Britten
Death in Venice, Opera NorthSaturday, 26 October 2013
From the strange, stuttering opening to its elegiac, drawn-out coda, this is an exquisite, lovingly realised staging of Britten's last opera. It's so good that it amplifies any doubts that you might have about this peculiar, distinctly unlovable... Read more... |
The Rape of Lucretia, Glyndebourne TourSunday, 20 October 2013
“Aren’t you sick of Britten yet?” asked a colleague three-quarters of the way through the composer’s centenary year. Absolutely not; there have been revelations and there still remains so much to discover or re-discover. Yet re-evaluation can sour... Read more... |
War Requiem, LPO and Choir, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallSunday, 13 October 2013
Britten’s innate theatricality shines through every single bar of his War Requiem. Atmosphere, drama, suspense, and high emotionalism are to a greater or lesser degree written into the piece (something which the naysayers always latch on to). And... Read more... |
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterFriday, 04 October 2013
A “world premiere” of music written by Benjamin Britten just over 70 years ago? Whence this treasure trove of long-lost musical gold? Well, under the title of An American in England, in 1942 Britten wrote the score for a BBC/CBS co-produced series... Read more... |
Mørk, Padmore, LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallThursday, 03 October 2013
Interviewed live just before his Proms performance of Britten’s Serenade, Ben Johnson was asked the usual question as to whether the composer wrote especially well for the tenor voice. “He writes amazingly for every instrument,” came the reply. If... Read more... |
Peter Grimes, LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallSunday, 29 September 2013
For Londoners unable to travel up to Aldeburgh – or, now, to Leeds for the revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s Opera North production – this was the only chance in Britten centenary year to be blitzed by his seminal masterpiece. After the phenomenal success... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Opera NorthSunday, 29 September 2013
All starts with a barely perceptible bass rumble, before Britten’s lower strings begin their queasy glissandi, shifting key signature every few seconds. It’s a wonderful operatic opening, here teased out with deft mystery by conductor Stuart... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Vaughan Williams, SuperbrassSaturday, 14 September 2013
Britten: Peter Grimes Alan Oke, Giselle Allen, Britten-Pears Orchestra, Chorus of Opera North/Steuart Bedford (Signum)This live Peter Grimes was recorded at Snape Maltings in June, shortly before the same forces performed the opera on the... Read more... |
Paul Bunyan/The Secret Marriage, British Youth Opera, Peacock TheatreThursday, 12 September 2013
It’s raining Bunyans, and since Britten’s early American operetta with its sights originally set on Broadway teems with song and invention that can’t be a bad thing. A fortnight after Welsh National Youth Opera commandeered Stephen Fry to voice-over... Read more... |
Prom 70: BBC Singers, Temple Church Choir, HillWednesday, 04 September 2013
Purity and holiness filled the air. Boy choristers in red cassocks filed onto the platform. The BBC announcer, paraded soon after, promised “choral music to carry us into the after life”. Had I come to the right place? Was I attending my own funeral... Read more... |
Prom 60: Billy Budd, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, DavisWednesday, 28 August 2013
You may well ask whether theartsdesk hasn’t already exhausted all there is to say about Glyndebourne’s most celebrated Britten production of recent years. I gave it a more cautious welcome than most on its first airing, troubled a little by the... Read more... |
Paul Bunyan, Welsh National Youth Opera, CardiffSaturday, 24 August 2013
Reading through WH Auden’s libretto for Britten’s first stage work – the so-called operetta Paul Bunyan – it’s sometimes hard to decide whether the intention was to participate in the great American dream or to make fun of it. In 1941 both artists... Read more... |
