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1910–86 English tenor Pears was the life-long companion of Britten, who wrote all his tenor roles and many of his concert works for him. He was a choral singer in the 1930s; in 1943, after returning with Britten from the US, he joined Sadler’s Wells Opera, singing mainly lyrical parts. At Covent Garden in the 1950s his ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1910–86, English England’s leading tenor from 1945 to 1960, Pears created many of Benjamin Britten’s leading roles, including Peter Grimes, Albert Herring, The Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia) and Aschenbach (Death in Venice). An oratorio specialist, he performed the Evangelist in the Bach Passions with distinction, while in recitals, often accompanied by ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who have come together to play music. In theory, an ensemble could contain any number of instruments in any combination, but in practice, certain combinations just don’t work very well, either for musical reasons or because of the sheer practicality of getting particular instruments and players ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

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 ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Auntie says it is just a rumour. Recommended Recording: Peter Grimes, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Benjamin Britten, conductor; Decca Originals 4757713; Soloists: Peter Pears (Peter Grimes), Claire Watson (Ellen Orford), James Pease (Balstrode), Jean Watson (Auntie), Geraint Evans (Ned Keene), Lauris Elms (Mrs Sedley), David Kelly (Hobson), Owen Brannigan (Swallow), Raymond Nilsson (Bob Boles), ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

success of his opera Peter Grimes (1945) brought financial security, but he continued to appear as 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 ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Music in 1930 to study composition with John Ireland and piano with Arthur Benjamin. These men helped Britten to develop his compositional style, and so did long-time companion Peter Pears (1910–86), whom he first met in 1937. Pacifism and Painful Themes Pears was a BBC singer who also dabbled in composition, and together the self-declared pacifists left for the ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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 Budd. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | Luigi Dallapiccola | Modern Era | ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

debut on the guitar in 1950, and his US debut in 1958. Having begun to study the lute in 1950, he later formed a partnership with Britten’s life-partner Pears, with whom he performed and recorded Elizabethan lute songs. He formed the Julian Bream Consort in 1959. Among composers who wrote guitar works for him were Britten and William ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

suggested to his fellow tenors Domingo and Carreras that they perform together; the resulting Three Tenors concert earned them superstar status. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | (Sir) Peter Pears | Contemporary | Classical ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

fame was promoted via stadium appearances and as a member of the ‘Three Tenors’, together with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | Peter Pears | Modern Era | Opera ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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 ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

listeners, that was what the music required. Di Stefano made many notable recordings and appearances with Callas. The Spaniard Alfredo Kraus (1927–99) was perhaps Bergonzi’s equal in refinement. Peter Pears had a distinctive voice that is inseparably linked to the music of Britten, who wrote several operatic roles especially for him, including Peter Grimes. When the Canadian Jon ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

pacifist during the Second World War, Britten identified with the poem’s protagonist, Grimes, and his views about military service, and he returned home with companion Peter Pears to set about working on the opera Peter Grimes. Britten strongly identified with the central character from ‘The Borough’, and he and his librettist, Montagu Slater, decided to ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Unusually among musical instruments, a specific date has been posited for the invention of the clarinet. Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg has been claimed as the man who, in 1700, devised and built the first of these instruments. Like all the best stories, however, the history of the clarinet is shrouded in mystery. The instrument attributed ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins
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