Word: beggar
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...judge of what singers love to do and should be asked to do. This tale from Ovid was evidently a favorite with him, for he did three settings of it and even plagiarized from it for other works. Schmidt chose the second version with words by John Gay of Beggar's Opera fame. The charming soprano and tenor solos were beautifully handled by Sarah-Jane Smith and Antonio Giarraputo...
...Oxford. "I am conscious of my madness; therefore I am truly wise." Thus he lived and performed, an honored enigma. At one time, his work and his person seemed to have the embroidered smile of a saint on a religious banner; at another, the proud sneer of a Spanish beggar...
...London Journal" that strolling through the Strand he had met several ladies of the town and, "in a rich flow of animal spirits," had betook them to a private room in an ale-house. "I toyed with them and drank about and sung 'Youth's the Season' from The Beggar's Opera and thought myself Captain Macheath; and then I solaced my existence with them, one after the other, according to their seniority." Two hundred years later the Drama Festival's production of the same play, while not specifically aphrodisiac, still exalts and delights...
...musical comedy "The Beggar's Opera" is incomparable. Gay, unhindered by copyright laws, set his verses to popular songs--folk songs today--and the airs of Purcell and Handel himself. Daniel Pinkham of the Festival has followed in this tradition by rummaging through Handel and plucking out a few gems that Gay missed, including the rousing anthem "See the Conquering Hero Comes." His orchestrations, while essentially true to the baroque originals, reinforce these delicate songs without intruding on their simplicity; the flute and string accompaniment of "Youth's the Season" was especially graceful...
...bits and arias he is Peachum as Gay must have envisioned him. Zamah Cunningham as his wife, however, speaks her lines as if she were all too conscious of their comic intent. Jeanne Beauvais displayed a lovely voice as Lucy Lockit, and Sorrel Booke was properly ingratiating as the Beggar Poet...