Product Description
Most of the distinctive Purcell realizations by Benjamin Britten, vocal parts edited by Peter Pears, have been out of print for sone years. This new edition collects 49 selections for high voice and 45 selections for medium/low voice. Includes 9 songs from Harmonia Sacra, 24 solo songs and six duets from Orpheus Britannicus, "The Queen's Epicedium," and selections from Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen. ... Read more

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Aldeburgh Studies in Music is a new series published jointly by Boydell & Brewer and the Britten-Pears Library, Aldeburgh. It will focus on musical topics reflecting the distinctive musical life and heritage of Aldeburgh, primarily addressingscholars and students. The present volume is based on a selection of papers presented during a study course devoted to Gloriana held at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in 1991. Glorianahas been a source of controversy since its première as part of the Coronation celebrations in 1953. It was planned as a national opera of broad appeal by its authors, Benjamin Britten and William Plomer, but, despite wide coverage in the media, the opera failed to establish itself in the repertoire until a new production in 1966 revealed it to be a powerful and stageworthy work. In recent years it has attracted an increasing amount of scholarly attention. This volume offers essays by ROBERT HEWISON, PHILIP REED, ANTONIA MALLOY, DONALD MITCHELL and PETER EVANS which explore the opera's cultural background, the early stages of its creative evolution, the first critical responses, and various aspects of the work itself: these are supplemented by a list of source materials for the opera and the works derived from it, and an extensive bibliography.Opera North's recent revival of `Gloriana' has without question restored this neglected masterpiece to its place in Britten's operatic output. Far from being a triumphalist work in tune with the Coronation celebrations of 1953, `Gloriana' showed an ageing Elizabeth torn between love and duty, Essex and her crown; the subtle message of the sovereign's mystical marriage to the people eluded the first night audience. ... Read more

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Titles: Nuits de Juin * Sagesse * L'Enfance * Chanson d'Automne ... Read more

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This landmark publication includes 52 songs, combining the contents of the seven published books of Britten folksong arrangements in High and Low Voice editions. Some of the songs have never before been transposed. The songs of Volume 6, for voice and guitar, have been transcribed for voice and piano for this edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An excellent addition to the standard vocal library.
After decades of having to scrounge together all 6 volumes of the Britten folk song arrangements, having them all published together in one place is nothing short of a divine gift. As is typical of Britten, these are NOT easy arrangements, but they are truly lovely and well worth the work it takes to perform them.As for the overwrought hysterics of the first reviewer, singers interested in performing the songs in volume 6 with a guitarist can certainly still purchase the guitar edition after deciding whether the songs there speak strongly enough to them to warrant working outside the more conventional concert hall setups.The guitar parts ARE lovely, and should be explored, but there is little lost in translation to the slightly richer and more idiomatic piano versions of the accompaniment found here.

Simply Good Music
These songs are excellent for singers of any stage of study. Being folksong arrangements, the melodies are simple, but not easy. BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. The previous reviewer was obviously not paying attention to what matters in the music. ... Read more

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A biography of Benjamin Britten which presents a panorama of British musical life since the 1920s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fine by me
I enjoyed this book tremendously.When I first heard there were naysayers about it I rushed to the web to see if there were glaring inaccuracies, but that does not seem to be the case.Corn Soup (another reviewer here) is simply wrong in saying that the book has "nary a word" on Britten's poorly paid staff, fawning on royalty, and particularly his ill-treatment of people once he was done with them.Even his ambiguous relationships with boys is covered in the book, and the author does not leave us without his opinion -- several times he puts forth the idea that Britten didn't give in to desires to have sex with them, although, quite appropriately, he does not present this as fact.Which it isn't, unless someone knows of new evidence?If so, I doubt Carpenter had that evidence at hand.As to his musical analysis, certainly there could be more and it could be more probing; Carpenter put in enough to suit non-musicologists and to go along with the themes of his book.Personally, I don't hold that against him.A perfect book?Doubt it.Nonetheless, one of the most thorough and most satisfying biographies I've read.

Something Fishy Going On Here
This book is terribly marred by an unnecessary reliance on a limited number of sources. Many defenses of Britten's personality and reputation simply stink of excuse making and cover-up.Read the book, and you will notice this pattern, which doesn't much credit the late Humphrey Carpenter.

