Gay: The Beggar's Opera - Denis Stevens, Accademia Monteverdiana

Act 1, Overture and Nos. 1-13

Act 1, Nos. 14-18

Act 2, Nos. 19-31 Act 2, Nos. 32-40

Act 3, Nos. 41-46 Act 3, Nos. 47-69 

Despite its renown, The Beggar's Opera has never previously been recorded with the musical style and resources that characterize early 18th century London. I sincerely hope that the version you hear now will assist in carrying your imagination back to those heady days of the English theater, even though "the play's the thing" and in many ways the opera is incomplete without Gay's racy dialogue. The answer is to purchase copies of the play and gather your friends and family for a play-reading, during which a highly refined and appropriately costumed disc jockey can put on the musical numbers at appropriate points. Although it may perhaps be objected that the singers do not try to sound like highwaymen, criminals, and prostitutes - preferring the beauties of bel canto to the barbarisms of "can belto" - there is nothing historically wrong with this. Many of the actor-singers associate with the original production possessed voices of beauty and disinction, and there is no evidence to show that they deliberately distorted their vocal talents in the interests of total realism. Nor can it be proved that in real life all highwaymen were tone-deaf and all prostitutes devoid of the ability to sing. In Venice, if not in London, courtesans were as much prized for their musical as for their sexual performances, and the phrase 'wine, women and song' should not be restricted to the Austrian Empire. May you enjoy this delightful music as much as we enjoyed recording it for you. --Denis Stevens