Word: brittens
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...that Glyndebourne could not reopen on its old affluent basis: taxes had reduced Christie's purse, and austerity made the whole idea out of the question. Bing hit on a solution: if Glyndebourne could no longer afford large productions, it could afford small ones. Young British Composer Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (TIME, June 9, 1947), which requires next to no scenery, only a handful of singers and an orchestra of twelve, reopened Glyndebourne...
...have gambled the same money on a more contemporary work, such as Alban Berg's formidable atonal opera, Wozzeck. Bing's answer to that is that he would like to do Wozzeck, but he cannot afford right now to overlook the fate of another contemporary opera, Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, which was withdrawn after two seasons, so offended one opera lover that he spat in the box-office window. (Says John Gutman: "Whenever I mention Wozzeck, Bing threatens to put me in the box office." The Met still faces the problem of having...
...Make an Opera (music by Benjamin Britten; book & lyrics by Eric Crozier; produced by Peter Lawrence and the Show-of-the-Month Club), which closed at week's end, was half harrowingly cute, half harmlessly dull. At the start, some children and their elders decide to produce an opera, using the audience for chorus. While the cast rehearses in "the school auditorium," Musical Director Norman Del Mar flirtatiously coaches the onlookers through various songs-one of which turns the audience into owls, chaffinches and turtledoves. After that, the opera itself-a period tale about a chimney sweep-is performed...
...stage tale, finally enacted, is no worse, but no better, than blancmange. Composer Britten has turned out a pleasant score, full of tricky tunes and comic-opera ensembles. But the relentless whimsicality makes A. A. Milne seem downright dour; and the hippety-hoppeting would cause growls and mutters in any mildly progressive fourth grade...
During the second act, the uniqueness fades. Mr. Del Mar changes from his informal, rehearsal garb of the first act to conductor's full dress, and the opera begins. It is here that Benjamin Britten's music comes out as the intriguing element. Between the scenes of the first act, music written for four hands on a plane and percussion gave hints of what follows. Britten unfolds music of gay brightness, reminiscent of his work in the humorous opera "Albert Horring." The plot of the bedtime story is naturally flabby, and the acting of the children, though excellent...