There is also no attempt by Carpenter to pursue the obvious contradictions of behavior and statement,in other words pure hypocrisy, that flow throughout the narrative.Britten's fawning behavior towards the British Royal family and other noble families, his self-created adulation machines for himself and in the media for his music, his poorly remunerated musical and household help, his love for fast expensive cars and large private houses, his horrendous and cowardly treatment of people he had no further use for, are all glossed over with nary a comment.

The redeeming factor in this book, though, are hints that Carpenter leaves in the book that seem to point to something more than the official story.There are a few hints, mentioned in passing and, again, not commented on at length or at all by the author, that point to something a little more ominous.Most of this involves Britten's attitude towards his boys. My conclusion from these stories was that Britten was a much worse predator and a much worse person than the apologia called "Britten's Children" which was published in 2006 by Faber and Faber, the publishing firm that Britten himself helped create, presents.

As other comments have suggested, the musical analysis is not helpful, and takes up more space than it merits.

Britten wrote some interesting music, though he is no where near as influential and as important as some of the sycophants quoted in the book would have you believe, and he was a bizarre and spiteful person.The fact that you can divine that from this cautious biography though, is valuable enough to merit 3 stars.

Good Narrative; Weaker Analysis
This is a good but not outstanding biography of the great Benjamin Britten.Carpenter was well equipped to tackle Britten's life.An experienced biographer, some of his prior work, like his very good biography of Auden, covers the same period and some of the same aspects of British artistic life as this book.Carpenter had the cooperation of the Britten estate and a wide variety of Britten's friends and associates.It is based on a wide variety of documentary material and interviews.This book is thorough, well written, and organized well.As a narrative of Britten's personal and professional lives, it is very strong and unlikely to be surpassed.The book shows very well Britten's remarkable creativity.A disciplined worker, Britten produced a large volume of outstanding music while also performing and working as a major force in the development of British musical life.Carpenter also shows, though implicitly, that Britten was a charismatic figure.He had a remarkable ability to attract the services of other talented individuals, allowing him to realize very ambitious projects such as his operas and the development of the Aldeburgh festival. Carpenter is fair in this treatment of Britten, showing both the attractive and unfortunate aspects of his personality, such as his tendency to callously discard co-workers when he felt he could work more productively with others.
Carpenter is less good in dealing with Britten's music.This is true both for Britten's output in general and specific works.Nowhere in this book do we get any sense of why Britten chose to focus on vocal music.Britten did produce important orchestral and chamber work, but his most important output was opera, less conventional music theater like his church parables, choral music, and songs.Britten's ability to set text to music was truly remarkable.Did Britten see this as his great strength as a composer or were there other reasons for the focus of his career?Carpenter tends also to interpret individual works, particularly the operas, in light of very specific aspects of Britten's life, especially his sexuality.In many cases, such as the operas Peter Grimes and Death in Venice, this makes good sense.With these interpretations, Carpenter seems also to be following the lead of some other scholars who have studied Britten.This approach, however, seems not so much wrong as excessively reductive.For example, Carpenter's discussion of Britten's underappreciated opera Gloriana, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II, focuses on the character of the Earl of Essex, who Carpenter sees as embodying some of Britten's preoccupations about his life as public artist.The main figure of the opera, however, is Elizabeth I, and an important theme of the work is the collision of private needs and public responsibilities in the exercise of power.Surely, this was not lost on the premiere audience, which included the young Elizabeth II, who later became something of a patron of Britten.Carpenter gives no real sense of the position that Britten occupies in the history of 20th century music, probably because he doesn't have the musicological knowledge necessary to establish this kind of context.Less understandably, Carpenter misses an opportunity to discuss Britten's important role in the professionalization and expansion of post-war British musical and artistic life.Carpenter's own narrative shows the somewhat amateurish quality of pre-war British musical life and its remarkable evolution in the post-war period, a process in which Britten was a important creative figure.
This book is a useful source for those interested in Britten specifically, 20th century music, opera, and the history of British intellectual life.There is still an opportunity to write a first rate biography of Britten.

A must read....with caution
Carpenter has given us a top rate book of Britten the man.He unfortunately sheds no light on Britten's actual music.By all means, read the book, but ignore his ... "analyses," and take his attempts psychology with a grain of salt.

