In my "O" Level year, my English teacher organised a trip for the class to Stratford for a performance of Romeo and Juliet. Dorothy Tutin was Juliet and it was seeing her in that performance that prompted me to do enough revision to pass my English Lit "O" Level. Thankyou Ms Tutin and a big thankyou to Miss Jones for taking us there!
I love hearing stories like this. A friend of mine from Pakistan who went to grammar school in Manchester told me she fell in love with Shakespeare when her Eng lLit class went on a weekend to Stratford to see two Shakespeare plays. I loved it when she said "I love my own family culture but I felt that Shakespeare was something just for me"
I just read about this in Larry’s autobiography ‘Confessions of an Actor.’ Larry and Stanley Holloway are the only two who did their own singing. Everyone else was dubbed by first-class British singers.
The soldiers' version was first, MrAcarine - appearing in 1706 in George Farquhar's play "The Recruiting Officer". Gay used the tune with his own new lyrics in "The Beggar's Opera" in 1728.
I don't think it was Dottie's voice they used in the film, though she was a decent classical singer (and an even better pianist and flautist ). The extraordinary chemistry between them on screen was absolutely real: Tutin and Olivier (who was married to Vivien Leigh at the time) were passionate, but secret lovers for many years in the 1950s - indeed it may have been on Beggar's Opera that they first met. Like his character Macheath, Sir Larry was never content with the love of one woman.
This is so obviously a romantic 1950s film, so laugh away, but for fully-clothed realistic everyday sex, they could hardly have gone further, could they? It's also quite difficult to realise that it was produced originally at the same time as operas by Handel, Rameau, and Vivaldi. It is a gem of working-class English culture, almost down-to-earth and mundane, rather than airy-fairy classical mythology,
The Beggar's Opera (1728) was a fiercely satirical take on the corruptions of contemporary English society -- even more cynical in its outlook on human nature than Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill's famous 1928 German adaptation, Die Dreigroschenoper -- and a nose-thumbing send-up of the Italian opera then in fashion in London. Peter Brook's film version, though the music has certainly been prettified, still retains a strong element of parody, now using the swashbuckling film epics of recent decades as a convenient reference point. The one thing this movie is NOT is "a romantic 1950s film"!
Yes, interesting indeed! Maybe I was not clear enough. When I write "trad" I mean music and/or lyrics that no-one knows the composer/author to. Working with traditional folkmusic, I find it amusing to "collect" songs that either have the same (or similar) music to different lyrics, or the other way around. Sometimes composer OR author is known. I have read somewhere (unfortunately I cannot remember where) that the music to 'Over the hills and far away' can be traced to the 17th C.
Were I laid on Greenland's coast, And in my arms embraced my lass; Warm amidst eternal frost, Too soon the half year's night would pass. Were I sold on Indian soil, Soon as the burning day was closed; I could mock the sultry toil, When on my charmer's breast reposed. And I would love you all the days, Every night would kiss and play; If with me you fondly stray, Over the hills and far away.
Isn't that how he's envisioned in the story they're acting out? He's obviously being cleaned up and glamorized beyond the comdemned man we see at the beginning. Or, maybe it's been too long since I've seen it.
Yes, even if in his childhood he was a talented choirboy in the choir of All Saints in London (in his autobiography he writes "I reportedly sang like an angel").
Interesting. I would not separate music and lyrics. I would say the lyrics were trad with the music. Maybe altered a bit. Think 'mamma mia' movie with the Abba songbook. Good fit. Still, there's a change or 2.This was the original '3 grochen oper' look how many people have sung in different languages'Mack the Knife'. It is from the 1700s written by John Gay and Produced by John? Rich. Listen to the Sharpe series version of Over this is about the nepoleonic wars, with words to fit.
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In my "O" Level year, my English teacher organised a trip for the class to Stratford for a performance of Romeo and Juliet. Dorothy Tutin was Juliet and it was seeing her in that performance that prompted me to do enough revision to pass my English Lit "O" Level. Thankyou Ms Tutin and a big thankyou to Miss Jones for taking us there!
I love hearing stories like this. A friend of mine from Pakistan who went to grammar school in Manchester told me she fell in love with Shakespeare when her Eng lLit class went on a weekend to Stratford to see two Shakespeare plays. I loved it when she said "I love my own family culture but I felt that Shakespeare was something just for me"
I just read about this in Larry’s autobiography ‘Confessions of an Actor.’
Larry and Stanley Holloway are the only two who did their own singing. Everyone else was dubbed by first-class British singers.
Thank you for this. It's one of my favorite films, and I've been waiting years for someone to post a clip.
Very fine, I too have been waiting for this clip to be be put on,Larry sings ....
