John Gay's 'The Beggar s Opera' 1728-2004: Adaptations and Re-Writings (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft)

348 Pages·2006·1.73 MB·English

by  Uwe Böker

John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera
1728-2004
105 Internationale Forschungen zur
Allgemeinen und
Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft
In Verbindung mit
Norbert Bachleitner (Universität Wien), Dietrich Briesemeister
(Friedrich Schiller-Universität Jena), Francis Claudon (Université
Paris XII), Joachim Knape (Universität Tübingen), Klaus Ley
(Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), John A. McCarthy
(Vanderbilt University), Alfred Noe (Universität Wien), Manfred
Pfister (Freie Universität Berlin), Sven H. Rossel (Universität Wien)
herausgegeben von
Alberto Martino
(Universität Wien)
Redaktion: Ernst Grabovszki
Anschrift der Redaktion:
Institut für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Berggasse 11/5, A-1090 Wien
John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera
1728-2004
Adaptations and Re-Writings

Edited by
Uwe Böker,
Ines Detmers and
Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Cover:
Frontispiece and titlepage of a 1782 London edition of The Beggar’s Opera;
courtesy of Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
Dresden.
Cover design:
Pier Post
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de “ISO 9706:1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents
- Prescriptions pour la permanence”.
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements
for permanence”.
Die Reihe „Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden
Literaturwissenschaft“ wird ab dem Jahr 2005 gemeinsam von Editions Rodopi,
Amsterdam – New York und dem Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin herausgegeben.
Die Veröffentlichungen in deutscher Sprache erscheinen im Weidler Buchverlag,
alle anderen bei Editions Rodopi.
From 2005 onward, the series „Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen
und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft“ will appear as a joint publication by
Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam – New York and Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin. The
German editions will be published by Weidler Buchverlag, all other publications
by Editions Rodopi.
ISBN-10: 90-420-2113-6
ISBN-13: 978-90-420-2113-6
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Printed in The Netherlands
Contents
Calendar of Important Adaptations and Re-Writings 1920–2004 7
Uwe Böker/Ines Detmers/Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
From Gay to Brecht and Beyond: Imitation and Re-Writing of
The Beggar’s Opera – 1728 to 2004 9
Uwe Böker
John Gays The Beggar’s Opera und die sozialhistorischen Kontexte:
Satire, Kriminalität, Ballade, Oper, Kommerzialisierung 33
Ian Gallagher
The Beggar’s Opera and its Criminal Law Context 103
Horst Höhne
Die Fortsetzung der Beggar’s Opera:Polly (1728) 127
Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
Robert Walpole und Jonathan Wild: Die satirischen
Bezugspersonen von John Gays The Beggar’s Opera 147
Frank Engelmann
A Late Eighteenth-Century Ballad Opera and
John Wilkes: The Bow-Street Opera (1773) 169
Klaus Schuhmacher
Ekstasen der Sachlichkeit: Zur Dreigroschenoper (1928)
von Bertolt Brecht und Kurt Weill 193
Uwe Böker
John Gays The Beggar’s Opera und
Václav Havels Zebrácká opera (1975) 219
Wumi Raji
Opera Wonyosi (1977): Strategies of a Postcolonial
Response to a Western Operatic Drama 243
Kathrin Sartingen
Rewriting als produktive Differenz: Chico Buarque
de Hollandas Ópera do Malandro (1978) als brasilianische
Wiederkehr von John Gays The Beggar’s Opera 273
Christoph Oliver Mayer
Italiens Spaßmacher schlägt wieder zu: Dario Fos
L’opera dello sghignazzo (1981) als provokatives
Rewriting der Bettleroper 295
Anja Müller
Alan Ayckbourn’s Beggar’s Opera as
A Chorus of Disapproval (1984) 327
Contributors 345
Calendar of Important Adaptations and Re-Writings
(1920–2004)1
*1920: Nigel Playfair, Frederic Austin (music), Arnold Bennett (text), The