Britten bio almost great.
Carpenter, through numerous quotes from colleagues, friends and written correspondence from the composer himself provides a rare and intimate view into Britten's creative mind and personality.The only tedious aspect of this in-depth biography is in Carpenter's descriptions of Britten's pieces.Carpenter tries to speculate about how much of Britten's real life went into his music.The result comes off as searching for Britten's homosexuality and lost innocense in tones.It is however an absorbing and educating read ... Read more

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The fifth volume of the annotated selected letters of Benjamin Britten - edited by Philip Reed and Mervyn Cooke - covers the years 1958-65, during which he wrote two major operatic works, A Midsummer Night's Dream and the ground-breaking Curlew River, and his pacifist choral masterpiece, War Requiem. Other significant compositions from the period include the orchestral song-cycle Nocturne, the first of the cello pieces for Rostropovich, and settings of poems by Blake and Pushkin. Correspondents include friends, fellow artists and collaborators such as William Plomer (librettist of Curlew River), Edith Sitwell, E. M. Forster, Christopher Isherwood, Robert Graves, the Earl of Harewood, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Barbara Hepworth and Duncan Grant, as well as Britten's partner and principal interpreter, Peter Pears. The volume charts the peak of Britten's position as one of the leading figures of the international musical establishment as composer, conductor and pianist, and his continuing involvement with the Aldeburgh Festival and the English Opera Group. The deterioration in Britten's relationship with Boosey & Hawkes, his publishers since the mid-1930s, is closely documented, as is the founding, at the composer's instigation, of the new publishing house of Faber Music in 1964. Central to the period is the composer's warm friendship with musicians from the Soviet Union, and Britten and Pears's visits to Moscow, Leningrad and Armenia are charted in detail. ... Read more

Product Description
Benjamin Britten (1913-76) changed the course of English music with highly original works such as his opera Peter Grimes. While his music is performed more widely than those of any other English composer, his international success did not prevent him from continuing to draw inspiration from his native land. In this engaging biography, the author creates a portrait of a great artist, exploring his wide-ranging compositions in detail and discussing the many contradictions that pervaded Britten's fascinating life and career.


Benjamin Britten is part of Phaidon's successful 20th Century Composers series, which presents authoritative and engaging biographies of the great creative musicians of our time, augmented by striking visual material and essential reference information. This edition of the book features a whimsical new cover by Jean-Jacques Sempé, the world-renowned illustrator and cartoonist.Amazon.com Review
He wrote the first successful English opera since Purcell,along with a collection of songs, choral compositions, and balletsthat have assured him an important place in 20th-centurymusic. Michael Oliver, in one of Phaidon's series, 20th-CenturyComposers, offers a compact, useful introduction to British composerBenjamin Britten and his work, from folksong settings to church musicand the great opera Peter Grimes. Frank about Britten'shomosexuality and his long-time relationship with the tenor PeterPears, the book is never prurient and seldom gossipy. Like all thePhaidon books, this one is relatively brief, well written, wellillustrated, and not too technical. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Phaidon's, "Benjamin Britten"very informative, enjoyable
Michael Oliver's "Benjamin Britten" is both informative and insightful.As one in a series of 20th Century Composers, I found this edition most interesting.I have read six other editions from the series, and Michael Oliver's is the best written thus far.

There are several well written biographies of Britten on the market.All that I have read thus far spend entirely too much time discussing the personal life of the composer, rather than focusing on his ground- breaking operas, or orchestral works.Oliver chooses to focus more on the music that isBritten, rather than getting wrapped up in his personal life.True, elements of Britten's childhood and adult struggles with the morality of the day may have caused him to compose the haunting tunes and melodies, but they are not the basis for understanding his music.

Oliver highlights the reason Britten is one of the 20th century's greatest composers- pure genious. ... Read more

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The second title in the Amadeus Press Parallel Lives series, this volume examines the lives and work of two giants of 20th century music. Both composers influenced countless others, and their works are performed often in today's concert and opera houses.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A golden opportunity botched
Anyone interested in Barber's life and/or music should seek out the amazing bio by Barbara Heyman, Samuel Barber - The Composer and his Music (Oxford U. Press). As a lifelong student of the career & music of Barber, I was upset to read this recent book. It contains numerous inaccuracies, half-truths, ambiguities, and similarly misleading statements. And was there ANY attempt at editing the ms? The text is likewise marred byerrors in usage, punctuation, even vocabulary. The Britten section has the same problems. And while the recorded music samples on the attached cd are most welcome, they do not fairly represent the composers, either - it's all from the "middle period" of each man and don't properly represent either composer's stylistic breadth. The concept of a brief book introducing these composers to the lay listener, with listening excerpts provided in the package, is a fine one, which makes me doubly sad that this project is such a disappointment. P.S. Having heard from the author, I now understand why some of the above-mentioned faults exist - and must say I'm shocked that a publisher I once respected, Amadeus, would let something like this happen.It's a disservice to the author as well as the public and the subjects of the book.

