Opera Beggars

The Beggar's Opera The Beggar's Opera 1728 ballad opera by John Gay This article is about the ballad opera. For the Scottish rock band, see Beggars Opera (band). For the film, see The Beggar's Opera (film). The Beggar's Opera[1] is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative. The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular broadside ballads, opera arias,…

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