The Beggar's Opera piece satirised Italian opera, which had become popular in London. According to "The New York Times": "Gay wrote the work more as an anti-opera than an opera, one of its attractions to its 18th-century London public being its lampooning of the Italian opera style and the English public's fascination with it." Instead of the grand music and themes of opera, the work uses familiar tunes and characters that were ordinary people. Some of the songs were by opera composers like Handel, but only the most popular of these were used. The audience could hum along with the music and identify
Royal Winter Music Shakespearean theme in three parts. Henze has stated that the work as whole is now complete. The second piece was premiered by Reinbert Evers in the Goethe-Institut, Brussels on 25 November 1980. Both works are dedicated by Julian Bream. Recordings Otto Tolonen: Royal Winter Music (Alba Records, 2015) Royal Winter Music Royal Winter Music is the name given to two solo works for classical guitar by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. Both works are inspired by characters from Shakespeare. The first work (described as a sonata) was completed in 1976, and is in six movements. The first part, "Richard