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the poem had been written, the early 1800s. A friend of Crabbe’s son confirmed that ‘The Borough’ was based on the story of a real-life fisherman who lived in Aldeburgh during the mid-1800s. Britten himself resided in nearby Snape, but in 1947 he would move to a house in Aldeburgh, located on the aptly named Crabbe Street and ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
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With only a limited time to create an opera for the opening performance at the Aldeburgh Festival on 11 June 1960, Britten and Pears selected Shakespeare’s comic play, and by shortening and tightening it they were able to employ Shakespeare’s own text rather than rewriting it. The music, meanwhile, transforms the stage into the woods, and ...

• Major Operas
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unlikely hero. Composed: 1944–45 Premiered: 1945, London Libretto by Montagu Slater, after George Crabbe’s poem ‘The Borough’ Background An inquest is being held in the Moot Hall at Aldeburgh around 1830. Peter Grimes, a fisherman, describes how his apprentice died at sea in a storm. Swallow, the mayor and coroner, tells him that if he ...

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a pianist, accompanying his partner and outstanding interpreter, the tenor Peter Pears, and as conductor. He both founded and actively directed the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival. Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk (spending most of his adult life nearby in Aldeburgh), and at a very early age began composing with such promise that at ...

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, Pears, Joan Cross and Eric Crozier founded the English Opera Group. Albert Herring (1947) was their first production, and they expanded on this success by creating the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, in the Sussex town where Britten and Pears would eventually live. Popularization of Opera Leading by example, Britten created interest in opera and the ...

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, a small company with limited resources. Crozier’s own librettos, Albert Herring and The Little Sweep, were produced by the English Opera Group. A founder member of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, along with Britten and his long-time companion, tenor Peter Pears, Crozier also collaborated with E. M. Forster and Britten on the libretto for Billy ...

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tenor Bostridge completed a doctorate in history at Oxford before making his Wigmore Hall recital debut (1993) and his operatic debut at Covent Garden (1995). He has performed at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Salzburg Festivals, at La Scala, Milan, and the Vienna State Opera, and with leading orchestras including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic. He is ...

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• Contemporary Classical
• Instrumentalist

b. 1947 American pianist After studying in New York, Perahia won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1972. In 1973 he appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, where he worked with Britten and Pears. He has recorded all the Mozart concertos (directing the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard), and the Beethoven concertos with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Haitink. Introduction ...

• Personalities
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with distinction, while in recitals, often accompanied by Britten, he was deeply affecting. His voice was not incredible, but he used it intelligently. He founded the Aldeburgh Festival with Britten. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | Krzysztof Penderecki | Modern Era | Opera ...

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The Tempest, was produced at Covent Garden in 2004. Adès is also active as a pianist and a conductor; from 1999 to 2008 he was artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival, founded by Britten. Recommended Recording: Violin Concerto, Tevot, Dances from ‘Powder Her Face’, Chamber Orchestra of Europe (cond) Thomas Adès, Berlin PO (cond) Sir Simon ...

• Personalities
• Modern Era
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and re-scored portions of the opera, in addition to transposing the role of Cressida for mezzo-soprano Janet Baker. His one-act comedy The Bear performed in June 1967 at the Aldeburgh Festival is a witty parody of the vocal excesses of the operatic style and the compositional mannerisms that are often used to underscore the action. Introduction | Modern Era | ...

• Classical
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an altogether darker work, may be his operatic masterpiece. The 1960s and Beyond When the English Opera Group gave the premiere of Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy at the 1968 Aldeburgh Festival, Britten was famously unimpressed. His opinion symbolizes a break between ‘old’ and ‘new’ opera. Subtitled ‘tragicomedy or comitragedy’, Punch and Judy is loudly expressionistic, but there are ...

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own compositions ‘Entartete’ as a show of support for German colleagues such as Hindemith, Berg, Weill, Krenek, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Schreker. Houses & Companies | Aldeburgh & Life on Crabbe Street | Modern Era | Opera ...