A welcome addition to Barber research!!
I was so pleased to find that this book had just come out!I'm researching Barber for a Masters Thesis project and enjoyed the information presented-some that has not been discussed in the handful of books about him.Very interesting to see the similarities between him and Britten.The CD that comes with it is also nice.Well-written and a good read!

But what is on the CD you ask...
Since nearly half of the book is dedicated to the discussion and dissection of Benjamin Britton's and Samuel Barber's compositions, here listed is the music on the accompanying Naxos CD: 1) Britten: Passacaglia (from Peter Grimes); 2) Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (complete); 3) Britten: The Turn of the Screw (Act II: Variation XV, scene 8); 4) Barber: Adagio for Strings; 5) Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915; and 6) Barber: Second Essay for Orchestra. I will offer a review of the book itself after I read it as it just arrived in my mailbox today (July 26, 2005). ... Read more

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Britten's Nocturnal After John Dowland Op. 70 is a fantastically varied and intricate piece for Solo Guitar, which has been edited here by Julian Bream. This piece will present an enjoyable challenge to the advancing classical guitarist. The first perform ... Read more

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This evocative record of the original stage productions of Britten's operas includes all sixteen librettos, exactly as he wanted them sung on stage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Invaluable
An indispensible volume for anyone interested in twentienth century opera. Contaoins complete librettos of all Britten's opeeras together with invaluable essays by Britten's collaborators, John and Myvanwy Piper and a characteristic essay by Hans Keller. Illustrated with shots from first productions. A magnificent volume. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (16)

Tippins, FEBRUARY HOUSE
Dianne Hunter's Review
This absorbing social history of a year-long experiment in group living, written in 2005, details the creative life organized by George Davis and W.H. Auden at 7 Middagh St., Brooklyn, NY. The house (torn down in 1945 to make way room for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) was called February House because several of its residents had birthdays in that month. This house provided living, working, and partying space for, among others, Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten, Paul and Jane Bowles, Richard Wright, Oliver Smith, and Gypsy Rose Lee, who composed THE G-STRING MURDERS with help from George Davis. Members and friends of the household welcomed Europeans who were fleeing Fascism. Auden wrote several of his most successful works and once considered murdering Chester Kallman in this house. Tippins's well-researched and well-written book provides an account of a louche social scene, musical, visual, and literary compositions, and the NY publishing world in the period that ended 7 December, 1941.

February House
For me this was an amazing discovery. I read a review of it in a literary magazine in the waiting room of my optician and when I got home I immediately ordered it from Amazon.
What caught my eye in the review were the names of the inhabitants of the February House - Auden, Britten,McCullers... in that amazing year. I knew of their work individually but to read of them living under the same roof was a revelation.What a cauldron of creativity! All against the background of the war in Europe and the period leading up to Pearl Harbour.As I read the book I felt as though I were there. I hope that someone will make a documentary about it or better still a dramatised reconstruction. The two Truman Capote films have blazed the trail.

What a great read!!!
A friend just recommended this book to me and it's fabulous!!!I live in an artist bldg and it's nothing compared to the energy of Middagh Street. The book is a great read and the research is most impressive. I cannot wait to read the one she's writing about the Chelsea Hotel!

That House on Middagh Street
Thomas Wolf once famously said "only the dead know Brooklyn."There might be some truth in that, but some of us know Brooklyn, N.Y.,U.S.A., pretty well,and are still very much alive.Quite a few people are aware of Brooklyn's brownstone belt, that swath of historic houses stretching from the East River to Prospect Park and beyond.Many of these people would declare Brooklyn Heights the ultimate Brooklyn brownstone neighborhood.It's beautiful, and gets scenic views of Manhattan.It's got history galore--an important Revolutionary War battle was fought here;and it's been, and still is,home to a lot of well-known important people.

