"There is no weak link in a splendidly committed cast...Crisp and clean black-and-white video quality and an excellent audio production"--Chicago Tribune on Billy Budd Originally broadcast in 1963 and now meticulously restored by the BBC, this film features a superb cast, including Janet Baker as Polly Peachum and the much-loved Scottish tenor Kenneth McKellar as the highwayman Macheath. John Gay"s opera was a great success when first performed in 1728, satirizing the conventions of Italian opera and using popular tunes. Benjamin Britten"s distinctive musical arrangements were a significant revision to Gay"s original, effectively creating a new 20th-century opera.