

In the meantime, the triumph of The Beggar's Opera was such that the objects of its political satire were seriously worried at the effect it made, and the sequel, Polly (1729), was in fact banned and did not reach the stage until 1777.

The whole piece is incredibly entertaining, and keeps the viewer at the edge at all times. Of course, it contrasts so sharply with the utmost seriousness of Handel's operas, which are also quite musically demanding on the listener. The Beggar's Opera is pure entertainment, and perhaps the first version of the future Broadway Musicals, appealing to masses and an common taste. One does not need to be educated about antiquity and music to understand and enjoy this piece; it is simple but not yet primitive, as our contemporary versions of the same have become. It is really a pleasure to see it today, too. This production is a marvelous staging of the masterpiece of musical satire.

I highly recommend this performance for the same reasons - artistic and historically significant musically.

In addition to being of historic interest (it was written by John Gay in 1728 in reaction to the popularity of Italian operas portraying nobility -- read the Wikipedia article [...] on it) it is a well-done entertaining piece of theater. I've watched this often over several years: I previously had a copy I got from England but my current DVD payer doesn't do non-region 1 DVDs, and my English copy finally died.

Don't expect to understand a word of either the songs or the dialogue, unless you have some expertise in comprehending an assortment of inarticulate low-life dialects, enduring assorted varieties of mumbling, and catching lines made inaudible by background music. This film would benefit from having subtitles posted, in John Gay's English.

So much about the film is lovely--the settings, the costumes, the music (both vocal and orchestral). The satire would be superb as well, if the actors weren't so concerned with clowning and calling attention to themselves.

The production overwhelms the viewer with its attempts to capture the "realism" of the bar and the brothel, and the cast seems to believe that the spectators won't get the jokes if they are presented with any subtlety.

This is an ill conceived effort from just about every standpoint. The Beggar's Opera ought to be more fun and more intelligible than this effort. At every turn the producers, conductor, and director have made hash out of it.

The opera was written for actors, not professional singers. I have no problem hearing a performance with decent
singing actors; I also have no problem with hearing the work sung with trained operatic voices. But Mr. Gardiner
has made the schizophrenic mistake of combining both styles. Peachum sings his opening tune with not much of a voice, but decent enough for an actor. Than his wife arrives and in her songs proceeds to sound as if she stepped out of an English oratorio. The point is, for consistency's sake, stick to one or the other. Ridiculous to have Polly singing operatically and Macheath sounding like a pop singer. Additionally, those characters that do sing operatically have not been matched well with the speaking voices of the actors. Whereas Peachum sounds like one person, it is obvious that Mrs. Peachum is being performed by two people. It simply doesn't work and you have to wonder if the artistic staff of this production had ears!!!

The stage director must be blamed for the poor diction and general bad delivery of the lines. I'm not sure many Brits could follow the variety of dialects; for an American, it is well nigh impossible. In addition, a good many of the actors mumble or undertone their lines, so you can't hear them well to begin with. Add to that, the director's allowing other actors to talk in the background (especially in the tavern scene) and the audience is left with no chance of following what is going on.

Frankly, the staging is dull and so is the production. The sound editor of the DVD (or original video) is incompetent. To hear the dialogue properly, you have to turn up the volume. Then a song comes along and blasts you
out your seat.

I'm not sure how much editing of the script was done, but it could have used more. The story is hard to follow
because of the combination of the wordiness of the text itself and the bad diction and sound editing.

Finally, an insurmountable problem for me was Mr. Daltry's Macheath; he reads his lines poorly, acts poorly, and sings poorly. I can't think of a single reason why any of the ladies would be attracted to him. Completely miscast!

The only sure thing I can praise is the orchestral contribution, which is lovely. Otherwise, a complete waste of time.