Britten's works. Edward Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten

British composer, conductor and pianist Edward Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913. Britten began composing at the age of eight. At the age of 12 he wrote “Simple Symphony” for string orchestra (2nd ed. - 1934).

In 1929, Britten entered the Royal College of Music, where his directors were J. Ireland (composition) and A. Benjamin (piano). In 1933, his Sinfonietta attracted public attention. Following it, a number of chamber works appeared, which were included in the programs of international music festivals and laid the foundation for the European fame of their author.

In the 30s Britten writes a lot of music for theater and cinema. At the same time, the composer began to seriously study folk music, processing English, Scottish, and French songs.

In 1939, at the beginning of the war, Britten left for the USA, where he entered the circle of advanced creative intelligentsia. As a response to the tragic events that unfolded on the European continent, the cantata “Ballad of Heroes” (1939) arose, dedicated to the fighters against fascism in Spain. In the late 30s - early 40s. In Britten's work, instrumental music predominates: at this time, piano and violin concertos, a Symphony-Requiem, “Canadian Carnival” for orchestra, “Scottish Ballad” for two pianos and orchestra, and 2 quartets were created.

In 1942, the composer returned to his homeland and settled in the seaside town of Aldborough, on the southeast coast of England. While still in America, he received an order for the opera Peter Grimes, which he completed in 1945. The production of Britten's first opera was of particular significance: it marked the revival of the national musical theater, which had not produced masterpieces of the classical level since the time of Purcell. This was followed by chamber operas: “The Desecration of Lucretia” (1946), a satire “Albert Herring” (1947) on the plot of G. Maupassant. Opera continued to fascinate Britten until the end of his days. In the 50-60s. "Billy Budd" (1951), "Gloriana" (1953), "The Turn of the Screw" (1954), "Noah's Ark" (1958), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1960, based on a comedy by W. Shakespeare), chamber opera appears "Carlew River" (1964), the opera "Prodigal Son" (1968), dedicated to Shostakovich, and "Death in Venice" (1970, after T. Mann).

Britten is widely known as an educational musician. Like S. Prokofiev and K. Orff, he created a lot of music for children and youth. In his musical performance “Let's Do an Opera” (1948), the audience directly participates in the performance process. "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell" is written as a "guide to the orchestra for young people", introducing listeners to the timbres of various instruments. Britten turned to Purcell's work, as well as to ancient English music in general, more than once. He made an edition of his opera "Dido and Aeneas" and other works, as well as a new version of "The Beggar's Opera" by J. Gay and J. Pepusch.

English composer, pianist, conductor, musical public figure, born November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft (Suffolk). He began composing at the age of 4, studied the piano from the age of seven, and the viola from the age of ten. By the age of 14, he had more than a hundred opuses in his portfolio. Among Brithenn's teachers are F. Bridge, J. Ireland and A. Benjamin; He studied with the latter two at the Royal College of Music in London (1930–1933).

The nature of Britten's talent determined the predominance of vocal genres in his work. A number of the best pages of his music are written for voice and orchestra, for example, Illumination (Les Illuminations, 1939); Serenada (Serenada, 1943); Nocturne, Nocturne, 1958) and for voice and piano Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940); Spiritual Sonnets of John Donne (The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, 1945); Winter Words by T. Hardy (Winter Words, 1953); Six fragments from Hlderlin (Six Hlderlin Fragments, 1958). Among the numerous works of the cantata genre, the following stand out: A boy was born (1933), Hymn to St. Cecilia (Hymn to St. Cecilia, 1942), Wreath of Carols (The ceremony of carols, 1942), St. Nicholas (Saint Nicolas, 1948), Cantata of Mercy (Cantata misericordium, 1963). In the well-known monumental War Requiem, where the poems of the English poet W. Owen, who died in the First World War, are interspersed with the texts of the Catholic funeral mass, the music reveals the theme of the meaninglessness of all wars.

