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
2003 in British music Awards were: The 2003 Mercury Music Prize was awarded to Dizzee Rascal – "Boy in Da Corner". The 2006 Popjustice £20 Music Prize was awarded to Girls Aloud for their song "No Good Advice" from the album "Sound of the Underground". The Record of the Year was awarded to "Mandy" by Westlife. 2003 in British music This is a summary of 2003 in music in the United Kingdom. Both Andrew Glover and Peter Maxwell Davies produced several new orchestral/instrumental works. British film score composer Rachel Portman produced an opera, "The Little Prince", commissioned by the Houston Opera and premièred in