John Gay: The Beggar's Opera

John Gay: The Beggar's Opera

John Gay: The Beggar's Opera
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CD Details

Performer: John Gay
Performer: Roger Bryson
Performer: Ian Caddy
Performer: Charles Daniels
Orchestra: Anne Dawson
Conductor: Bob Hoskins
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 1992-09-10
Music Label: Hyperion UK
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Introduction. If poverty be a title to poetry
  2. Overture
  3. Act 1. Air 1. Through all the employments of life
  4. Act 1. Dialogue. Sir, Black Moll hath sent word
  5. Act 1. Air 2. 'Tis woman that seduces all mankind
  6. Act 1. Dialogue. But 'tis now high time to look about me
  7. Act 1. Dialogue. What of Bob Booty, husband?
  8. Act 1. Air 3. If any wench Venus's girdle wear
  9. Act 1. Air 4. If love the virgin's heart invade
  10. Act 1. Dialogue. Never was a man more out of the way
  11. Act 1. Air 5. A maid is like the golden ore
  12. Act 1. Dialogue. Come hither Fitch
  13. Act 1. Dialogue. I know as well as any of the fine ladies
  14. Act 1. Air 6. Virgins are like the fair flower in its lustre
  15. Act 1. Air 7. Our Polly is a sad slut!
  16. Act 1. Air 8. Can love be control'd by advice?
  17. Act 1. Air 9. O Polly, you might have toy'd and kissed
  18. Act 1. Air 10. I like a ship in storms was tossed
  19. Act 1. Dialogue. Dear wife, be a little pacified.
  20. Act 1. Air 11. A fox may steal your hens, sir
  21. Act 1. Dialogue. 'Twas only Nimming Ned.
  22. Act 1. Air 12. O, ponder well! Be not severe
  23. Act 1. Air 13. The turtle thus with plaintive crying
  24. Act 1. Dialogue. The thing, husband, must and shall be done.
  25. Act 1. Dialogue. Now I'm a wretch, indeed.
  26. Act 1. Air 14. Pretty Polly, say
  27. Act 1. Air 15. My heart was so free
  28. Act 1. Air 16. Where I laid on Greenland's coast
  29. Act 1. Air 17. O what a pain it is to part!
  30. Act 1. Air 18. The miser that a shilling sees
  31. Act 1. Dialogue. But pr'ythee, Matt, what is become of thy brother Tom?
  32. Act 2. Air 19. Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us
  33. Act 2. Dialogue. Gentlemen, well met.
  34. Act 2. Air 20. Let us take the road
  35. Act 2. Dialogue. What a fool is a fond wench!
  36. Act 2. Air 21. If the heart of a man is deprest with cares
  37. Act 2. Dialogue. Dear Mrs Coaxer, you are welcome.
  38. Act 2. Air 22. Youth's the season made for joys
  39. Act 2. Air 23. Before the barn door crowing
  40. Act 2. Air 24. The gamesters and lawyers are jugglers alike
  41. Act 2. Dialogue. I seize you, sir, as my prisoner.
  42. Act 2. Air 25. At the Tree I shall suffer with pleasure
  43. Act 2. Dialogue. Look ye, Mrs Jenny...
  44. Act 2. Dialogue. Noble Captain, you are welcome.
  45. Act 2. Air 26. Man may escape from rope and gun
Music CD 2
  1. Act 2. Dialogue. You base man, you!
  2. Act 2. Air 27. Then when a good huswife sees a rat
  3. Act 2. Air 28. How cruel are the traitors
  4. Act 2. Air 29. The first time at the looking-glass
  5. Act 2. Dialogue. In this last affair, brother Peachum...
  6. Act 2. Air 30. When you censure the age
  7. Act 2. Dialogue. Whence come you, hussy?
  8. Act 2. Air 31. Is then his fate decreed, sir?
  9. Act 2. Air 32. You'll think e'er many day ensue
  10. Act 2. Dialogue. Though the Ordinary was out of the way to-day,
  11. Act 2. Air 33. If you at an office solicit your due
  12. Act 2. Dialogue. Where is my dear husband?
  13. Act 2. Air 34. Thus when the swallow seeking prey
  14. Act 2. Air 36. I'm bubbled
  15. Act 2. Air 37. Cease your fuming
  16. Act 2. Air 38. Why how now, Madam Flirt?
  17. Act 2. Dialogue. Where's my wench?
  18. Act 2. Air 39. No power on earth can e'er divide
  19. Act 2. Dialogue. I am naturally compassionate...
  20. Act 2. Air 40. I like the fox shall grieve
  21. Act 2. Dialogue. To be sure, wench...
  22. Act 3. Air 41. When young at the bar you first taught me to score
  23. Act 3. Dialogue. Peachum then intends...
  24. Act 3. Air 43. Thus gamesters united in friendship are found
  25. Act 3. Dialogue. Why, boy, thou lookest...
  26. Act 3. Dialogue. I am sorry, gentlemen...
  27. Act 3. Air 44. The modes of the court so common are grown
  28. Act 3. Dialogue. The coronation account...
  29. Act 3. Air 45. What gudgeons are we men!
  30. Act 3. Dialogue. Dear Mrs Dye, your servant.
  31. Act 3. Air 46. In the days of my youth
  32. Act 3. Air 47. I'm like a skiff on the ocean tossed
  33. Act 3. Dialogue. Dear madam, your servant.
  34. Act 3. Air 48. When a wife's in her pout
  35. Act 3. Air 49. A curse attends that woman's love
  36. Act 3. Air 50. Among the men, coquets we find
  37. Act 3. Air 51. Come, sweet lass
  38. Act 3. Dialogue. All this wheedling...
  39. Act 3. Dialogue. Come, Miss Polly.
  40. Act 3. Dialogue. Set your heart to rest...
  41. Act 3. Air 53. Which way shall I turn me?
  42. Act 3. Air 54. When my hero in court appears
  43. Act 3. Air 55. When he holds up his hand
  44. Act 3. Air 56. Ourselves, like the great, to secure a retreat
  45. Act 3. Air 57. The charge is prepar'd
  46. Act 3. Dialogue. Follow them, Filch...
  47. Act 3. Air 59. O cruel, cruel, cruel case! / Air. 60. Since I must swing / Air. 61. But now again m
  48. Act 3. Air 67. Since Laws were made for ev'ry degree
  49. Act 3. Dialogue. For my having broke prison...
  50. Act 3. Dialogue. My dear Lucy, my dear Polly...
  51. Act 3. Air 68. Would I might be hang'd!
  52. Act 3. Dialogue. But, honest friend...
  53. Act 3. Dialogue. So, it seems, I am not left...
  54. Act 3. Air 69. Thus I stand like the Turk

