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
James Lockhart (music director) James Lockhart (music director) James Lockhart (born 16 October 1930) is a Scottish conductor, pianist and organist who served as music director for a number of organisations. Lockhart was born on 16 October 1930 in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal College of Music. He worked as a ' (singing coach) at the ', Germany from 1955 to 1956. He was music director at Welsh National Opera from 1968 to 1972, and at the opera of the "" from 1972 to 1978 — the first British born person to hold that position with a German opera. He was the Royal