The Beggar's Opera Essays

Discussion From research it shows that one of the earliest signs of a jukebox musical was John Gay’s creation of The Beggar’s Opera (1728). Before The Beggar’s Opera all popular theatre was opera and the main operas were mostly written by a man name Georg Frideric Handel. The daring storylines and poetry were written in a time when all operas focused on love, romance, gods and heroes. In contrast, Gay took a completely different approach and wrote a performance based on thieves, maliciousness, and

some afternoon tea with John Gay, a more realistic journey would be to engage with technology at the very tips of my fingers. Let me take you three centuries ago and walk through Gay’s life to find out what might have influenced him to write the Beggar’s Opera. It all started on 30 June 1685 in Barnstaple, England where Gay was born. Gay went to London after finishing his studies to be an apprentice to a silk merchant but he disliked the job. He continued exploring other jobs in London; being a secretary

John Gays''s "The Beggar's Opera" is a prime example of literary parody, a genre that emerged in 18th century England as a form of satire and social commentary. Through his deployment of exaggerated characters, mock-heroic elements, and musical parody, Gay uses the burlesque to satirize his time's social and political norms. The Beggar's Opera is a play set in London's criminal underworld and features a cast of characters, mainly thieves, prostitutes, and highwaymen. Gay employs the burlesque by

The Beggar's Opera (1728) by John Gay has undergone many critical examinations. There are many various views on the "hidden agendas" that led to its creation. Examples include the satire on the political sphere like Walpole and his statesmen, or the social sphere with the biased law system due to the inequality between the rich and the poor. Or even the satire on Italian Operas being too dramatic. The formation of this opera eventually led to the term "Ballad Opera" being coined; considering the

Wilde. In Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, both playwrights situate the plot of their respective plays around the idea of the love triangle in a subtle, yet clever method that is entertaining to audiences and readers alike. However, the presence of the love triangle is not merely included for entertainment, but also to serve a greater dramatic purpose. By examining the love triangles between Polly and Lucy for Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera and Gwendolen and Cecily

“The Beggar’s Opera” by John Gay is an opera that tells the story of Peachum, who runs a gang that commits criminal activities. Peachum’s daughter, Polly, falls in love with Captain Macheath, who is a highwayman. Polly’s parents are not happy with the marriage as they do not want her money to go to Macheath and they make plans to kill him by having him hanged for his criminal activities as a highwayman. In “The Beggar’s Opera” betrayal and using people occur in order for a character to gain something

In the story “ The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving, the theme of greed is exaggerated through Tom Walker’s life story. Throughout the story, Walker’s estranged and miserly relationship with his wife, his self-beneficial life choices that harm others, and his unfortunate and pitiful death, demonstrate horrible occurrences in a greed-filled lifestyle. Irving also elucidates to readers that consistent desires and the feelings of dissatisfaction towards everything will eventually lead to an

century, two forms of musical theatre were popular in Britain: ballad operas (like John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’, 1728) and comic operas (like Balde’s ‘The Bohemian Girl’, 1845). Other musical theatre forms developed by the 19th century, such as music hall, melodrama, burlesque and vaudeville. This became popular because most London theatres were licensed only as music halls and couldn’t perform plays without music. The comic opera is argued to be the earliest form of the musical theatre we know today

Ludwig van Beethoven (17 December 1770– 26 March 1827) Sonata in C minor (‘Pathétique’), Op.13 Beethoven (1770–1827) Grave; Allegro di molto e con brio Adagio cantabile Rondo: Allegro Piano Sonata Op.13 was composed in 1798, during a time when Beethoven realised about his encroaching deafness. This piece soon became one of Beethoven’s most well-known compositions as its air of mystery and sober atmosphere

