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St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-WyeMid Wales Opera’s Richard Studer does away with Macheath in this sharp and slick revision of John Gay’s witty ballad opera
Peachum: the distinctive name gives it away. Mid Wales Opera’s new production is a cheeky take on John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. If Weill and Brecht based their Threepenny Opera on it, then, reasoned MWO’s Richard Studer, he could have fun too. Studer’s original was a one-woman show spotlighting the lady – though she’s no lady, more madam and scheming murderess – but became a three-hander with daughter Polly Peachum (a fetching portrayal by Alys Mererid Roberts) and servant Filch (Johnny Herford), who steals the authorial framing.
What? No Macheath? Afficionados of Gay and Weill will be horrified. Yet the highwayman – the lovable rogue secretly married to Polly and in thieving league with her father – manages to be a presence throughout, thanks to the gibbet and noose standing ready to hang him. He’s clearly the mainstay of Polly’s existence. Continue reading...