Gay/Britten: The Beggar's Opera
A huge success at its first performance in 1728 John Gay's The Beggar's Opera satirized the conventions of Italian opera, using popular tunes to tell the story of rogues and criminals. With his distinctive musical arrangements at its heart, Britten's 1948 adaptation was a significant revision, amounting to a new twentieth-century opera. The BBC film, originally broadcast in 1963, feature a superb cast of English singers..
Cast
Roger Jerome
as The Beggar
David Hartley
as The Manager of the Company/Mat of the Mint
Brian Handley
as The Stage Manager/Slippery Sam
David Kelly
as Peachum
Bernard Dickerson
as Filch/Wat Dreary
Anna Pollak
as Mrs. Peachum
Janet Baker
as Polly Peachum
Kenneth McKellar
as Captain Macheath
Bryan Drake
as Lockit
Heather Harper
as Lucy Lockit