Britten's operas demonstrate their author's subtle insight into the human psyche. Peter Grimes based on J. Crabb's poem The Borough was written at the request of the Sergei Koussevitzky Foundation and immediately after the premiere in London in 1945, brought the composer great success. Britten's two other great operas, Billy Budd (1951) based on Melville's novella, and Gloriana (1953), which was composed specifically for the coronation of Elizabeth II, did not achieve the same wide popularity. But Britten's chamber operas, created for the English Opera Group he led, testify to the exceptional skill of their author: The Rape of Lucretia (1946), Albert Herring (1947), Let's Create an Opera! (Let us Make an Opera, 1949) and The Turn of the Screw (1954). You can also mention Noah's Ark (Noye's Fludde, 1958) - a children's mystery opera based on the text of the Chester medieval miracle and the three-act ballet The Prince of Pagodas (1957). In 1960, the very successful opera A Midsummer Night's Dream (score for a medium-sized orchestra) appeared. Three parable operas are intended for church performance: Curlew River (1964), The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) and The Prodigal Son (1968). In 1973, the premiere of Britten's last opera, Death in Venice, based on T. Mann, took place.

Among Britten's orchestral works are the Simple Symphony (1934) for string orchestra, the Requiem Symphony (Sinfonia da Requiem, 1940), the Spring Symphony (1949) for soloists, choir and large orchestra, and the Symphony for cello and orchestra ( 1964). Britten excelled in the form of variations: two remarkable works were written in this genre - Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra (1937) and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, 1946. The Guide consists of variations and a fugue on Purcell's theme. Ballets were staged to the music of the aforementioned variation cycles. Britten's legacy includes concertos for piano (1938) and violin (1939) with orchestra; among chamber instrumental genres - two string quartets (1941 and 1945). Britten was made an MBE (1953) and a peer (1976). Britten died in Aldborough on December 4, 1976.

The work of B. Britten marked the revival of opera in England, a new (after three centuries of silence) entry of English music onto the world stage. Drawing on national tradition and mastering a wide range of modern means of expression, Britten created many works in all genres.

Britten began composing at the age of eight. At the age of 12 he wrote “Simple Symphony” for string orchestra (2nd ed. - 1934). In 1929, Britten entered the Royal College of Music (Conservatory), where his directors were J. Ireland (composition) and A. Benjamin (piano). In 1933, the nineteen-year-old composer's Sinfonietta was performed, attracting the attention of the public. Following it, a number of chamber works appeared, which were included in the programs of international music festivals and laid the foundation for the European fame of their author. These first works by Britten were characterized by a chamber sound, clarity and conciseness of form, which brought the English composer closer to representatives of the neoclassical movement (I. Stravinsky, P. Hindemith). In the 30s Britten writes a lot of music for theater and cinema. Along with this, special attention is paid to chamber vocal genres, where the style of future operas gradually matures. The theme, color, and choice of texts are extremely diverse: “Our Ancestors Are Hunters” (1936) is a satire ridiculing the nobility; the cycle “Illuminations” based on poems by A. Rimbaud (1939) and “Seven Sonnets by Michelangelo” (1940). Britten seriously studies folk music, arranges English, Scottish, and French songs.

In 1939, at the beginning of the war, Britten left for the USA, where he entered the circle of advanced creative intelligentsia. As a response to the tragic events that unfolded on the European continent, the cantata “Ballad of Heroes” (1939) arose, dedicated to the fighters against fascism in Spain. In the late 30s - early 40s. In Britten’s work, instrumental music predominates: at this time, piano and violin concertos, a Symphony-Requiem, “Canadian Carnival” for orchestra, “Scottish Ballad” for two pianos and orchestra, 2 quartets, etc. were created. Like I. Stravinsky, Britten freely uses the heritage of the past: this is how suites from the music of G. Rossini arise (“Musical Evenings” and “Musical Mornings”).

