Handel’s Revenge! on The Beggar’s Opera
“Your Princes are not so different from my thieves after all.”
~ John Gay
Let’s See If Rogues Can Handel Opera!
What happens when London’s most celebrated composer meets its sharpest satirist?
Join us for a lively new take on John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728), the sensational hit that turned London society upside down. With wit, scandal, and biting humor, Gay transformed politicians, celebrities, and social elites into thieves, crooks, and schemers, very much like our own Saturday Night Live.
In BOWQC’s imaginative, semi-staged adaptation, Handel and Gay meet face to face as narrators while Gay’s colorful underworld characters sing glorious arias from Handel’s London operas. The result is a witty, entertaining, and revealing portrait of life in early 18th-century London, where high art and low society collide.
Christa Patton ~ Artistic Director
Jeffrey Grossman ~ Musical Director
Peggy Murray ~ Stage Director
Dongmyung Ahn & Lisa Terry ~ Baroque String Specialist
Julianne Baird & Drew Minter ~ Baroque vocal Style specialists
Featuring the participants of the 2026 Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College
Saturday, July 4 at 1 pm
LeFrak Concert Hall
Aaron Copland School of Music Queens College CUNY
65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY
Tickets:
$20 ~ General
$15 ~ Seniors and Students
