Benjamin Britten: New Perspectives on His Life and Work (Aldeburgh Studies in Music)
I'll think of something later (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Very sad to learn that another of our greatest singing actresses, Elisabeth Soderstrom, has followed Behrens to the grave. She had more of an innings than I realised, reaching the relatively grand age of 82, and yet it seems like only yesterday I caught some of her later performances. I came to Strauss's marital semi-comedy Intermezzo through hearing her termagent Christine Storch (aka Pauline Strauss)...
From Beyond the Stave (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
The weekend newspapers in the UK were full of articles on Alan Bennett, celebrating his new play, The Habit of Art , which opens this week. His subject is an imagined meeting between W H Auden and Benjamin Britten as both approached the end of their lives (in reality, they went their separate ways in the early 1940s). Auden’s relationship with Britten reached its creative peak in the 1930s, producing...
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
As an interpreter of Benjamin Britten, Philip Langridge has long been esteemed as the natural successor to Peter Pears;
Joe. My. God. (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
My loyal companion Aaron writes from his exile in Oregon to suggest that opera fans here on JMG would enjoy Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten, which comes out today. A review in the Guardian UK headlined Boys, Bitching, Brilliance notes: Benjamin Britten's early years are often ignored, overshadowed by the spectacular success of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, when he was 31....
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/31/2009
Writings show composer as lonely but driven and with low opinions of his rivals Benjamin Britten's early years are often ignored, overshadowed by the spectacular success of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, when he was 31. But now, the diaries the composer kept for a decade from the age of 14 are to be published and they reveal a lonely but driven schoolboy; a young man exposed to a glamorous world...
One More Take (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
A couple of my all-time favourite music broadcasters have resurfaced in the past week or so, much to my pleasure and surprise. I was in the car one lunchtime last week (heading for Currys to get more DV tapes, if you must know), listening to BBC Radio 4 as usual, when Brain of Britain 's familiar theme tune started up and Russell Davies appeared. Russell is the new presenter now that Robert Robinson...
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 07/07/2009
With its’ title taken from the composer’s Suite of English Folk Tunes, Op. 90, Tony Palmer’s film Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was… is a solid documentary assembled from interviews, rehearsal clips, photographs and other audio-visual materials to create a vivid portrait of the composer.
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 06/21/2009
Robert Carsen’s production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not new, as the La Scala playbill suggests.
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 06/18/2009
Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s early opera, Punch and Judy, premiered at Aldeburgh in 1968. Benjamin Britten reportedly walked out. Now Birtwistle is himself the pre-eminent British composer, whose work has long since become part of the Aldeburgh tradition. This year’s Festival opened with two Birtwistle premieres, The Corridor and Semper Dowland, simper dolens.
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 06/18/2009
In a recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert featuring twentieth-century instrumental and vocal compositions Ian Bostridge sang Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations under the direction of principal conductor Bernard Haitink.
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