Thanks for enlightening me! Very much appreciated!
The soldiers' version was first, MrAcarine - appearing in 1706 in George Farquhar's play "The Recruiting Officer". Gay used the tune with his own new lyrics in "The Beggar's Opera" in 1728.
mmmm. Laurence Olivier, you can sing to me any day.
I had no idea Dorothy Tutin could sing and with great charm. In fact the pairing with Olivier is great.
I don't think it was Dottie's voice they used in the film, though she was a decent classical singer (and an even better pianist and flautist ). The extraordinary chemistry between them on screen was absolutely real: Tutin and Olivier (who was married to Vivien Leigh at the time) were passionate, but secret lovers for many years in the 1950s - indeed it may have been on Beggar's Opera that they first met. Like his character Macheath, Sir Larry was never content with the love of one woman.
Classic!!! many thanks
Good old swashbuckling classic. I remember it well. Shame it's so hard to find on DVD.
I think it's available on Warner Classics - it's where I got my copy some years ago.
Ah! www.wbshop.com/products/beggars-opera-the-mod
What fun:-)
Don't expect me to be objective...I'm a huge fan of Olivier...:)
Didn't do very well on British cinema at the time, but considering the budget i thought it was an excellent adaptation.
This is so obviously a romantic 1950s film, so laugh away, but for fully-clothed realistic everyday sex, they could hardly have gone further, could they? It's also quite difficult to realise that it was produced originally at the same time as operas by Handel, Rameau, and Vivaldi. It is a gem of working-class English culture, almost down-to-earth and mundane, rather than airy-fairy classical mythology,
The Beggar's Opera (1728) was a fiercely satirical take on the corruptions of contemporary English society -- even more cynical in its outlook on human nature than Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill's famous 1928 German adaptation, Die Dreigroschenoper -- and a nose-thumbing send-up of the Italian opera then in fashion in London. Peter Brook's film version, though the music has certainly been prettified, still retains a strong element of parody, now using the swashbuckling film epics of recent decades as a convenient reference point. The one thing this movie is NOT is "a romantic 1950s film"!
Yes, interesting indeed! Maybe I was not clear enough. When I write "trad" I mean music and/or lyrics that no-one knows the composer/author to.
Working with traditional folkmusic, I find it amusing to "collect" songs that either have the same (or similar) music to different lyrics, or the other way around. Sometimes composer OR author is known.
I have read somewhere (unfortunately I cannot remember where) that the music to 'Over the hills and far away' can be traced to the 17th C.
Were I laid on Greenland's coast,
And in my arms embraced my lass;
Warm amidst eternal frost,
Too soon the half year's night would pass.
Were I sold on Indian soil,
Soon as the burning day was closed;
I could mock the sultry toil,
When on my charmer's breast reposed.
And I would love you all the days,
Every night would kiss and play;
If with me you fondly stray,
Over the hills and far away.
Isn't that how he's envisioned in the story they're acting out? He's obviously being cleaned up and glamorized beyond the comdemned man we see at the beginning. Or, maybe it's been too long since I've seen it.
3@@@❤❤
Oh how I would have loved to play in Broadway musicals in those days. Maybe someday...
Yes, even if in his childhood he was a talented choirboy in the choir of All Saints in London (in his autobiography he writes "I reportedly sang like an angel").
So who is that, just over Olivier's shoulder, sneaking out of the scene between 0:24 and 0:30?
I think it's Filtch.
This was pretty! But, oh, so Far Away from the version adapted by John Tams for the 'Sharpe' series!
That's a different song, though. Gay and Pepusch used popular songs of their time and this one too was an adaptation of the orginal.
He looks like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
Yes, I know that the music is trad. But do you know if the lyrics here are trad or created for the libretto?
is he really singing here?
So did this version or the soldiers' version come first?
@sonicx666 Not all Highwayman / Women were from the lower classes - be careful of making assumptions. It's a trap I've fallen into myself.
Act I, Scene xiii, Air XVI
Interesting. I would not separate music and lyrics. I would say the lyrics were trad with the music. Maybe altered a bit. Think 'mamma mia' movie with the Abba songbook. Good fit. Still, there's a change or 2.This was the original '3 grochen oper' look how many people have sung in different languages'Mack the Knife'. It is from the 1700s written by John Gay and Produced by John? Rich. Listen to the Sharpe series version of Over this is about the nepoleonic wars, with words to fit.
:)
They had colour then?
It's not really a baritone though is it?
Ho laddie! Bring me a bucket quick, I must heave me dinner.
this is a traditional song.
A very weedy baritone then maybe...
very weak voice, Dorothy Tutin is charming. He's very phony here,