Music reviews of John Gay: The Beggar's Opera

Music Review: 'Back to Basics' for John Gay's 1728 hit ballad opera
Rating: 3 Stars

This recording seeks to give us a 'Beggar's Opera' uncut, undapted & unexpurgated. That presents big hurdles for modern performers & listeners. A complete performance is roughly 50/50 song & spoken dialogue, which poses a challenge whether one uses actors-who-sing (as in 1728) or singers-who-act (as here) - after all, the piece was conceived as a play punctuated by popular songs with 'parodied' lyrics. Unabridged, the text is full of obsolete words & local references, both geographical & political. Furthermore, there's a whole layer of satire in the musical numbers no longer accessible to us: the original audience would have been tickled by Gay's purloining a famous march from a heroic Italian opera - Handel's 'Rinaldo' - for a chorus of highwayman setting off to rob a coach, just as they would have been titillated to hear the text of Purcell's 'If Love's a Sweet Passion, why does it torment?' replaced by 'When young at the bar you first taught me to score.' But for us, other than 'Greensleeves' none of the tunes - lovely as they are - carries any particular associations.
Back in 1981, Jeremy Barlow & a handful of players from The Broadside Band joined 2 fine singers (Patrizia Kwella & Paul Elliot) in a charming CD that juxtaposed a few of the original songs with Gay's versions (Harmonia Mundi HMA 1951071). This ambitious 1994 follow-up, though well-performed & full of enjoyable moments, is frankly disappointing, & I can't help feeling here & there that everyone has bit off a bit more than they can chew. True, all the singers have been well coached in the dialogue, & all have their good moments - I like Richard Jackson's clenched-teeth Lockit very much - but to my ears only Sarah Walker has the size of personality & technical expertise to nail every single one of her lines square on its head easily. Elsewhere the effort shows, especially in Adrian Thompson's Macheath, which though hardworking lacks charm & charisma - he seems miscast. Sometimes one feels that the cast are treating Gay's text as if it were a serious slice-of-life view of the seamy side of London life, rather than a huge, cynical put-on (like its illustrious descendant, the Kander/Ebb/Fosse musical 'Chicago').
Musically, things are solid, as one would expect, yet even here I would question Barlow's decision to double the vocal line in almost every solo number with violins. To my ears it puts everyone in a metrical strait-jacket. This may have historical precedent, but surely a cast of professional singers, unlike actors, hardly needs the help? Again & again I felt that the few songs accompanied only by continuo - Polly's 'O ponder well' for one - gave the performers far more room for expressiveness.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, & certainly anyone interested in the history of the English popular musical theater will want to hear this, since at the very least it's a valuable reference edition. But I'm not sure it's going to come off my shelf as often as the Sargent/Austin version (Classics for Pleasure) or Benjamin Britten's genuinely operatic adaptation (Argo & Pearl); 'inauthentic' they may be, but expertly performed & full of gusto, fun & fierceness as well.

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