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..

• Benjamin BrittenOriginal Music Composer
• Charles R. RogersDirector

• Roger JeromeThe Beggar
• David HartleyThe Manager of the Company/Mat of the Mint
• Brian HandleyThe Stage Manager/Slippery Sam
• David KellyPeachum
• Bernard DickersonFilch/Wat Dreary
• Anna PollakMrs. Peachum
• Janet BakerPolly Peachum
• Kenneth McKellarCaptain Macheath
• Bryan DrakeLockit
• Heather HarperLucy Lockit
• Edith CoatesMrs. Trapes
• Joan EdwardsJenny Diver