Book Description
This evocative record of the original stage productions of Britten's operas includes all sixteen librettos, exactly as he wanted them sung on stage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Invaluable
An indispensible volume for anyone interested in twentienth century opera. Contaoins complete librettos of all Britten's opeeras together with invaluable essays by Britten's collaborators, John and Myvanwy Piper and a characteristic essay by Hans Keller. Illustrated with shots from first productions. A magnificent volume. ... Read more

Book Description
Benjamin Britten was arguably the greatest English composer of his time. His music crossed boundaries of genre and form to include opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music, and film and incidental music. The result of twenty years of research, Benjamin Britten provides up-to-date and comprehensive details about Britten's life and music, including works, performances, and recordings--an effort never before undertaken. Certain to be of use to any scholar of British music or 20th century composition, this reference work is an invaluable addition to the literature on this important artist. Following a brief biography of the subject, author Stewart Craggs provides a complete list of works and performances, arranged by genre; a discography, and an annotated bibliography. Rounding out the volume are two lists of compositions, one arranged alphabetically and the other chronologically, and a general index. ... Read more

Book Description
One of the most illuminating biographical projects in recent years. PETER ACKROYD The fourth volume of the annotated selected letters of Benjamin Britten covers the years 1952-57, during which he wrote three major works for the stage - the Coronation opera Gloriana, the chamber opera The Turn of the Screw, and the full-length ballet The Prince of the Pagodas - as well as important vocal works such as Canticles II and III and the Hardy song-cycle Winter Words. Correspondents include librettists William Plomer (Gloriana/) and Myfanwy Piper (The Turn of the Screw), and friends and collaborators such as Edith Sitwell, E. M. Forster, Basil Coleman, Imogen Holst, Francis Poulenc, Lennox Berkeley, the Earl of Harewood and Britten's partner and principal interpreter, Peter Pears. The volume charts Britten's growing stature as a major figure of the European musical establishment as composer, conductor and pianist, and his continuing involvement with the Aldeburgh Festival, the English Opera Group, and Covent Garden. Central to the period is the world trip undertaken by Britten and Pears and the first-hand encounter with the music and cultures of Bali and Japan that were radically to inform Britten's compositional techniques from Pagodas onwards.The comprehensive and scholarly annotations vividly evoke a key period in twentieth-century musical and cultural history, and offer a wide range of detailed information fascinating for both the Britten specialist and the general reader. ... Read more

Book Description
Peter Evans discusses all the published compositions in subdivisions of genre and period, and devotes a separate chapter to each opera.With the help of over 300 music examples and diagrams, he demonstrates Britten's mastery of the art of composition - tonal and harmonic structures, thematic cast and transformation, textual variety and the imaginative deployment of voices and instruments.Since this book's appearance in 1979, Britten's publishers have made available a considerable number of works withheld during the composer's lifetime; some are juvenilia, but others date from a late as the Peter Grimes period.In a postscript to this first paperback edition, Peter Evans assesses the creative stature of these works and their significance in Britten's development.The catalogue of works now includes these additional titles, and the selective bibliography has been revised. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great price!
This is a great price for the best analytical look at Britten's music around.Almost every composition is included.Some of the earliest compositions, which are now published by Faber, are not included.This new edition is definately worth grabbing! ... Read more

Book Description
Words from the Missa pro defunctis and the poems of Wilfred Owen.Other scores available: Vocal (48009029), SATB Choral (48009030), Boy's Chorus (48009031). Orchestral performance materials available on rental from Boosey and Hawkes. ... Read more

Book Description
This book is designed to introduce the non-specialist music lover to Britten's opera, The Turn of the Screw. The opening chapters by Vivien Jones and Patricia Howard deal with the literary source of the opera Oames's novella), the structure of the libretto, and the technique by which a short story was transformed into an opera. The central chapter, on the musical style and structures of the opera, includes an account of the composition process deduced from early sketches of the work by John Evans, an analysis of the unique form of the opera with a more detailed examination of the last scene by Patricia Howard, and an account of the significance and effect of the orchestration by Christopher Palmer. Finally, Patricia Howard traces the stage history of the work, from its initial reception in Venice in 1954, through some seminal reinterpretations in the 1960s to its present established position in the repertoire. The book is generously illustrated and there is also a bibliography and discography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

for designers and directors
This is an excellent book.It is a breif, easy to read book that includes all the info you would ever want about the opera, and Britten himself.there is a whole series, which I suspect is just as good. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Opera Canada, published by Opera Canada Publications on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 442 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Benjamin Britten: A Celebration.(Toronto)
Author: Paula Citron
Publication: Opera Canada (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Opera Canada Publications
Volume: 45Issue: 1Page: 33(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 1997. The length of the article is 1852 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Benjamin Britten. (book reviews)
Author: Tracey Rudnick
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1997
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v54Issue: n1Page: p92(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This book is exceptional amongst those that have appeared so far in this well-established series, in that it is largely written by those who worked with the composer and assisted him during the period in which the opera was composed and first put on the stage. It will thus remain a source of first-hand information on Britten's final operatic achievement. Donald Mitchell was Britten's publisher at the time of Death in Venice and his Introduction includes many personal observations on the genesis of the work. The latter part of the book contains essays by T. J. Reed and Patrick Carnegy on the libretto's source in Thomas Mann's novella and Philip Reed compares briefly Visconti's cinematic interpretation of the novella. The volume is richly illustrated with music examples, sketches and extracts from the autograph score, and pictures from the first production. It will make an essential reference work and indispensable companion for opera-goers, students and scholars alike. ... Read more