Release Date

01 Oct, 1991

Runtime

01:34: (HH:MM)

Synopsis

Unlike any other opera, the so-called Beggar's Opera is not just one composition, but a lineage of adapted compositions, beginning with the original hugely successful 1728 political satire written by Englishman John Gay. Composers and writers have penned variations on it ever since. The most famous of these was A Threepenny Opera by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Some things these compositions share in common is their setting among the poor and criminal classes, and the roguish character Macheath. This production is based on an adaptation of Gay's original by Vaclav Havel the freedom-fighter, writer and philosopher who became the first (and only) president of the united post-communist country of Czechoslovakia, and it retains many traces of its theatrical origins. Film reviewers were not too tolerant of what they called "slavish adherence" to the noted Czech writer's stage production, but theater, philosophy and history buffs may feel otherwise.

Original Title

Žebrácká opera

Photos

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Actors

Josef Abrhám

Marián Labuda

Nina Divíšková

Libuše Šafránková

Rudolf Hrušínský

Veronika Freimanová

Barbora Leichnerová

Jiří Zahajský

Oldřich Vízner

Ondřej Vetchý

Jeremy Irons

Jana Břežková

Kateřina Frýbová

Jana Švandová

Mahulena Bočanová

Naďa Kotršová

Miloslav Štibich

Rudolf Hrušínský ml.

Jiří Lír

Pavel Zedníček

Oldřich Vlach

Crew

Jiří Menzel

Jaromír Šofr

Jan Klusák

Jiří Menzel

Jiří Brožek

Jiří Menzel

Jan Šuster

Eva Kadaňková

Monika Maratová

Annika Eisel-Šonka

Eric Chaikin

Zuzana Přibíková

Václav Havel

Václav Havel