Beggar’s Opera (London, Great Britain)
*1922: Nigel Playfair, Frederic Austin (music), Clifford Bax (text), Polly
(London, Great Britain)
1928: Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill (music), Die Dreigroschenoper (Berlin,
Germany)
*1946: John Latouche, Duke Ellington (music), The Beggar’s Holiday (New
York, U.S.A.)
*1965: Peter Hacks, Polly oder Die Battaille am Bluewater Creek (Halle,
German Democratic Republic)
*1968: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peer Raaben (music), Die Bettleroper
(nach John Gay) (Munich, Federal Republic of Germany)
1975: Václav Havel, Zebrácká opera (Prague, Czechoslowakia)
1977: Wole Soyinka, Opera Wonyosi (Ife, Nigeria)
*1978: Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, Teen Paishyacha Tamasha (India)
1978: Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Ópera do Malandro (Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil)
1981: Dario Fo, L’opera dello sghignazzo (Torino, Italy)
1984: Alan Ayckbourn, A Chorus of Disapproval (Scarborough, Great
Britain).
1 Titles marked with an asterisk have been discussed in the general introduction by U.
Böker, I. Detmers and A.Chr. Giovanopoulos. For all the other plays, see the separate
interpretations below.
8
*2000: Nick Dear, Stephen Warbeck (music), The Villains’ Opera (London,
Great Britain)
*2004: Dale Wasserman, re-writing of Latouche’s and Ellington’s The
Beggar’s Holiday (San Francisco, U.S.A.)
*2004: Robert Lepage, The Busker’s Opera (Canada; Melbourne
International Arts Festival)
Uwe Böker, Ines Detmers and Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
From Gay to Brecht and Beyond: Imitation and
Re-Writing of The Beggar’s Opera – 1728 to 2004
1.The Beggar’s Opera, Commercial Imitation and Political Satire
When in 1727 the dramatist and poet John Gay, encouraged by his
Scriblerian friends Swift and Pope, tried to find a producer for The Beggar’s
Opera, the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre was reluctant to put on this
new kind of stage entertainment which included songs, popular arias and
marches from the opera seria and other types of music. However, after the
Duchess of Queensberry had succeeded in persuading John Rich, manager of
the rival Lincoln’s Inn Fields theatre, to stage the play, Gay had more
success. After the first performance on 29 January, 1728, the play proved to
be a hit, and the London Craftsman remarked on 3 February that “the Waggs
say it hath made Rich very Gay, and probably will make Gay very Rich”.1
During the first season that ended in June 1728 the play was performed on 62
nights and during the second season 28 times by the same company as well as
15 times by a cast of children, the Lilliputians.2 In addition, the play was
shown in other cities that enjoyed the visits of London theatre companies
during the summer months, and even the theatregoers in Wales and Ireland
wanted to see The Beggar’s Opera on stage.
This was a period that witnessed the birth of the consumer society,
including what has been called “conspicuous consumption”.3 Due to the
increasing commercialisation of leisure, the theatres were in need of ever new
1 See the Introduction to The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay. Transcribed, with an
Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography, by R.S. Bear, University of Oregon, August 1992
(html version created in November 1995). Renascence editions URL:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ren.htm.
2 See St. Vincent Troubridge, “Making Gay Rich, and Rich Gay”, Theatre Notebook, 6
(1951), 14-20.
3 See J.H. Plumb, “The Commercialization of Leisure in Eighteenth-century England”. In:
Neil McKendrick, John Brewer and J.H. Plumb (eds.). The Birth of a Consumer Society.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1982, 265-285, here 276; Gordon Vichert, “The
Theory of Conspicuous Consumption in the 18th Century”. In: The Varied Pattern:
Studies in the 18th Century. Peter Hughes and David Williams (eds.). Toronto: Hakkert
1971, 253-267; Michael R. Marrus (ed.). The Emergence of Leisure. New York: Harper &
Row, 1974.