Beyond 'The Beggar’s Opera': John Rich and English Ballad Opera

Joncus, Berta and Rogers, Vanessa L.. 2011. Beyond 'The Beggar’s Opera': John Rich and English Ballad Opera. In: Berta Joncus and Jeremy Barlow, eds. 'The Stage’s Glory’: John Rich (1692-1761). Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, pp. 184-204. ISBN 9781611490329 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

This chapter outlines the signficance of ballad opera in the career of John Rich, the founder of Covent Garden. John Rich helped father ballad opera, agreeing to mount John Gay's _Beggar's Opera_ after Drury Lane rejected Gay's manuscript. Thereafter, however, Rich was unable to maintain his hold over the ballad opera market, despite the popularity of the _Beggar's Opera_. This was not for want of ingenious experiments, which included mounting John Gay's second ballad opera, _Achilles_and _The Cobler's Opera_ , crafted around the star of _The Beggar's Opera_, Lavinia Fenton.

Item Type:

Book Section

Keywords:

ballad opera, John Rich, Lavinia Fenton

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Music

Dates:

DateEvent
May 2011Published

Item ID:

7946

Date Deposited:

22 Apr 2013 14:17

Last Modified:

30 Jun 2017 09:44

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/7946

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