The Beggar's Rock Opera

My first adaptation, The Savoy Beggar's Opera, is aimed at Gilbert and Sullivan groups who would like something a little different to perform, while staying within the confines of the G&S 'style' of music.  

The idea for The Beggar's Rock Opera came from the the needs of other groups who might not necessarily have the sort of cast who are used to performing choruses in four-part harmony.  For those groups, I deliberately set about writing a version which is set much more in a modern musical/rock idiom.  It's not a rock and roll type show (like Forbidden Planet), nor is it pure musical theatre (a la Lloyd-Webber), but hopefully, it gives the opportunity for soloists and others to get inside some really great characters that populate the underworld of London, and present them in a style familiar to modern audiences.

John Gay's original Beggar's Opera was first staged in 1728.  Two hundred years later in1928, Kurt Weil and Bertholt Brecht revised it into the Threepenny Opera.  

And now, a new version for the 21st century, The Beggar's Rock Opera!  Hopefully, it should be finished in 2023, and we'll have links from here to the musical numbers!

© Nigel Holloway 2023