The song The Rose , written by songwriter Amanda McBroom, was the title track to the 1979 film The Rose and first recorded by its lead actress Bette Midler. The Rose is a touching ballad, and henceforth a popular choice for the First Dance song at weddings. The song is divided into three stanzas, with eight lines each. It doesn 't show a main chorus that is repeated multiple times, which is rather unusual for a pop song. Throughout the song, the use of anaphora is very prominent. In alternating

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” This well known saying is a major cliche, but even so it continues to be right about most of life. Renaissance era music is no exception; defined as music composed from the Renaissance time period (1400s-1600s), it was more expressive, emotional, simple, and flowing than the Medieval period before it ("Renaissance Music"). It is during this time period that the arts were changed significantly, but despite that many of these trends that are still used today, Renaissance

musician, however, he grew more dissatisfied with Salzburg and made more effort to get a job elsewhere. This was attributed to the fact he was paid low salary and also Mozart loved and also he was interested in composing opera but Salzburg provided him little opportunity for opera productions. After the termination of his job he began another journey hunting tour and this

Music Video Theory Simon Friths Music Theory (1988) Simon Friths theory was that all music videos fall under three categories: performance, narrative and conceptual. Performance is the artist performing their song, narrative is where there is some sort of storyline helping the audience to relate to them. The last one is conceptual music videos which don’t tend to have a story and are very open to interpretation and what the viewer thinks about them. Performance Performance based music videos are

independence. Claude Debussy grew up in Paris and was taught piano and composition at the Paris conservatory. He began composing in 1879 and worked with Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s patron. In 1888, he traveled to Bayreuth to listen to a Wagner opera, and realized the power of his music and his need to avoid

Music is one of the forms of art that has become an indispensable part of every individual 's life. In fact, commencing with the creation of first primitive musical instruments by our ancestors and ending up with complex modern instruments and technologies like synthesizers and computer programs that scores sounds, humankind was always inclined to be surrounded by music. As Levitin states "Whenever humans come together for any reason, music is there: weddings, funerals, graduation from college, men

always will be, regarded as one of, if not the, greatest composer of his time. Mozart opened the door for all composers to come, and his pieces are still referred to today for new composers. Mozart left over 600 symphonies, concertos, chamber music, operas, and many other forms of music of his time. He was the master of every genre during his time. He left an enormous mark in the world of music, and will never be forgotten. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the best composer to live and play. Even with other

On November 9, 2004, the Utah Symphony released a CD named Tchaikovsky Swan Lake. This piece was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and was conducted by Maurice Abravanel. This CD contains many different pieces. Each one has its own story to tell but connect with the rest of the stories. The same kind of tone or rhythms can be found in each of the pieces. Abravanel made sure to have the symphony play each note with such precision to create the various imagines of the characters in the story

Anito, Claire Janszen A. 2Literature LIT207 Literary Criticism Prof. Edward John Padilla, M.A. DANCER IN THE DARK Dancer in the Dark is a musical drama film. The film was set in 1964 and focuses on Selma (Bjork), an immigrant from Central Europe to America with her son, Gene. Selma has a hereditary degenerative disease, which in effect, she loses here eyesight. She works in factory, and saving up every penny she gets in preparation of her son’s operation, which will prevent her young son, Gene

French Opera Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide consists of five acts and a beginning overture, called a prologue. This is in conformity to the Aristotelian ideal of length in the opera as a musical genre and in contrast to the Italian practices of the time. The French recitative and aria are the focus of Raguenet and Lecerf’s criticism and praise of French opera. This section will evaluate one of the Armide’s recitatives and arias in light of Raguenet and Lecerf’s arguments over French opera.

In the last chapter, both the Oriental man and woman, according to Edward Said, is represented by the Occident. The representation of the Oriental woman is frequently illustrated or named as the Oriental butterfly since Madama Butterfly, an iconic opera written by Giacomo Puccini. Grace Ji-Sun Kim in the Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love stresses that Madame Butterfly “is viewed as the ideal ‘oriental woman.’ She is beautiful and subservient, small and fragile, like a butterfly”