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Gay: The Beggar's Opera

Tom Randle (tenor), Leah-Marian Jones (mezzo soprano), Sarah Fox (soprano), Jeremy White (bass), Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano), Donald Maxwell (baritone), Robert Anthony Gardiner (tenor or speaking role), Frances McCafferty (contralto) & Sirena Tocco (actor)

City of London Sinfonia, Christian...

…wonderful singing, supported by often delectable playing from the City of London Sinfonia under Christian Curnyn… — BBC Music Magazine, December 2009 More…

Release Date: 28th Sep 2009
Catalogue No: CHAN10548(2)
Label: Chandos
Length: 1 hour 57 minutes

Gay: The Beggar's Opera, Op. 43

Work length1:57:21

$71.00

$92.30

Donald Maxwell (baritone), Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano), Jeremy White (bass), Frances McCafferty (mezzo-soprano), Sarah Fox (soprano), Leah Marian Jones (mezzo-soprano), Clare McCaldin (mezzo-soprano), Thomas Barnard (bass), Ben Thapa (tenor), Tom Randle (tenor), Robert Anthony Gardiner (tenor), Kathryn Jenkin (vocals), Siobhain Gibson (vocals), Bernadette Lord (vocals), Alison Place (vocals), Katy Batho (vocals), Miranda Westcott (vocals), Katherine Paterson (vocals), Bryn Evans (vocals), Aidan Smith (vocals), Mark Saberton (vocals), Paul Hopwood (vocals), Sirena Tocco (vocals)
City of London Sinfonia
Christian Curnyn

Introduction: If Poverty be a title to Poetry (Beggar)

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Overture

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Act I: Through all the employments of life (Peachum)

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Act I: Sir, black Moll hath sent word (Filch, Peachum)

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Act I: 'Tis Woman that seduces all Mankind (Filch, Peachum)

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Act I: But it is now high time to look about me (Peachum, Mrs. Peachum)

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Act I: Women indeed are bitter bad judges - …ev'ry Man handsome who is going to the Camp - If any wench Venus' Girdle wear (Mrs. Peachum)

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Act I: Was Captain Macheath here this morning? (Peachum, Mrs. Peachum)

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Act I: If Love the Virgin's Heart invade (Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

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Act I: A Maid is like the Golden ore (Mrs. Peachum)

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Act I: Come hither, Filch (Mrs. Peachum, Filch)

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Act I: I know as well as any of the fine ladies (Polly) - Virgins are like the fair flower in its lustre (Polly, Peachum)

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Act I: Our Polly is a sad slut! (Mrs. Peachum, Omnes, Peachum, Polly)

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Act I: Can Love be controlled by Advice? (Polly, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

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Act I: The girl shows such a readiness (Mrs. Peachum) - O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed (Mrs. Peachum, Polly, Omnes, Peachum)

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Act I: I, like a Ship in storms, was tossed (Polly, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

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Act I: A fox may steal your hens, Sir (Peachum, Mrs. Peachum, Polly)

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Act I: O ponder well! Be not severe (Polly, Mrs. Peachum)

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Act I: The Turtle thus with plaintive crying, her Lover dying (Polly, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

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Act I: Now I'm a wretch indeed! (Polly, Omnes, Macheath)

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Act I: My heart was so free (Macheath, Polly)

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Act I: Were I laid on Greenland's coast (Macheath, Polly, Omnes)

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Act I: O! what pain it is to part! (Polly, Macheath)

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Act I: The Miser thus a shilling sees (Macheath, Polly)

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Act I: But pr'thee, Mat, what is become of thy brother Tom? (Ben Budge, Mat of the Mint, Jemmy Twitcher, Nimming Ned, Harry Paddington, Wat Dreary)

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Act I: Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us (Gentlemen of the Road)

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Act I: Gentlemen, well met (Macheath, Mat of the Mint)

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Act I: I shall wish myself with you (Macheath) - Let us take the road (Harry Paddington, Gentlemen of the Road)

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Act I: If the heart of a man is depressed with cares (Macheath)

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Act I: Dear Mrs. Coaxer, you are welcome (Macheath) - Youth's the season made for joys (Macheath, Ladies of the Town)

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Act I: Now pray, ladies, take your places (Macheath, Jenny Diver, Mrs. Coaxer)

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Act I: It is your own choice (Jenny Diver) - Before the barn-door crowing (Jenny Diver, Ladies of the Town, Macheath, Dolly Trull, Suky Tawdry)

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Act I: But to be sure, Sir (Jenny Diver) - The Gamesters and Lawyers are jugglers alike (Ladies of the Town, Betty Doxy, Macheath, Peachum)

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Act I: The gentleman, ladies, lodges in Newgate - Constables, wait upon the Captain to his lodgings (Peachum) - At the Tree I shall suffer with pleasure (Macheath)

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Act II: Noble Captain, you are welcome (Lockit, Macheath)

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Act II: Man may escape from rope and gun (Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

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Act II: Thus when a good Housewife sees a rat (Lucy Lockit, Macheath)

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Act II: It is the pleasure of all you fine men (Lucy Lockit) - How cruel are the traytors (Lucy Lockit, Macheath)

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Act II: The first time at the looking glass (Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

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Act II: In this last affair, brother Peachum, we are agreed (Lockit, Peachum)

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Act II: Such language, brother, anywhere else (Lockit) - When you censure the age (Lockit, Lucy Lockit)

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Act II: Is then his fate decreed, Sir? (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

