Overview
Mr. and Mrs. Peachum are horrified when they learn of their daughter Polly's secret marriage to the rebellious and notorious highwayman, Macheath. However, their fear is soon mitigated when they decide to kill him for his money. When Macheath is in the tavern, surrounded by women of 'ill repute', he discovers that he has been rumbled: two of these women are in cahoots with the Peachums and plan to kill him. He finds himself in Newgate and, worse than that, in the company of the jailer's daughter, Lucy, to whom he is also betrothed. Although Macheath is captured and destined to be hanged, Gay's action-packed and entertaining play subverts audience expectations by letting Macheath off the hook and not punishing its villains. John Gay's satirical opera, written in 1728, was revolutionary because it took poverty and corruption as its subject, and paupers and villains as its characters. The lyrics were set to famous songs of the day making it hugely popular with audiences and a radical departure from traditional opera. The introduction puts the play in its historical and theatrical contexts and details its stage history in modern times too. David Lindley is an expert on theatrical music and the new dramatic form of ballad opera this play created. The music for the songs is included in the text, making this an edition to be used for performance as well as for study.
Full Product Details
Author: John Gay ,
David Lindley ,
Prof. Vivien Jones (University of Leeds, Leeds)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: A & C Black Publishers Ltd
Dimensions:
Width: 12.60cm
, Height: 1.00cm
, Length: 19.80cm
Weight: 0.138kg
ISBN: 9780713673821
ISBN 10: 0713673826
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 31 March 2010
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
A / AS level
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs. Plays International
Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs. -- Plays International
Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs. — Plays International
Author Information
David Lindley is Professor of Renaissance Literature at Leeds University. He is the author of Shakespeare and Music in the Arden Critical Companions Series and editor of The Tempest for the New Cambridge Shakespeare series. Vivien Jones is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Gender and Culture at Leeds University. She has edited Evelina and Jane Austen: Selected Letters for Oxford World's Classics and has written widely on women in the eighteenth century.
