Amazing pieces of classical music - 13
"The Beggar's Opera," Part 3, Scene 1: "A Gaming House" with song no. 43, "In the Days of My Youth," written by John Gay with music by Johann Christoph Pepusch (first performed in 1728) in a setting here by Frederic Austin in 1920 and a recording by the Pro Arte Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent in 1955.
It is a ballad opera, a (satirical) play with many songs rather than a series of musical numbers with dialogue, and often the dialogue is longer than the song that precedes it. This is an example of the English comic opera, and although the beggar warns us at the beginning that there are no honest men or women in his opera, this certainly does not prepare us for all that will be done and said. It's never been a favourite of mine and will never be that because of it.
The music itself was a compilation of melodies popular at the time in a setting by Pepusch. It is the only surviving comic ballad opera from a period when they were extremely popular in England, along with the many political caricatures, including those of William Hogarth. While Sir Robert Walpole may have become the very first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland, this opera nevertheless fully exploited the cancerous political corruption of the eighteenth century
[media=https://youtu.be/-5yFNee5YKs]
It is a ballad opera, a (satirical) play with many songs rather than a series of musical numbers with dialogue, and often the dialogue is longer than the song that precedes it. This is an example of the English comic opera, and although the beggar warns us at the beginning that there are no honest men or women in his opera, this certainly does not prepare us for all that will be done and said. It's never been a favourite of mine and will never be that because of it.
The music itself was a compilation of melodies popular at the time in a setting by Pepusch. It is the only surviving comic ballad opera from a period when they were extremely popular in England, along with the many political caricatures, including those of William Hogarth. While Sir Robert Walpole may have become the very first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland, this opera nevertheless fully exploited the cancerous political corruption of the eighteenth century
[media=https://youtu.be/-5yFNee5YKs]
