Many, maybe most, operas are adapted as they are performed over the years. Some productions use modern dress or settings in a (controversial) attempt to make them ‘relevant’ to new audiences. But not many have their music reconfigured - multiple times - and few inspire a new opera.
The Beggar’s Opera set a record for performances in the eighteenth century, and has been used and adapted in many cultures since. Why did it last this way? All the remakings retain Gay’s central goals, to condemn inequality and satirize fashions in art and corruption in society. His opera ‘mocks the conventions of fashionable baroque Italian opera, and also takes aim at the grim realities of early 18th-century London, and at political corruption in particular. Its author’s epitaph in Westminster Abbey records how Gay’s ‘native humour’ and ‘virtuous rage’ enabled him to ‘lash the age’. More here.
‘Of manners gentle, of affections mild; in wit a man; simplicity, a child; with native humour temp'ring virtuous rage, form'd to delight at once and lash the Age: above temptation, in a low estate, and uncorrupted, e'en among the Great.’
Given the tragedies of human history, this opera served pretty well to lash other ages. Move on two centuries, to Berlin, 1928 - Brecht adapted Gay’s work to produce a biting satire of 20th-century capitalism, Weimar Republic style. (We’ll return to the Threepenny Opera later.)
And thereafter, there are many adaptions we won’t pursue! Here’s a list of some: ‘Gay’s opera has also inspired a number of 20th-century adaptations, among them the American lyricist John Latouche’s The Beggar’s Holiday (1946, with a jazz score by Duke Ellington), Vaclav Havel’s heavily politicised translation Zebrácká opera (1976), which used Gay’s text as a mirror for the injustices of Soviet-era Czechoslovakia and the left-wing Italian dramatist Dario Fo’s reworking L’opera dello sghignazzo (1981), a freewheeling blend of Gay and Brecht.’
But Gay’s opera, reset in modern times, has also retained its ability to lash our age, shock and amuse.
Redoing the music
In 1948, Beggar's Opera, took a step towards being more of an opera, at the hands of Benjamin Britten. Listen here to an audio of the full opera version recast by Britten - with exquisite diction and singing...
The version of Beggar's Opera on the 1963 BBC film was the one with music recomposed by Britten but in this audio production, Britten's famous tenor partner, Peter Pears, plays MacHeath. (He enters her bedroom at count 19.30 - what a voice!! 21.27 is start of Over the Hills and far away. 30.16 his misogynist credo 'If the heart of a man...' )
The most interesting other voice in this production is Jennifer Vyvyan, who sings Jenny Diver and is described as an inspiration for Britten's strong women roles.
Now some thinking about the music of this nonopera by a poet! A review in the Guardian of another recording offers this comment:
Written for actors, it is not an opera at all, though this has not prevented composers producing versions that have allowed classically trained singers to warble their way through it. Benjamin Britten's realisation, prepared in 1948, is one such attempt. Some of it is ingenious, most notably Britten's ability to blend several of the original melodies to form duets or ensembles, but the end result remains both conventionally operatic and alarmingly sanitised.
And then there was William Christie...
To confront the uncomfortable
We'll be watching a different musical remake, for the production by Robert Carson for Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord (2018) - with the incomparable William Christie reworking hte music in a fusion of baroque and ...
It's a production by a Canadian director for a French theatre, performed at the Edinburgh Festival, where it was billed as a Beggar’s Opera “for our own turbulent times”. We’ll watch the recording of the performance given at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris (2018).
It was greeted with astonishment across the countries it travelled, ending at the Edinburgh festival, where the Englishness of the satire made it a hit.
"The major success of this production ... is that it taps into the work’s latent energy. When it burst onto the scene in 1728, John Gay’s opera set London alight with its daring language, its racy wit and its innovative structure, and Robert Carsen’s production manages to bring that to light for our time."
Carson’s remaking of operas is legendary, and this one was of course controversial, from the image on its marketing (right) to the remaking of its context. The new play script is studded with references to current issues and (UK) political slogans, and the ending is a bizarre forecast of (UK) political chaos. Some reviews, notably that in the Financial Times, panned it.
Canadian director Robert Carsen has attempted to bring an authentic gangland swagger to his revival of John Gay’s 18th-century musical, but this production feels more like an awkward reshuffle. ... it mixes faithful recreations of the original songs with trite mockney badinage and inept political satire. Macheath and his gang are cast as a ruthlessly efficient, sharp-suited rabble of Corbynites, who deal coke and flog knock-off royal wedding merchandise while declaring that they work “for the many, not for the few”. It’s not a satire of contemporary Labour that rings especially true. And many of Carsen’s other reference points feel equally out of touch: these men claim to live in present-day Mile End, but talk as if they have stepped out of vintage British gangster flicks, and tumble across the stage like extras from West Side Story.
And that’s just the men. Kate Molleson again:
What doesn’t update quite so neatly is the gender politics. Women in The Beggar’s Opera are brassy matriarchs (Mrs Peachum), devious vixens (Diver) or pretty fools (Lucy Lockit and Polly Peachum). Carsen admitted to heated debate in the rehearsal room over what to do with these caricatures, but, ultimately, the values of the piece are ingrained. ”In the age of #MeToo,” Carsen says, “not everything has to be bent to fit.”
And then there’s the music. Gay’s play was set in a fruit salad of ballad, folk song and operatic tunes. This version is set to music and accompanied by no less than William Christie, unique provider of operatic baroque splendour. His sense of humour is in fine display, as he conducts a baroque-ish stage band...
...1930s Duke Ellington setup. We have fashioned an improvising orchestra of individuals who can riff and swing. Only the odd solo is written out. It’s the first time it has ever been done like this and it required the absolute best players who can take on that kind of agency.”
And in this production, the making of music is part of the drama. Listen to the trailer here.
Bachtrack (detailed review here) describes the impact on the crowd in Edinburgh.
The homeless Beggar was onstage before a wall of cardboard boxes as we took our seats, hightailing it smartly as police sirens sounded, the players of Les Arts Florissants making what must rank as one of the best orchestral entrances ever, frantically unboxing their precious instruments and tablets in a whirlwind, like an Amazon delivery on speed. Dressed in grunge, all shades and turned-about baseball caps, they gathered in front of the side of the stage as Florian Carré, directing from his unboxed harpsichord, gave the thumbs up. The contrast to the shocking mayhem as the ancient lyrical music began, prepared by William Christie with sweet lute and period instrument colour stopped us in our tracks.
In our production, it’s Christie himself, gloriously bedecked with a pony-tail, at the harpsichord.
