The Beggar's Opera

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Unlike any other opera, the so-called Beggar's Opera is not just one composition, but a lineage of adapted compositions, beginning with the original hugely successful 1728 political satire written by Englishman John Gay. Composers and writers have penned variations on it ever since. The most famous of these was A Threepenny Opera by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Some things these compositions share in common is their setting among the poor and criminal classes, and the roguish character Macheath. This production is based on an adaptation of Gay's original by Vaclav Havel the freedom-fighter, writer and philosopher who became the first (and only) president of the united post-communist country of Czechoslovakia, and it retains many traces of its theatrical origins. Film reviewers were not too tolerant of what they called "slavish adherence" to the noted Czech writer's stage production, but theater, philosophy and history buffs may feel otherwise.

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Creators

Jiří Menzel

director

Jiří Menzel

writer

Václav Havel

writer

John Gay

writer

Cast

Josef Abrhám actor Marián Labuda actor

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Nina Divíšková actor Libuše Šafránková actor Rudolf Hrušínský actor Veronika Freimanová actor

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Barbora Leichnerová actor

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Jiří Zahajský actor

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Oldřich Vízner actor Ondřej Vetchý actor Jeremy Irons actor

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Jana Břežková actor

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Kateřina Frýbová actor Jana Svandová actor Mahulena Bočanová actor

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Naďa Kotršová actor

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Miloslav Štibich actor

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Jiří Lír actor Pavel Zedníček actor