Читать книгу The Beggar's Opera; Its Predecessors & Successors - Frank Kidson - Страница 3

PREFACE

Table of Contents

o the late Victorian The Beggar’s Opera is but a name; to his father or grandfather it may have been a memory of some imperfect representation—perhaps as cut down to an after-piece—given at a provincial theatre.

Apart from its dramatic appeal, the opera quickly became a classic. Its vigour, its picturesqueness, its unfolding of a bygone life, its association with Pope, Swift, and others of that coterie have made it of permanent interest to the literary man.

This little volume aims at presenting in a handy form such facts as bear upon the inception of Gay’s masterpiece and its influence upon the English stage; and secondly at giving a brief account of the Italian operas that preceded it and of the ballad operas for which it led the way.

The recent production has caused a renewed interest in The Beggar’s Opera and given to the twentieth century a glimpse of the dramatic art which delighted generations of our ancestors.

F. K.

May, 1922.