One little-known fact is that a number of celebrated people shared a house on Middagh Street, in 1940-41, right in the middle of the Second World War.That house, which came to be known as February House-- a number of its residents had February birthdays-- has long since been torn down to make room for the Promenade that provides storied views of Manhattan.But among occupants of February House were poet W.H.Auden, writer Carson McCullers, writers Jane and Paul Bowles,composer Benjamin Britten, and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.

Writer Sherill Tippens has produced an interesting, pleasantly gossipy book about the house's residents and their accomplishments.Jane Bowles began "Two Serious Ladies," her only completed novel here.The young lesbian Carson McCullers had just tasted, at the age of 23, great success with her novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." She began two other great successes, "The Member of the Wedding," and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," between drinking bouts, right here on Middagh Street.

Auden and Britten, both homosexual, but not involved with each other, were being raked over the coals at the time by the British press for choosing to sit out World War II in the U.S. But they were working: they collaborated on the opera "Paul Bunyan,"not critically well-received. Auden who continued to live in the Heights, on his own, to pursue his lifelong, unrequited love for the young American Chester Kallman, was working hard in the interstices of his personal soap opera: He produced "The Double Man" in February House.Britten produced "Peter Grimes;"considered one of the great masterpieces of 20th century opera.Meanwhile, he pursued his own personal soap opera: many critics believe this opera echoes developments with his partner, tenor Peter Pears, at the time.

The most unexpected resident of February House would have to be Gypsy Rose Lee, burlesque artiste.She was talked into joining the fun by George Davis, homosexual himself, fiction editor of "Harpers Bazaar" magazine, whose idea February House was, and who worked hard to keep it alive.Davis had published some of his own writing, but he was best known for the talented writers he kept on discovering.

In Gypsy Lee's case, she brought some money, a lot of common sense,and a cook to Middagh Street.The house's residents needed all the above.Her reward for her support: George Davis, great editor, midwifed her book, "The G-String Murders," a publishing sensation for many years.

George Davis continued to live at 7 Middaagh Street after its time as an artistic commune had passed.After Kurt Weill's death, Davis married his widow, Lotte Lenya, and devoted his life to introducing America to Weill's great works,such as "Three Penny Opera,"from which we get "Mack the Knife."

There are some informative photographs, extensive notes and acknowledgements in February House.Tippins evidently did a lot of primary research, but she managed to organize the voluminous results in a very readable style.February House well rewards the reader.

The bump and grind of a literary bawdy house
Sherill Tippins has done an amazing job of finding the significant narrative threads in the chaotic convergence of creative lives that occurred in the months before Pearl Harbor when Harper's Bazaar editor George Davis and British expatriate poet W.H. Auden rented a brownstone on 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights and actively recruited other creative artists to live with them. Among the co-renters were Carson McCullers who had recently published her highly acclaimed first novel, "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter," soon-to-be famous British composer Benjamin Britten and his parnter, singer Peter Pears, unpublished novelists Paul and Jane Bowles, Broadway set designer Oliver Smith, writer Richard Wright and his wife, and burlesque sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, who it turns out was the most reliable in the rent-paying department and joined the little "creative commune" on the condition that she could bring her own cook and maid. Her fiscal reliability and drive along with Auden's willingness to take on the unpleasant role of house disciplinarian (collecting rent and other "dues" and establishing and enforcing many house rules) are probably sufficient explanation for why this menage managed to last the two or three years it did.

Tippins wisely focuses her attention on the leading figures (without neglecting to name the many others who partied but did not reside at 7 Middagh--Salvador and Gala Dali, Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine, Erika Mann and her brothers Klaus and Golo, to name a few). One passer-through, Anais Nin, christened the dwelling "February House" because so many of the residents had February birthdays. Tippins has a good knowledge of the works of these creative people and is able to see how one of the artists intentionally or inadvertantly influenced a subsequent work of one of his or her co-residents. For example, McCullers was struggling with the novel that would later become "The Member of the Wedding" when she was able to appropriate an experience from Chester Kallman's childhood to explain her heroine's profound sense of alienation and abandonment (Kallman was Auden's lover).

