John Gay, Bertolt Brecht, and urbanized opera

Book chapter

Merchant, P. 2020. John Gay, Bertolt Brecht, and urbanized opera. in: Tambling, J. (ed.) Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies Living Edition Palgrave Macmillan.
AuthorsMerchant, P.
EditorsTambling, J.
Abstract

Both the design and the detail of John Gay’s play The Beggar’s Opera (1728) serve to situate it solidly in Georgian London. A new urban sensibility permeates the work, and a means of treating “low” subject-matter is found that would blaze a trail for later writers. In particular, The Beggar’s Opera sows the seeds of its spectacular twentieth-century remaking by Bertolt Brecht. Brecht’s play responds to city culture as fully and as unflinchingly as Gay’s did.

KeywordsAdaptation; Artistic collaboration; Bathos and parodic contrast; Street ballads; Urban imaginaries; Urbanized opera
Year2020
Book titlePalgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies Living Edition
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Output statusPublished
EditionLiving Edition
ISBN9783319625928
Publication dates
Online17 Nov 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted29 Jun 2020
Deposited18 Jan 2021
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_269-1
Official URLhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_269-1
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