It's a ballad opera rather than a 'folk opera' -- the airs used range from Handel to to 'Greensleeves' to traditional. There was a very good version on BBC in 1983, which I have on video [nor sure if reissued on DVD], with Roger Daltrey as Macheath. Nice contrast to the other version I have on vid, with Laurence Olivier, a much adapted film version by Peter Brook from 1953. I sometimes play them back-to-back. Some excellent performances in both: particularly value Stanley Holloway as Lockit the jailer in the Brook, and Stratford Johns as Peachum in the Beeb one.

~M~