In 1942, the composer returned to his homeland and settled in the seaside town of Aldborough, on the southeast coast of England. While still in America, he received an order for the opera Peter Grimes, which he completed in 1945. The production of Britten’s first opera was of particular importance: it marked the revival of the national musical theater, which had not produced masterpieces of the classical level since the time of Purcell. The tragic story of fisherman Peter Grimes, haunted by fate (story by J. Crabbe), inspired the composer to create a musical drama with a modern, sharply expressive sound. The wide range of traditions that Britten follows makes the music of his opera varied and stylistically rich. Creating images of hopeless loneliness and despair, the composer relies on the style of G. Mahler, A. Berg, D. Shostakovich. The mastery of dramatic contrasts and the realistic introduction of genre crowd scenes brings to mind G. Verdi. The refined imagery and colorfulness of the orchestra in seascapes goes back to the impressionism of C. Debussy. However, all this is united by the author’s original intonation and a sense of the specific flavor of the British Isles.

“Peter Grimes” was followed by chamber operas: “The Desecration of Lucretia” (1946), the satire “Albert Herring” (1947) on the plot of G. Maupassant. Opera continued to fascinate Britten until the end of his days. In the 50-60s. "Billy Budd" (1951), "Gloriana" (1953), "The Turn of the Screw" (1954), "Noah's Ark" (1958), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1960, based on the comedy by W. Shakespeare), chamber opera appears “Carlew River” (1964), the opera “Prodigal Son” (1968), dedicated to Shostakovich, and “Death in Venice” (1970, after T. Mann).

Britten is widely known as an educational musician. Like S. Prokofiev and K. Orff, he creates a lot of music for children and youth. In his musical performance Let's Do an Opera (1948), the audience directly participates in the performance process. "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell" is written as a "guide to the orchestra for young people", introducing listeners to the timbres of various instruments. Britten turned to Purcell's work, as well as to ancient English music in general, more than once. He made an edition of his opera "Dido and Aeneas" and other works, as well as a new version of "The Beggar's Opera" by J. Gay and J. Pepusch.

One of the main themes of Britten’s work - protest against violence, war, affirmation of the value of the fragile and unprotected human world - received its highest expression in “War Requiem" (1961), where, along with the traditional text of the Catholic service, anti-war poems by W. Auden were used.

In addition to his composing activities, Britten performed as a pianist and conductor, touring in different countries. He visited the USSR several times (1963, 1964, 1971). The result of one of his trips to Russia was a cycle of songs based on the words of A. Pushkin (1965) and the Third Cello Suite (1971), which uses Russian folk melodies. Having revived English opera, Britten became one of the genre's greatest innovators in the 20th century. “My cherished dream is to create an operatic form that would be equivalent to Chekhov’s dramas... I consider chamber opera more flexible for expressing innermost feelings. It makes it possible to focus on human psychology. But this is precisely what has become the central theme of modern advanced art.”

In England, Britten is a national hero. The golden age of British music ended a long time ago - 300-400 years ago, and the long-awaited appearance in England of a world-class composer guaranteed him the boundless love of the nation. A trembling feeling arose among his compatriots due to the nature of his music, which avoided sound extremism and shocking avant-garde manifestations. Benjamin Britten is a very hardworking composer with impeccable artistic taste.

Britten was never popular in Russia. However, subtle musicians, such as Dmitry Shostakovich or Svyatoslav Richter, who were friends with the composer, knew the real value of his talent. Now in Russia, discs with the composer’s music have been released, lectures have been given, and scientific articles have been published. The composer wrote 15 operas, as significant for the British as the operas of Tchaikovsky and Glinka are for us. And some of them - "Peter Grimes" or "The Turn of the Screw" - have already become opera classics.

Almost every work about Britten mentions the name of Henry Purcell next to him. Although these two English musicians are separated by a considerable distance - three centuries, they have a lot in common. Benjamin Britten re-edited Dido and Aeneas, the best opera of his distant predecessor, and wrote the wittiest Variations and a fugue on the theme of his other stage music, Abdelazer. ABOUT

Britten is spoken and written as an English composer, the first after Purcell to receive worldwide recognition.

