I think I had actually seen this, but that was well before I became interested in opera, and I mainly just remember being bored. So I thought it necessary that I revisit it; per wikipedia, it "is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today." One will immediately note that, unlike every other opera ever, it's attributed to the librettist. WS Sullivan and Bertolt Brecht may often get co-billing, but Gay seems to be unique. The actual composer, insofar as the word applies, is Johann Christoph Pepusch, though most of the music is adaptations of popular numbers of the time. You will no doubt recognize "Lillibulero" and "Greensleeves."
Anyway, the idea is that there's Mr. Peachum who oversees a criminal syndicate of thieves and prostitutes, jettisoning them when they've outlived their earning potential. His daughter Polly is in love with Macheath the highwayman; he goes along with this, but he makes the Duke in Rigoletto look like a model of constancy, carrying on with every woman in sight, one of whom, Lucy Lockit (daughter of the corrupt gaoler) he has gotten pregnant. After some debate, Polly's parents decide to let the two of them marry, but in the end he's imprisoned, and after escaping and being recaptured, he's going to be executed. But the audience doesn't like the idea of a less-than-happy ending, so instead he marries Polly to general merriment.
I've got to tell you, the libretto here is really, really successful in its quest to be as scuzzy and disreputable as possible. Everyone's a thief and/or hooker, and not with a heart of gold either. They are all one hundred percent venal and mercenary. I went with the BBC telefilm from 1983, and it seems to me to represent them at their best. Sure, it's a bit cheap-looking, as expected, but the acting is all top-notch, and I found myself absolutely mesmerized by the accents. Roger Daltrey as Macheath may seem like an odd choice, but he acquits himself very well. The musical numbers here do not call for trained opera singers (for the record, his singing here sounds nothing like it does in The Who; it's a different musical idiom and anyway he's effecting an accent). You may, in fact, be surprised by how little music there actually is: there are plenty of musical interludes, but they're all very short: I'd be surprised if any of them topped three minutes, and some of them, no exaggeration, aren't more than thirty seconds. They're fine, they help to give the piece its character, but, unusually if not uniquely for an opera, they're not really the most important thing.
The only thing I didn't one hundred percent care for here is the ending: so the piece is bookended with the composer and producer in conversation. Very metafictional. And at the end, Macheath is going to be hanged, but then, no, we've got to change it, and there's a very insincere happy ending. But the way it's done here, before they can stop the execution, he's shoved off the gallows and hanged, freeze frame, the end. It's all very jokey, but I really feel like the uncompromisingly ironic spirit of the opera demands that you play the happiness of the ending to the absolute hilt. It's much funnier that way.
Oh well! I'm glad to have seen it, and now I guess I'm ready for "The Threepenny Opera," which, again, I HAVE seen, but a long time ago, and I remember very little of it.
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