Amir Hosseinpour is an opera director and choreographer who has worked in major opera houses around the world.
 He is a collaborator with directors such as Pierre Audi, founder of the Almeida Theatre, Nigel Lowery, and choreographer Jonathan Lunn.
 His production of Haydn's Orlando Paladino, co-directed with Nigel Lowery, continues to be broadcast on Sky Arts HD on a regular basis.
 Some of his biggest productions have been recorded for international DVD release.
 His choreography for Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage at the Bavarian State Opera in February 1998 was described as 'stunning' by The Daily Telegraph critic, Rupert Christiansen, and it was also highly praised by Wolfgang Sandner in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
 Other outstanding reviews for Hosseinpour's work in the German-speaking newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) were for Les Paladins (Rameau) at Basel in December 2004, reviewed by Gerhard Koch, Petrushka at Munich reviewed by Jochen Schmidt in December 1999 and Orphée et Eurydice at the Bavarian State Opera in November 2003.
Ludmila Vernerová (born 1962) is a Czech operatic soprano and the niece of oboist Pavel Verner.
 After graduating from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, she was a regular performer at the Prague Chamber Opera in the mid 1980s.
 In 1987 she joined the Prague National Theatre where she performed for 12 years, Since 1999 she has been a member of the Prague State Opera.
 Among the many roles she has created on stage are Angelica in "Orlando furioso", Belinda in "Dido and Aeneas", Countess Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro", Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni", Fiordiligi in "Così fan tutte", Isabella in "Robert le diable", Lucy in "The Beggar's Opera", Micaela in "Carmen", Musetta in "La bohème", Pamina in "The Magic Flute", and the title roles in "Alcina" and "Rodelinda".
John Stoddart is an Australian opera stage designer.
 Born in Sydney, he began as an architect.
 On his first British commission, he designed the stage for Anthony Besch's production of "Così fan tutte" in 1967 at the Scottish Opera, where he continued to work.
 In 2000 he collaborated with John Cox to stage "Capriccio" at the Sydney Opera House during the 2000 Summer Olympics.
 Aside from "Capriccio", with Opera Australia he has designed the sets for "The Magic Flute", "Ariadne auf Naxos", "Patience", "The Beggar’s Opera", "Die Fledermaus", "Les Huguenots", "Don Carlos", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Of Mice and Men", and "Die tote Stadt".
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett {'1': ", '2': ", '3': ", '4': "} (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War.
 In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century.
 Among his best-known works are the oratorio "A Child of Our Time", the orchestral "Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli", and the opera "The Midsummer Marriage".
James Andrew Olds (born 20 February 1986) is an Australian bass-baritone.
 He has performed with Opera Australia, Diva Opera, Musica Viva, London Contemporary Opera and was a Young Artist with Pacific Opera.
 Olds had over 100 performances with the Opera Australia chorus before relocating to London in 2012 to accept a scholarship for the Artist Masters Programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
 In 2013, Olds performed at Wigmore Hall as a finalist in the Australian Music Foundation Award and performed the role of Betto in Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi" for St. Paul's Summertime Opera.
 For the Guildhall School of Music and Drama's Opera Scenes showcases, Olds has performed the roles of Rocco ("Fidelio", Beethoven), Dr Dulcamara ("L'elisir d'amore", Donizetti) and Leporello ("Don Giovanni", Mozart).
 Also in 2013, he traveled the United Kingdom and France with Diva Opera performing the role of Un Ufficiale in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville".
 Olds was the winner of the 34th National Liederfest in Melbourne and recently worked with Elly Ameling, Helmut Deutsch and Julius Drake at the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien, Austria.
 In 2015, Olds performed the role of Count Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro" for Rockdale Opera Company.
 In 2016, Olds will be performing the role of Officer in "The Barber of Seville" for Opera Australia.
British composer Michael Tippett composed his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra between 1953 and 1955 on a commission from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
 The overall character of the work was influenced by the composer's hearing German pianist Walter Gieseking rehearse Ludwig van Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto in 1950.
 Its musical content, while influenced by this concerto, was also shaped largely by Tippett's opera "The Midsummer Marriage", which he had completed in 1952.
 While Tippett had conceived the work initially in the mid-1940s, he had been preoccupied in much of the intervening time with "The Midsummer Marriage".
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch.
 It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today.
 Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative.
 The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular broadsheet ballads, opera arias, church hymns and folk tunes of the time.
The Midsummer Marriage is an opera in three acts, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett.
 The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard.
 The reception of the opera was controversial, over perceived confusion as to the libretto and Tippett's use of symbols and psychological references.
 Nonetheless the opera has received at least ten more productions, including two further productions at the Royal Opera, in England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, Sweden and the United States.
Polly is a ballad opera with text by John Gay and music by Johann Christoph Pepusch.
 It is a sequel to Gay's "The Beggar's Opera".
 Due to censorship, the opera was not performed in Gay's lifetime.
 It had its world premiere on 19 June 1777 at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
 A revised and edited version of the score by Clifford Bax and Frederic Austin premiered on 30 December 1922 at the Kingsway Theatre in London.
Olive Sarah Gilbert (22 November 1898 – 19 February 1981) was a British singer and actress, who, in a career spanning seven decades, performed first in opera and then in many of Ivor Novello's musicals in London's West End.

Question: Which opera was performed first The Midsummer Marriage or The Beggar's Opera ?
Answer: The Beggar's Opera