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Act II: Though the Chaplain was out of the way to-day (Lucy Lockit, Macheath, Polly)

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Act II: Thus when the Swallow seeking prey (Polly, Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

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Act II: If women's tongues can cease for an answer (Macheath) - I will not! (Lucy Lockit) - How happy could I be with either (Macheath, Polly)

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Act II: Cease your funning (Polly, Omnes, Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

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Act II: Why how now, Madam Flirt! (Lucy Lockit, Polly, Peachum, Lockit)

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Act II: No power on earth can e'er divide (Lucy Lockit, Macheath, Lockit, Peachum, Omnes)

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Act III: To be sure, wench, you must have been aiding and abetting (Lockit, Lucy Lockit)

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Act III: Dear Sir, mention not my education (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

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Act III: Ungrateful Macheath! (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

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Act III: Thus Gamesters united in friendship are found (Lockit)

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Act III: Our scene doth represent a Gaming House (Beggar) - The modes of the Court so common are grown (Macheath, Ben Budge, Mat of the Mint, Omnes)

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Act III: The Coronation account, brother Peachum (Lockit, Peachum, Servant, Mrs. Trapes)

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Act III: In the days of my youth I could bill like a dove (Mrs. Trapes, Lockit, Peachum)

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Act III: In the days of my youth I could bill like a dove (Mrs. Trapes, Beggar)

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Act III: Jealousy, rage, love and fear (Lucy Lockit)

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Act III: I have the Rat's-bane ready (Lucy Lockit, Filch, Polly)

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Act III: A curse attends a woman's love (Polly, Lucy Lockit)

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Act III: When I was forced from him (Polly, Lucy Lockit)

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Act III: Come, sweet lass (Lucy Lockit, Polly)

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Act III: Now every glimmering of happiness is lost (Polly, Lucy Lockit, Macheath, Peachum)

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Act III: Which way shall I turn me, how can I decide? (Macheath, Polly)

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Act III: Dear, dear Sir, sink the material evidence (Polly)

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Act III: How then can you be a tyrant to me (Lucy Lockit) - When he holds up his hand arraigned for his life (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

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Act III: Ourselves, like the Great, to secure a retreat (Lockit, Peachum)

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Act III: We are ready, Sir… (Lockit) - …to conduct you to the Old Bailey! (Lockit, Lucy Lockit, Polly, Macheath, Peachum, Omnes)

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Act III: O cruel, cruel case! (Macheath, Jailer)

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Act III: Would I might be hanged! (Polly, Lucy Lockit, Macheath)

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Act III: But surely you don't intend that Macheath shall really executed? (Mat of the Mint, Beggar, Ben Budge, Lucy Lockit, Polly, Lockit, Peachum)

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Act III: Thus I stand like a Turk, with his doxies around (Macheath, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum, Ladies of the Town, Gentlemen of the Road, Lucy Lockit, Polly, Mrs. Trapes, Lockit)

Track length1:53

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About
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About

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.

First seen in 1728, this original ballad opera weaving popular tunes of the day from England, Scotland and Ireland (with some Handel and Purcell thrown in) as it depicted the goings-on in London’s criminal underworld. Many different versions have been made of The Beggar’s Opera, but Britten’s version, from 1948, stands out through its skilful, sensitive treatment of the original music realized from the original airs. Britten’s interest in The Beggar’s Opera as a vehicle for the newly-formed English Opera Group stemmed naturally from his love of folk-song. Britten used 66 of the original 69 airs and twice combined two of the songs. He described the airs as “the most characteristically English of any of our folk-songs.”

In January 2009 The Royal Opera presented a new production directed by Justin Way, featuring a strong cast of Royal Opera performers including Tom Randle as Macheath, Jeremy White as Peachum, Leah-Marian Jones’s as Polly and Sarah Fox as Lucy. They are ably accompanied by the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Christian Curnyn. This recording was made between these performances.

The Stage noted ‘The cast is beyond reproach. Jeremy White sings, acts and delivers his dialogue as Peachum with equal naturalness, Leah-Marian Jones struts her stuff uninhibitedly as Polly and Sarah Fox as Macheath’s other lovestruck devotee, Lucy Lockit, sings affectingly, not least in her If Love’s a Sweet Passion. But Tom Randle truly anchors the cast. He gives Macheath a somehow likeable sheen, impressing as much with his vocal and acting talents and, before the philanderer’s sudden reprieve at the opera’s end, elicits genuine pity as a condemned man.’ The Stage

Artists

City of London Sinfonia, Christian Curnyn

Reviews

December 2009

…wonderful singing, supported by often delectable playing from the City of London Sinfonia under Christian Curnyn…

November 2009

…the highly skilled playing that Curnyn gets from the City of London Sinfonia and Chandos's excellent recording gives every instrument a life of its own. Tom Randle gives an attractive portrayal of Macheath as a lovable young rogue. The two women - Leah-Marian Jones's Polly Peachum and Sarah Fox's Lucy Lockit - sing with... more character, mock Cockney accents and all. Jeremy White as Peachum and, especially, Donald Maxwell as Lockit relish Gay's brand of low humour.

13th November 2009

The score is fierily conducted by Christian Curnyn. Tom Randle's plays Macheath so seductively that we understand exactly why Sarah Fox's Lucy and Leah-Marian Jones's Polly are continuously fighting over him. Listen out, also, for Frances McCafferty's glorious Mrs Trapes and Donald Maxwell's superlative Lockit.

Gay: The Beggar's Opera

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