Britten, Benjamin

The Beggar's Opera (1948)

Duración: 108 minutos
Ballad-Opera by John Gay (1728), realized from the original airs by Benjamin Britten

Text by John Gay (E,F,G)

Orquestación
S,2M,T(or Bar),T(or speaker),Bar,B,speaker; chorus 1(=picc).1(=corA).1.1-1.0.0.0-perc(1):timp/susp.cym/SD/TD/BD/tamb/ tgl/gong/wdbl-harp-strings (1.1.1.1.1).
Abreviaturas (PDF).

Territorio
Este trabajo está disponible a través de Boosey & Hawkes para el mundo.

Uraufführung
5/24/1948
Arts Theatre, Cambridge
Tyrone Guthrie, Regisseur
Director: Benjamin Britten
Compañía: English Opera Group

Nota del repertorio
The popularity of Britten’s three chamber operas proper (The Rape of Lucretia, Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw) has tended to somewhat overshadow his brilliant adaptation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, the realisation of which was completed in 1948. Indeed, Britten’s harmonisations and arrangements of the pre-existing tunes, which he described as ‘among our finest national songs’, is so personal and idiosyncratic that the opera sounds like a totally original work. Despite the longish stretches of spoken dialogue, Britten brings all his usual techniques of dramatic characterisation to bear and binds the work together by effective use of leitmotif and meaningful key-schemes.

The scoring too is brilliantly imaginative with Britten varying the range and constitution of the orchestra almost from number to number. Dramatically too, the story chimes neatly with Britten’s preoccupations with the penultimate scene, where Macheath reflects on his fate in the condemned cell, remarkably foreshadowing the similar moment near the end of Britten’s next full-scale opera Billy Budd.

Reproduced by kind permission of the Britten-Pears Library

Ánimos
Comic, Dramatic

Temas
Ethics, History, Relationships, Society, Literary

Grabación recomendada
Ann Murray/Philip Langridge/Yvonne Kenny/John Rawnsley/Robert Lloyd/Anne Collins/Aldeburgh Festival Chorus and Orchestra/Steuart Bedford
Decca 436 850-2

Artículos en venta

Selections from The Beggar's Opera - voice & piano	Voice, Piano	> Detalles
The Beggar's Opera, op. 43 - study score	Study Score (hardback) - Hawkes Pocket Score 1276	> Detalles
The Beggar's Opera, op. 43 - vocal score	(Vocal Score)	> Detalles