a beggars opera

One and Brecht's unique style made his adaptation, with the help of Weill's musical score, one of the most popular plays in the world. He turned the Swashbuckler "Macheath" into an anti-hero, a common criminal and product of the time, but still seemed to arouse the audiences' pity. From Moscow and Berlin to New York, this play has stood the durability of time and has influenced many, either positively or negatively. And from it's meager start, the play as made Macheath the star of hit records and fast-food commercials. Macheath was birthed in The Beggar's Opera by John Gay (June 30, 1685-December 23, 1732). Gay was an English playwright and poet who lived in the eighteenth century and gained fame as a satirist on the contemporary society. A friend of famous writers as Johnathan Swift and Alexander Pope, who usually outshine Gay in the history books, but three of the most popular works of the period: The Fables, which have been printed in over 350 editions; Trivia, which went into five editions in the poets lifetime and is sometimes regarded as the best poem about London life ever written; and of coarse The Beggar's Opera, probably the century's most beloved play, are Gay's most famous works. The opera was conceived in a letter that Swift wrote to Pope on August 30, 1716. The letter asks, "...what think you, of a Newgate pastoral among the thieves and whores there?" Pope suggested to hand the idea to Gay, but make it a comedy; A comedy by a beggar. The Beggar's Opera has a partial setting in Newgate Prison. This may also be a result of the stories a young Gay heard about his Aunt Martha, who in a failed economic gamble spent about three years in that location. As a boy he and his friends used to hang around the sailors in town to hear stories. In 1694 Gay's mother and father died within months of each other, and so he was given to his uncle Thomas. It is at this time that he grew a huge interest in literature that interfered with and caused him to lose his apprenticeship. He began to write plays, but his first success didn't come until late 1714 with The What D'ye Call It. It was replayed almost every season until 1750. The play was a parody of the popular tragedies of the time, but it was so subtle that the audience took the work seriously and in some cases weeping occurred. But the most significant part of this play was the ballad that he wrote to music by Handel. Being reprinted for years, the ballad had success on it's own. It is this ballad that began Gay's fame as a lyricist and predicts the songs that were to appear in his Beggar's Opera. After a few years writing plays for the royal court, he completed The Beggar's Opera and it opened on January 29, 1728. The basis for this opera is that the thieves and other low-lives that inhabit Newgate prison are the same as to be found in the government. The play was a theatrical success and became the most popular play of that century. It's first season had an unprecedented run of sixty-two nights (it appears that Pope was wrong when he counted sixty-three) and became the English stage's first hit. It had a near continuous run from the year 1728 through 1886. This ballad opera was the first of it's kind to be produced in England and has caused such a fad that it's influence can still be seen today in almost all musical comedy. Deeper than it's music, which can stand on it's own, the play is a harsh satire that daringly strikes against class distinction and members of the royal court. Gay's sly move of inverting the classes was the key to his genius. The harlots, burglars, and cutthroats are more important than the national governors. These low-lives have the manners of proper English lords and ladies, and gain power in much the same ways, proving that human nature is a constant through out the world. It also pokes fun at the judicial system of the period. There was a high crime rate at that time in English history. The death penalty was handed out for the theft of pennies from a person, but acts of murder and arson were mere misdemeanors. The lead character of The Beggar's Opera is the swashbuckler called Macheath. He is a smooth romantic with qualities of both a gentleman and a highwayman. He is the love of the whores. Macheath takes the hand in marriage of Lucy and Polly and in the end "four wives more" claim him. He says "I must have women" since "I love the sex". A paradox of a character that speaks King's English and dresses well, but prefers to live in the faith and company of cutthroats. He is polite to the people he mugs and steers away from violence. Even though he cheats on the adorable Polly, the audience call still believe his love for her is true. The actor who played Macheath was supposed to be James Quinn, but he suffered from an inability to sing, so Thomas Walker took the part. Walker became the hero of the London youth and was honored in various taverns and other amusement places. A short non-descript synopsis of the play will find a simple narrative that connects the massive forty-five scenes that the play contains. The opening prologue is a dialogue between The Player and The Beggar, who is posing as the play's author. They make humor of the Italian opera, especially the conflict of two diva's of that period. The first scene takes place in Peachum's establishment. Peachum sings a hymn about the dishonesty of everyone. Peachum is alarmed at the marriage between his daughter Polly and Macheath. His objection is for purely business reasons, for Peachum is a "fence" of stolen goods who occasionally informs on his patrons for the reward. He fears both the loss of Polly from his business, who he related to a pretty bartender bringing in money from drunkards, and of Macheath's learning of any business secrets. Act II has Macheath and his men outside Newgate. He states his problem with Peachum, but when his gang want to do Peachum in Macheath explains how he is a necessary evil and that "Business cannot go on without him". Macheath's goal is to trick Peachum into believing he has left the gang, but when he assembles eight ladies for a party the ladies call the constable and have him arrested. In jail he bribes Lockit, the jailer, for looser chains. Macheath however, is a lover of Lucy Lockit, the daughter of the jailer. He promises her marriage in turn for his excape and she agrees. The plan is almost thrown off track when Polly goes to the jail looking for Macheath, but he successfully tricks Lucy again and he excapes at the end of the Act. The Third Act begins with Lockit discovering his daughter's part in Macheath's excape. He and Peachum find Macheath's hiding place and go to re-capture him. As Macheath is brought back into custody, both Lucy and Polly beg their father for his life, but to no avail. Macheath is led off to Old Bailey for a trial. In prison Macheath drinks wine and sings portions of nine songs. Two of his gang come to pay respects and he instructs them to have Peachum and Locked hanged. When Polly and Lucy come to visit he tells them to travel to the West Indies and have "a husband apiece". At this moment a jailer calls that four more wives have come to see him and a fellow gang member call desperately for a hangman because at this moment Macheath will really need one. At this point the Beggar and the Player enter to argue whether Macheath dies or not. The Beggar states that Macheath must be hanged for poetic justice. The Player states that this would make the play a tragedy and operas have happy endings. The Beggar finally agrees and Macheath is released. The play concludes with Macheath stating that he is legally married to Polly alone and there is a joyful dance. Gay tried to cash in on the play's success by writing a sequel titled Polly. This play was not as good. It had a new setting of a colonial plantation, but tried to carry over it's satire on the nobels of England. As a result, this humour seemed out of place. Gay rushed the writing of this play and both its humour and message are less clear than in Beggar's Opera. In this new play, Macheath is disguised as a negro and doesn't have even a hint of a hero that he originally had. Polly marries a native American. The irregular ballads have telltale signs of being rushed and are far below Gay's previous standards. Although the play became popular, it isn't comparable to The Beggar's Opera. The Beggar's Opera was not just a success in Eighteenth Century England. This was the first musical play to be produced in colonial New York. It was George Washington's favourite play. In 1920 the play was revived in London and New York. 1923 was the year that the Beggar's Opera Club opened serving members who have seen the play a minimum of forty times. There were modern revivals of the play: 1940 (London), 1950 (New York), and 1958 (also New York). A movie version of this play starred Sir Laurance Olivier as Macheath. Olivier insisted on performing the stunts and recording the songs himself. The film was a failure and lost its entire investment. Duke Ellington wrote music for an adaptation in 1946 titled The Beggar's Holiday. Alfred Drake played Macheath as a dashing New York gangster in Ellington?s adaptation. The Beggar's Holiday closed after only 14 weeks. No adaptation has been more popular than Bertolt Brecht's ThreePenny Opera first seen in Germany, late August 1928. The adaptation by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was composed in the Weimar Period of post World War One Germany. The World War had drastic effects on society's view of the arts and was the final blow that toppled the kingdoms of Europe. Starting with industrialism and ending with the war, new classes were rising to replace the aristocracy and peasantry. These classes were the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. New art movements called the avant-garde rose to address the new modern society. One of the big changes was in the concept of a "hero" in plays and literature. Before the outbreak, people thought of war as nobel and honorable, a statement of national pride. Wars had to this point been quick, from six to eight weeks in length, but World War One lasted for six long years, destroyed a generation of European youth, and left a dirty scar across the earth between France and Germany that is still present to remind people today. After the disastrous war, novels like Schweik, The Good Soldier by Jaroslav Hasek began to spring forth. No longer was the military looked upon like crusading knights. Schweik was an anti-hero. An overweight inept army man who would hide out a battle until both sides had massacred each other. Being the last man standing, his army would bestow medals and honors upon him for defeating the enemy troops, when in fact he was a coward. Anti-heroes like Schweik were the kind of leading man avant-garde playwrights and theater directors like Bertolt Brecht were looking for. He did do an adaptation of Schweik, but his most famous work is The ThreePenny Opera, an adaptation of Gay's play with alterations to suit the new theater. It started when his collaborator, Elisabeth Hauptmann, noticed a successful revival of a very interesting play in Hammersmith during the early Twenties. The play was The Beggar's Opera and had great potential to be converted into the avant-garde. Even though it was over a century old, this unusual play had everything the avant-garde looked for. Gay's rapid change of scenes was similar to the montage effect that Brecht and others were trying to achieve in the arts. Gay's satire was an ironic reversal of the royal government and the criminals of old England that could easily be converted to fit the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. In November of 1927, Elisabeth Hauptmann began to translate the English play to German for Brecht. Brecht began to transform Gay's Macheath into his own Mackie Messier, also known as Mack the Knife.