"Over the Hills and Far Away" from "The Beggar's Opera"

[RomaShop1]

OMG, this is SOOOOO ROMANTIC!!!! I hope to have an experience like this someday. :)

[comradeshow]

this opera brutalized the beautiful song from the recruiting officer

[bonniewayfarer]

Laurence Olivier has a great voice. He is a wonder.

Dorothy Tutin is really charming, especially when she says: "(Every night) would kiss and play" - what a sweet cheek :)

Bonniewayfarer

[injamaven]

very weak voice, Dorothy Tutin is charming. He's very phony here,

[RasMajnouni]

Ho laddie! Bring me a bucket quick, I must heave me dinner.

[lauracida]

she is absolutely beautiful <3

[TheSabrinaFairchild]

mmmm. Laurence Olivier, you can sing to me any day.

[goodluckpeace44]

Polly's father MR.Peachum is a rogue himself, and his Daughter Polly has got Mcbeth a ideal of her father. Do you know that they are made based on real life Jonathan Wild?

[ponto]

Macheath, not Macbeth - that's a different play entirely. Yes, the Jonathan Wild connection's fairly well known.

[goodluckpeace44]

woww its easy to find my comment in a great work of theatical art because its the least kind of thing people watch, yeah i didnt notice those two names until yesterday when i was reading how he said he loves those nasty women, and they tricked him. I loved that part where he describe them, ha ha acting decent and looking deceant, but just sluts inside. krrrrr but not so stupid.

[goodluckpeace44]

anyways was this entire play writtern by John Gay? John Gay is an awsome writter. He was a thick man , I mean the way he describe things and his language is quite good. He has a big book called Morals. Its absolutely unthinkable how a man could be writting about that suff all his life unless he was a great writter who enjoyed good language than interestine story lines

[sonicx666]

Great song, but he plays Macheath too well spoken. He is meant to be a highway man!

[tomoole]

@sonicx666 Not all Highwayman / Women were from the lower classes - be careful of making assumptions. It's a trap I've fallen into myself.

[portialynne]

it is a lovely hogarth the artist of all those cartoons of that restoration period type of movie..very movingly sung...dubbed a bit, for tutin and a little for olivier, but you hear both of them sing a little..they were having a romance at that time...vivien leigh was manic depressive and driving olivier mad...tutin was witty and sexy and very talented as a stage actress who had stage fright! she was something!

[devonrod]

Classic!!! many thanks

[carolethecatlover]

Interesting. I would not separate music and lyrics. I would say the lyrics were trad with the music. Maybe altered a bit. Think 'mamma mia' movie with the Abba songbook. Good fit. Still, there's a change or 2.This was the original '3 grochen oper' look how many people have sung in different languages'Mack the Knife'. It is from the 1700s written by John Gay and Produced by John? Rich. Listen to the Sharpe series version of Over this is about the nepoleonic wars, with words to fit.

[domramalaja]

Yes, interesting indeed! Maybe I was not clear enough. When I write "trad" I mean music and/or lyrics that no-one knows the composer/author to.

Working with traditional folkmusic, I find it amusing to "collect" songs that either have the same (or similar) music to different lyrics, or the other way around. Sometimes composer OR author is known.

I have read somewhere (unfortunately I cannot remember where) that the music to 'Over the hills and far away' can be traced to the 17th C.

[ponto]

"Over the Hills" has had a long history, beginning, perhaps, with a Scottish song, "The Wind Hath Blown My Plaid Away". There's a version in Tom D'Urfey's "Pills to Purge Melancholy", published between 1698 to 1720 and performed in George Farquhar's "The Recruiting Officer" (1706). The lyrics of the song in "Beggar's Opera" were written by John Gay. The version in "Sharpe" is adapted from Farquhar's song from "The Recruiting Officer".

[domramalaja]

Thanks for enlightening me! Very much appreciated!

[goodluckpeace44]

well you know music is the art of skillfuly making sounds, poetry is the art of making skillful verses. Poetry cannot be sung, you have to listen to classical music and Jazz o understand the true image of music, and John Gay himself (who wrote Begger's Opera)was a mighty good writter.

[domramalaja]

This was pretty! But, oh, so Far Away from the version adapted by John Tams for the 'Sharpe' series!

[carolethecatlover]

this is a traditional song.

[domramalaja]

Yes, I know that the music is trad. But do you know if the lyrics here are trad or created for the libretto?

[StupidFoolLady]

Does Laurence sing himself? Ha.. Great baritone,you know..

[ponto]

Yes, he does his own singing. He later wrote how much he disliked his singing in the film, but I think he's pretty good - a very pleasant voice.

[seerauberjohnny]

It's not really a baritone though is it?

[StupidFoolLady]

I'm sure that it is a baritone!! It's for sure not a TENOR^^)thank God

[seerauberjohnny]

A very weedy baritone then maybe...

[StupidFoolLady]

Yeah..It's weedy but don't forget that Laurence is not a singer at all^^)

[dglekjofg]

Yes, even if in his childhood he was a talented choirboy in the choir of All Saints in London (in his autobiography he writes "I reportedly sang like an angel").

[Aubury]

Very fine, I too have been waiting for this clip to be be put on,Larry sings ....

[meladorimagpie]

those two had a brief affair in the 50's. he is looking good here.

[ValiantTofu]

Thank you for this. It's one of my favorite films, and I've been waiting years for someone to post a clip.