This 1728 John Gay "opera" put satiric lyrics to the tunes of popular songs
Gay used: Simple 
tunes [DOC] [TLE] 'THE BEGGAR'S OPERA' - LIVELY AT THE AGE OF 250 - NYTimes ... [PAR] Jun 13, 1982 ... More specifically, John Gay's work was the first popular English ballad opera - a 
form ... with spoken dialogue and new lyrics fitted onto existing popular tunes.