The Beggar's opera

A feature length production of John Gay’s opera “The Beggar’s opera” with additional dialogue and lyrics by Christopher Fry and music arranged and composed by Sir Arthur Bliss conducted by Muir Mathieson. Co-producer and cast in the lead role, Laurence Olivier plays the dashing and debonair highwayman, Captain Macheath with substance and stylish sex appeal. He is ably supported by a talented cast including Hugh Griffith (the Beggar), Dorothy Tutin (Polly Peachum), Stanley Holloway (Lockit) and Daphne Anderson (Lucy Lockit). Set in early 18th century London, this is not a conventional opera with elaborate Italian arias. Gay has instead satirized the idea of classical opera with light popular tunes and characters of common or criminal background, poking fun throughout at the moral standards of politicians and upper classes of society London in general. The singers include Laurence Olivier, Adele Leigh, Jennifer Vyvyan, Edith Coates, Joan Cross, John Cameron, Bruce Boyne and Stanley Holloway. First performed in 1728 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, the film, director Peter Brook’s first feature, when first premiered in 1953, received a luke-warm reception. Audiences were not used to operas being adapted and “tampered” with to suit a cinematic format. However today it is seen as an entertaining musical film, with adventure and romance laced with a good dash of satire.