The Beggar’s Opera

Peachum opens his account book not to count debts, but to weigh each thief’s profits against the price of a hanging. In his line of work, even execution is a matter of business.

John Gay’s 1728 ballad opera unfolds among London’s thieves, where familiar tunes carry a wickedly comic view of crime, money and respectability. Peachum manages his gang with a sharp eye for profit, but his daughter Polly has taken a liking to Captain Macheath—a highwayman whose charm may be poor protection against her father’s plans. As Peachum and his wife reckon the risks of a match, love enters a household where every relationship seems to have its price. Can Polly choose her own future in a world that keeps its accounts so carefully?

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