Word: britten
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...your idea of entertainment, but this year's Leverett House Opera Society offering is one of the best productions, musically and theatrically, in the last few years at Harvard. The two plays were written 800 years apart. The Play of Daniel in 12th century France, Benjamin Britten's Curlew River several years ago in England. They make a fascinating pair, for both are parables for church performance, and both employ stylized musical and theatrical means to illustrate the parable with force...
...Benjamin Britten's Carlew River is in many ways the direct antithesis of The Play of Daniel. Contrasted with the spontaneity of Daniel. Britten is extremely self-conscious and studied. The libretto, by William Plomer, based on a Japanese Noh-play, presents the story of a madwoman in search of her lost son, in straightforward, narrative manner. It is the music however, not the libretto, which is responsible for the overly calculated effect of the work as a whole. Through his use of a highly declamatory vocal style, with jagged melodic lines. Britten concentrates attention of presentation of the words...
...PRODUCTION of the two works is admirable in nearly every respect. The Britten, in fact, receives the better performance, which is fortunate, for it needs the best possible performance to come off at all. The singers are unusually attentive to the pronunciation of the English libretto and project their parts with authority. Special mention should be made of David Evitts, who gives an intensity to the role of the Ferryman which surpasses even the excellent work of the other principals: James Paul, Robert Toren, Martin Kessler, and the talented boy soprano William Wright...
...première of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, Coventry, England...
...located there. Like most major German cities, Stuttgart (pop. 650,000) had long maintained an opera house, with a resident but minimal ballet company to help out where needed. In 1960 John Cranko, then a 33-year-old South Africa-born staff choreographer of the Royal Ballet, staged Benjamin Britten's The Prince of the Pagodas in Stuttgart. He was immediately engaged as ballet director, with a mandate to build a company of international quality...