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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyNovember 22nd, 2011
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Benjamin Britten. 1913. Fame came early to the English composer with his a cappella choral work, A Boy Was Born when he was just 21, and his 1945 opera Peter Grimes sealed his international reputation. His compositions were both prodigious and varied: working in orchestral, chamber, instrumental, choral and solo vocal. Much of his vocal work was written for tenor Peter Pears, who he met in 1937 and who became his musical inspiration and life partner. In 1939, Britten and Pears went to America, where his friendship with Aaron Copland inspired the development of Britten’s own work, notably his operetta Paul Bunyan.
Britten’s sexuality wasn’t the only thing controversial about him: he was was also a pacifist during World War II. On returning to Britain in 1942, he fought a long battle to wing the status of conscientious objector. That greatly hindered his ability to have his works performed in London both during and after the war. It also shaped his work; many of his operas throughout the 1950s and 1960s featured an “outside” character on the fringes of society. But as the decades wore on, Britten found that he was no longer an outsider, but an acclaimed 20th century composer. On July 2, 1976, he was awarded a life peerage as Baron Britten, just a few months before he died. Pears died ten years later, and was buried next to Britten at a churchyard in Aldeburgh.
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Stephen
November 22nd, 2011
I’m not sure his outsider status lasted very long. He was, after all, commissioned to write the opera Gloriana for the Festival of Britain/Queen’s coronation in 1952.
Lindoro Almaviva
November 22nd, 2011
I would like to expand on this aspect of his output. Some of the “outsiders” featured in his operas are men that are clearly struggling with their sexuality. Peter Grimes, at the time, was thought to be a homosexual who preyed on children; now we know he would likely be classified as a pedophile. Captain Vere in Billy Budd is in a way atracted to Billy in deeper ways that just the young man’s charisma. Albert Herring is operas original (likely gay) “prom queen”, when he is deemed to be more worthy of the honor than the slutty girls in town. There are also sexual undertones in his version of Turn of the screw, with it likely being pedophilia.
Then there is the fact that his 1973 opera on Death in Venice was the first one to feature an openly gay character. In a business where being gay has not been a big deal in ages, it took over 300 years to have a gay character in one.
Happy Birthday Britten!
Soren456
November 22nd, 2011
Peter Grimes. Grimes.
Lindoro Almaviva
November 23rd, 2011
To hell with all your mercy, to hell with your revenge and may God have mercy upon you
-Peter Grimes
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