The intrigue of a father who disobeys his daughter, the clash of two underworld rivals and the vacillating guardian of public order between them, and the confrontation of three (dis)enchanted ladies - this titillating story from the milieu of crime and prostitution was a means for the playwright John Gay to draw a complex political satire on the corruption of English society at the beginning of the 18th century. The Beggar's Opera, the most performed work of the time, will be staged for the first time at the SNG Nova Gorica on March 23rd. It also inspired many adaptations and remakes, among which the most famous are Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera (1928) and Benjamin Britten's modernist musical adaptation (1948), but it is also worth mentioning the politically engaged (non-musical) drama of the Czech playwright Vaclav Havel ( 1978) and Opera Wonyosi by the Nigerian Nobel laureate Wola Soyinka (1977).
