The Beggars Opera

30.11.2016

November 27 at 6 p.m., the students of the Romance and Germanic Philology Department attended a performance of «The Beggars Opera» in Poltava Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater named after M. Gogol.

The Beggars Opera – ballad opera, written in 1727 by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepush. For its time this work was unexpected and even revolutionary – instead of «decent» characters author introduced to readers and viewers «bottom» of the city: robbers, thieves, buyers of stolen goods. Pictures from the life of these people are lively and fun so you can not immediately realize that cheerful polygamist Makhit is just a gangster from the big road.

The focus of the author is on corruption of law enforcement and penitentiary structures that oriented not on the fight against crime, but its maintenance. Buyer of stolen goods, prison guard and the owner of brothel are equally interested in the prosperity of Makhit. All the characters are interested in cooperation, but at any moment they are ready to hand over each other to save their own necks from the rope. Nothing new, nothing old, always topical issue, because in this part the world does not change from Byzantine times.

In the context of theme «lightness» of the play is a bit annoying, there is an imbalance of content and form. It’s not because it is impossible to talk about the evils of society in the comedy genre. Of course, it is possible, even necessary, and the comedy genre really fits. But ragments of verse-singing turns play in the vaudeville. In the first there are not Makhit-thief and Pichem-gangster anymore, but Makhit-lover and two girls he seduced. The social component is blurred.

However, the performance is easy to watch. Follow the events is interesting too. But there are no sympathetic characters in it. You don’t want to empathise anyone. But in general the play is, of course, good, and will be read and played on stage more than one generation after us, because its relevance is not decreasing, unfortunately.

Sparkling humor, the atmosphere of elegant and hypnotic show combined with reflections on the destiny of man in a society where money decides everything, where rogue and the rulers and can be easily swapped …

According to the teacher of
Roman and Germanic Philology Department,
Vieriemieieva Marharyta Viacheslavivna