Death at the Beggar's Opera

Death at the Beggar's Opera
Author: Deryn Lake
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1448300770

John Rawlings, the apothecary with a talent for detective work, and John Fielding, the blind magistrate, make a welcome return in this evocative Georgian mystery. They are enjoying a performance of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ in Drury Lane when the leading actor dramatically falls to his death on stage. As they begin the hunt for clues, they discover a hotbed of rivalry on and off the stage and a trail of obsession that leads to the dark heart of a cold-blooded murder.

The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera
Author: Peggy Blair
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2012-02-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0143183435

The first volume in the atmospheric and suspenseful Inspector Ramirez series In beautiful, crumbling Old Havana, Canadian detective Mike Ellis hopes the sun and sand will help save his troubled marriage. He doesn’t yet know that it’s dead in the water—much like the little Cuban boy last seen begging the Canadian couple for a few pesos on the world famous Malecon. For Inspector Ricardo Ramirez, head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police, finding his prime suspect isn’t a problem—Cuban law is. He has only seventy-two hours to secure an indictment and prevent a vicious killer from leaving the island. But Ramirez also has his own troubles to worry about. He’s dying of the same dementia that killed his grandmother, an incurable disease that makes him see the ghosts of victims of unsolved murders. As he races against time, the dead haunt his every step...

The Beggar's Opera and Polly

The Beggar's Opera and Polly
Author: John Gay
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2013-05-09
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0191645753

'Gamesters and Highwaymen are generally very good to their Whores, but they are very Devils to their Wives.' With The Beggar's Opera (1728), John Gay created one of the most enduringly popular works in English theatre history, and invented a new dramatic form, the ballad opera. Gay's daring mixture of caustic political satire, well-loved popular tunes, and a story of crime and betrayal set in the urban underworld of prostitutes and thieves was an overnight sensation. Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum have become famous well beyond the confines of Gay's original play, and in its sequel, Polly, banned in Gay's lifetime, their adventures continue in the West Indies. With a cross-dressing heroine and a cast of female adventurers, pirates, Indian princes, rebel slaves, and rapacious landowners, Polly lays bare a culture in which all human relationships are reduced to commercial transactions. Raucous, lyrical, witty, ironic and tragic by turns, The Beggar's Opera and Polly - published together here for the first time - offer a scathing and ebullient portrait of a society in which statesmen and outlaws, colonialists and pirates, are impossible to tell apart. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and Other Love Songs)

Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and Other Love Songs)
Author: Carl Grose
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2014-08-27
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1783196556

Kneehigh Theatre Company presents Dead Dog in a Suitcase written by Carl Grose. What the HELL is the world coming to? Based on The Beggar's Opera, John Gay's classic musical satire, Dead Dog in a suitcase (and other love songs) is busting with wit, wonder and weirdness. An extraordinary Kneehigh cast of actor-musicians shoot, hoot and shimmy their way through this twisted morality tale of our times...by turns SHOCKING, HILARIOUS, HEARTFELT and ABSURD! Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and they plan to escape to a better world – but they aren't going anywhere. Not if pickled pilchard, hair gel and concrete tycoon Les Peachum and his wife have anything to do with it. See, they aren't happy with their daughter marrying Macheath. Not one bit. Before the day is out Macheath will face the hangman's noose and much more besides. All the while, the dogs are howling, the pier is creaking, the babes are crying, the concrete is cracking and the truth won't stay hidden for much longer... This is now, this is it The world is poor and man's a shit The game is rigged, nothing's truer Death's a joke and life a sewer!

John Gay and the London Theatre

John Gay and the London Theatre
Author: Calhoun Winton
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2014-10-17
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0813159369

The Beggar's Opera, often referred to today as the first musical comedy, was the most popular dramatic piece of the eighteenth century—and is the work that John Gay (1685-1732) is best remembered for having written. That association of popular music and satiric lyrics has proved to be continuingly attractive, and variations on the Opera have flourished in this century: by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, by Duke Ellington, and most recently by Vaclav Havel. The original opera itself is played all over the world in amateur and professional productions. But John Gay's place in all this has not been well defined. His Opera is often regarded as some sort of chance event. In John Gay and the London Theatre, the first book-length study of John Gay as dramatic author, Calhoun Winton recognized the Opera as part of an entirely self-conscious career in the theatre, a career that Gay pursued from his earliest days as a writer in London and continued to follow to his death. Winton emphasizes Gay's knowledge of and affection for music, acquired, he argues, by way of his association with Handel. Although concentrating on Gay and his theatrical career, Winton also limns a vivid portrait of London itself and of the London stage of Gay's time, a period of considerable turbulence both within and outside the theatre. Gay's plays reflect in varying ways and degrees that social, political, and cultural turmoil. Winton's study sheds new light not only on Gay and the theatre, but also on the politics and culture of his era.

The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera
Author: Frank Kidson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 146
Release: 1922
Genre: Ballad opera
ISBN:

Originally published in 1922, this book contains a history of English opera described through the lens of The Beggar's Opera, first performed in 1728. Kidson details the background to the opera's creation, its author, and its lasting impact on the English opera scene. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the English opera and English musical history.

The Beggar's Opera; Its Predecessors & Successors

The Beggar's Opera; Its Predecessors & Successors
Author: Frank Kidson
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2022-08-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Beggar's Opera; Its Predecessors & Successors" by Frank Kidson. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, 1728-2004

John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, 1728-2004
Author: Uwe Böker
Publisher: Rodopi
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2006
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9042021136

When Richard Steele remarked that the greatest Evils in human Society are such as no Law can come at, he was not able to forsee the spectacular success of John Gay's satire of society, the administration of law and crime, politics, the Italian opera and other topics. Gay's The Beggar's Opera, with its mixture of witty dialogue and popular songs, was imitated by 18th century writers, criticized by those on the seats of power, but remained a favourite of the English theatre public ever since. With N. Playfair's 1920 revival and B. Brecht's and K. Weill's 1928 Dreigroschenoper, Gay's play has been a starting-point for dramatists such as V. Havel (Zebrácká opera, 1975), W. Soyinka (Opera Wonyosi, 1977), Ch. Buarque (Ópera do Malandro, 1978), D. Fo (L'opera dello sghignazzo, 1981), A. Ayckbourn (A Chorus of Disapproval, 1984), as well as others such as Latouche, Hacks, Fassbinder, Dear, Wasserman, and Lepage. Apart from contributions by international scholars analysing the above-named plays, the editors' introduction covers other dramatists that have payed hommage to Gay. This interdisciplinary collection of essays is of particular interest for scholars working in the field of drama/theatre studies, the eighteenth century, contemporary drama, postcolonial studies, and politics and the stage.