The Beggar’s Opera is a three-act ballad opera written John Gay, an eighteenth-century poet and dramatist who had Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift among his friends. Swift may have inspired Gay to write The Beggar’s Opera. The ballad opera is a satirical genre of play performed actors rather than singers in which dialogue alternates with songs adapted from popular works and rewritten to fit the plot’s needs. You’ll get the idea if you’re familiar with the Capitol Steps and how they use well-known songs with new lyrics to create comedy and political satire.
The Beggar’s Opera is a groundbreaking work in the ballad opera genre. It includes 69 songs Henry Purcell, Georg Handel, and John Eccles, as well as popular songs and 28 English ballads, which is where its generic name comes from.
The Drury Lane Theatre declined to stage The Beggar’s Opera, which premiered in London on January 29, 1728, at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, under the direction of John Rich. For the rest of the eighteenth century, it was performed in every stage season, and it is still the most performed operatic work in English. Bertolt Brecht’s German adaptation Die Dreigroshchenoper, or The Threepenny Opera in English, with Kurt Weill’s music, is based on it. It also sparked a market for branded merchandise, which included everything from fans to decks of cards to figurines.
The Beggar’s Opera’s Introduction is the Beggar’s explanation of the opera to the Player. A fence named Peachum is going over his accounts and talking with his wife about the dangers of a ne’er-do-well named MacHeath in Act I of The Beggar’s Opera. They become concerned that their daughter will marry and reveal family secrets. When they confront their daughter, they discover that she has married MacHeath, who is currently hiding in her room. He swears fidelity as he walks away, and she believes him.
MacHeath and his gang visit a tavern in Act II and dance with the whores who have gathered there. They, in turn, alert Peachum, who arrives with a constable and arrests MacHeath. To regain his freedom, MacHeath is taken to Newgate Prison, where he tries to seduce the warden’s daughter. Polly, on the other hand, enters, thwarting his plan. Peachum walks in and whisks Polly away. Despite Polly’s protests, MacHeath tries again, and Lucy agrees to assist him.
The warden chastises his daughter for not profiting from MacHeath’s escape in Act III of The Beggar’s Opera. When MaHeath is brought in again, Peachum and Lockit plan to recapture MacHeath, while Lucy plans to poison Polly, but Polly drops the glass in surprise and dismay. Polly and Lucy, as well as other women, each with a child, come to say their goodbyes before MacHeath goes to trial. The Player and the Beggar resume their conversation, with the Beggar declaring that MacHeath will be hanged. The Player argues that this isn’t appropriate for the genre, as operas are supposed to be happy endings. The Beggar seizes the initiative and declares that the MacHeath must be granted a reprieve.