Centuries passed after the death of the “British Orpheus,” as Purcell was called, and the country that gave the world the greatest playwright, a constellation of poets, actors, painters, architects, manifested itself immeasurably more modestly in musical creativity. For three hundred years there have been many composers in England capable of attracting attention. But none of them performed on the world stage so brightly that the world turned to him with interest, excitement, eagerly awaiting what new would appear in his next opus. Only Benjamin Britten, who has gained worldwide fame in our days, became like this. One can say about him: England waited for him.

Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913 in Lowestaft (Suffolk), where he received his initial musical education. He began composing at the age of 4, learned to play the piano from the age of seven, and the viola from the age of ten. By the age of 14, he had more than a hundred opuses in his portfolio. Among Britten's teachers are F. Bridge, J. Ireland and A. Benjamin; He studied with the latter two at the Royal College of Music in London (1930-1933).

Already in these youthful works, features characteristic of Britten’s music of a later period appeared: an original melodic gift, fantasy, humor, and an original interpretation of classical forms.

Britten's early works - the Simple Symphony and the Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra - attracted attention with a charming combination of youthful freshness and professional maturity. The beginning of Britten's creative biography is reminiscent of the young Shostakovich: brilliant pianism, amazing knowledge of musical literature of all genres, spontaneity and constant readiness to write music, fluency in the secrets of the composer's craft.

At the beginning of his career, Britten was attracted mainly by instrumental music: symphonic suites, variations, piano and violin concertos, the already mentioned Simple Symphony and Sinfonietta; in the chamber genre - piano and violin pieces, string quartet, Fantastic Quartet for oboe, violin, viola and cello.

Britten has the magnificent trait of a true “craftsman” who does not disdain any work, because each, any work gives rise to creative impulses; He “gets his hands on” film music, designing radio plays, and composing various types of “everyday music” samples.

The vocal genre also determined the further work of the English composer. A number of the best pages of his music were written for voice and orchestra: Illuminations (Les Illuminations, 1939); Serenada (Serenada, 1943); Nocturne (1958) and for voice and piano:

Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940); Spiritual Sonnets of John Donne (The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, 1945); Winter Words by T. Hardy (Winter Words, 1953); Six fragments from Hlderlin (Six Hlderlin Fragments, 1958).

Among the numerous works of the cantata genre, the following stand out: A boy was born (1933), Hymn to St. Cecilia (Hymn to St. Cecilia, 1942),

Wreath of Carols (The ceremony of carols, 1942), St. Nicholas (Saint Nicolas, 1948), Cantata of Mercy (Cantata misericordium, 1963).

In the well-known monumental War Requiem, where the poems of the English poet W. Owen, who died in the First World War, are interspersed with the texts of the Catholic funeral mass, the music reveals the theme of the meaninglessness of all wars. Cast: soprano, tenor, baritone, boys choir, mixed choir, organ, chamber orchestra, large symphony orchestra.

In 1961, Britten began work on the War Requiem. The work was prepared for the opening of the cathedral in the city of Coventry, which was completely destroyed by German bombers during the Second World War. The city was restored, and the cathedral, which was its main attraction, was also restored. Its opening should have been a celebration.

The War Requiem is Britten's most significant work. He continues the tradition of classical requiems, starting from Mozart, but also uses the experience of the recent past (Hindemith's requiem was written on the poems of Walt Whitman, the English composer of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries Frederick Delius composed the text of his requiem from the works of Nietzsche). What is innovative about Britten's War Requiem is that the composer combined the traditional texts of the funeral mass with the inspired and poignant verses of Owen.

English poet Wilfrid Owen (1893-1918) enlisted in the army after England entered the First World War. In January 1917 he found himself on the Western Front. It was then, until November of the following year, that the bulk of his poems appear. They express with enormous force a protest against the war, his worldview, which is illustrated by one of the letters from the front: “Finally, I comprehended the truth that will never seep into the dogmas of any of the national churches: namely, that one of the the most important commandments of Christ: submission at any cost! Endure dishonor and shame, but never resort to weapons. Be slandered, insulted, killed, but do not kill... Christ is truly in no man's land. There people often hear His voice. There is no greater love than that of one who lays down his life for a friend.” The poet likens to Christ those who are used to being called cannon fodder. For the first few months of 1918, after a serious wound that brought him to the rear, he was preparing reinforcements. He wrote to his friend about this: “Yesterday I worked for 14 hours - I taught Christ to lift the cross by counting, to fit the crown of thorns on his head and not to think about thirst until the last stop. I attended His Supper to know that He does not complain about anything. I tested His feet to make sure they were worthy of nails. I made sure that He was silent and stood at attention before His accusers. I buy Him every day for a silver coin and use a map to introduce Him to the topography of Golgotha.”

