Word: britten
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...Last night a masterpiece was born, and it will outlive the lot of us," declared London's Sunday Graphic. Not all the critics were that ecstatic, but London seemed to agree last week that Benjamin Britten's seventh opera, Billy Budd, was far & away his best...
...tragedy and the sea. He took his story from Herman Melville's novel of the British navy during the Napoleonic wars, and enlisted one of Britain's leading literary lights, Novelist E. M. Forster, to work on the libretto along with Eric Crozier, an old hand in Britten operas...
Next day, the critical brickbats flew from all angles: granted, Britten would have done better conducting the chamber orchestra of the English Opera Group, as originally scheduled,*but that was a poor excuse for failing to do well by Mozart. Wrote the Algemeen Handelsblad: "If Benjamin Britten belongs to the elect, yesterday he was degraded to the level of the many. It was an insipid, listless and pitiful concert . . . the public was faced with a difficult problem: cool reception or forced applause." The Nieuwe Rotterdamse C our ant was slightly more polite: "A quiet, genial evening for anyone...
Unshaken, Britten gave a repeat performance in The Hague the second night, got a repeat performance from the critics. Back in London at week's end, Conductor Britten admitted that the garden frolic had flopped. As for the critics: "I don't read criticism ever. I wouldn't listen to what the critics say. Why should I read what they write...
...orchestra's planned appearance was canceled when the Dutch festival officials were unable to provide funds for the trip. Some of the group's members did come over later, however, and gave one morning concert (which Britten did not conduct...