Tippins other great achievement here was her ability to slice through history and palpably recreate the political atmosphere in pre-war New York and to do so in a way that reflects on both British and US perspectives. She takes a good hard look at the criticism expatriates like Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Britten, and Pears faced from the British press and fellow artists who chose to remain in Great Britian during the war. She is similarly insightful in her analysis of the role the Mann family had in trying to get an apathetic America to respond to the European crisis. A lesser writer might not have bothered with these issues and chosen to report only the salacious and saleable anecdotes about the goings-on of the February House residents.

I highly recommend this book to anyone even passingly interested in one of the artists who lived at 7 Middagh Street (you're sure to learn something new), to anyone who ever wondered how great works of art come about, or to anyone interested in knowing how history and art intersect. I'm sure I'm going to use Tippins's Selecte Bibliography as a basis for future Amazon.com purchases. ... Read more

Product Description
Songs by the great English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, realized by Britten, most suitable for student singers have been selected for this collection. Contents: Fairest Isle * Hark the ech'ing air * How blest are shepherds * I attempt from love's sickness to fly * I'll sail upon the Dog-star * If music be the food of love (1st version) * Man is for the woman made * Music for a while * On the brow of Richmond Hill * There's not a swain of the plain * Turn then thine eyes * We sing to him. ... Read more

Product Description
Most of the distinctive Purcell realizations by Benjamin Britten, vocal parts edited by Peter Pears, have been out of print for some years. This new edition collects 49 selections for high voice and 45 selections for medium/low voice. Includes 9 songs from Harmonia Sacra, 24 solo songs and six duets from Orpheus Britannicus, "The Queen's Epicedium," and selections from Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen. ... Read more

Product Description
Billy Budd, based on Herman Melville's nautical allegory, is one of Britten's most challenging operas. This comprehensive guide considers the work from both literary and musical viewpoints. Melville's novella is discussed, as is the interpretation given to the novella by the librettists E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier. A detailed synopsis guides the reader through the musical and dramatic action of the opera and in a chapter devoted to the music, Britten's distinctive technique of tonal symbolism is analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of his musical response to the dramatic suggestions of Melville's story. The most important critical writings on Billy Budd are represented by an expanded version of Donald Mitchell's 1979 notebook on the opera. A final chapter charts the opera's stage history and fluctuating critical reception. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a comprehensive guide to Britten's work, aimed both at the nonspecialist and the music student. It sheds light on both the composer's stylistic and personal development, offering new interpretations of his operatic works and discussing his characteristic working methods. A distinguished team of contributors include some who worked with the composer during his lifetime, as well as leading representatives of the younger generation of Britten scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. ... Read more

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Best remembered for his operas and his War Requiem, Benjamin Britten's radical politics and his sexuality have also ensured that he remains a controversial public figure. "Journeying Boy" is a selection of his diaries that offer the reader an unseen insight into this complex man. Encompassing the years 1928-1938, they explore some key periods of Britten's life - his early compositions, his education first under composer Frank Bridge and then at the Royal College of Music, an unhappy but productive period studying under John Ireland and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and his reluctant and often painful process of parting from the warm, safe environment of his family home and his beloved mother. The diaries cast light on an often misrepresented musician whose technique, originality and musical prowess have entranced audiences for generations and who continues to inspire composers and musicians around the world. ... Read more

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Claire Seymour examines ways in which Britten's operas explored and articulated the inherent ambiguity and latent sexuality of music, particularly song, and suggests that they may illustrate his search for a public 'voice' which would embody, communicate, and perhaps resolve his private beliefs and anxieties. She demonstrates how the delicate balance between private and public communication, and the tension between art as self-expression and art as moral resolution were key concerns in Britten's music.
Analyses of Britten's operas from Paul Bunyan to Death in Venice, the three Church Parables, and several of the 'children's operas' offer evidence that, for Britten, opera was the natural medium through which to explore, express and, paradoxically, repress his private concerns. ... Read more

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The importance of "the things spiritual" in Britten's work has long been ignored. In his book Graham Elliott examines this importance in his analysis of the composer's choice and treatment of subjects, and his use of musical influences-- especially plainsong--which have a direct association with spirituality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful new addition to Britten's works
This is a well-written, important new addition to the writings on the works of Benjamin Britten. This is a must-have reference book for performers, conductors, and people interested in the music of Benjamin Britten. ... Read more