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
The Trial (2014 opera) The Trial (2014 opera) The Trial is an English-language opera in two acts, with music by Philip Glass to a libretto by Christopher Hampton, based on the eponymous novel by Franz Kafka. The opera was a joint commission between Music Theatre Wales, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Theater Magdeburg and Scottish Opera. As produced by Music Theatre Wales, the opera received its world premiere on 10 October 2014, in a production by Music Theatre Wales at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (London). The German premiere at the Theater Magdeburg occurred on 2 April 2015. Scottish