At the end of the summer, Owen insisted on being sent to the active army. On September 1 he arrived in France. On October 1 he was awarded the Military Cross for courage. November 4 killed.

Britten dedicated the requiem to the memory of his friends who died at the fronts: Roger Burney, sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Piers Dunkerley, captain in the Royal Marines, David Gill, ordinary sailor in the Royal Navy, Michael Halliday, lieutenant in the Royal Volunteer Reserve New Zealand Navy. The epigraph to it was the lines of Owen:

My theme is war and the sorrow of war.

My poetry is mournful.

All the poet can do is warn.

When asked about the content of the War Requiem, Britten replied: “I thought a lot about my friends who died in the two world wars ... I will not say that this work was written in heroic tones. There are many regrets about the terrible past. But that is precisely why Requiem is addressed to the future. Seeing examples of the terrible past, we must prevent such catastrophes as wars.” The requiem consists of 6 parts, entitled according to the traditional sections of the funeral mass. Part 1, Requem aeternam (Eternal Repose) includes poems

Masses are not celebrated for the victims of the carnage;

Only cannonade will thunder at them,

And, stuttering, a fractional volley of clips

He will hastily knock out his “Our Father” for them...

(Hereinafter translated by J. Dalgat).
The 2nd part, Dies irae (Day of the Lord's wrathful power), written mainly on the now canonical text of Thomas of Celan (c. 1190 - c. 1260) contains the lines

The bugle sang, full of evening melancholy,

And the answering bugle sang just as sadly.

The soldiers' conversation fell silent near the stream;

Sleep crept towards them, concealing misfortune within itself.

The coming day already possessed people.

The bugle sang...

The echo of the torments of the past in their hearts was silent,

Muffled by tomorrow's pain, I slept.

In the 3rd part, Offertorium (Offering of Gifts “Lord Jesus Christ”), a poetic summary of the biblical episode of Abraham’s slaughter of Isaac appears. But instead of the Old Testament salvation of the son, replaced by a ram...

The old man was overcome by arrogance, his son was killed,

And half of Europe followed him.

In the text of the 4th part, Sanctus (Holy), Owen owns the final episode -

After the fierce tornado subsides,

And Death wins the laurels of victory,

And the drum of Fate will interrupt its crackling,

And the horn of the sunset will sing the dawn,

Will life return to those killed? Is it true

That He, having overcome Death, will create the world again

And having washed him with living water,

Will spring blossoms give him forever?

Gray Time responded like this:

“My step freezes...”

Having fallen to the Earth, I heard in response:

“There is no more fire in the cooled depths.

My face is scarred. My chest is dry.

Only the seas of my tears will not dry up.”

The 5th part, Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), on the contrary, begins with the lines of Owen:

At the crossroads of all roads

He looks at the battles from the cross

Excluded from the battle, I suddenly got caught

Into a deep hopeless labyrinth.

It was packed to capacity with people;

But everyone lay here without moving,

Sometimes moaning quietly, as if in a dream.

The sound of guns did not reach from outside.

“O friend,” I said, “there is no reason for grief.”

“No,” he answered, “except for the youthful years that were ruined”...

Owen's Latin texts and poems are independent of each other and “are related as the eternal and the present, as direct and indirect speech, they speak about the same thing, but in different languages - not only in the literal, but also in the figurative sense. They can only be understood as parallel lines converging at infinity,” writes War Requiem researcher Genrikh Orlov.

To emphasize the significance of the work, directed against war, designed to unite peoples, the composer assigned his three solo parts - soprano, tenor and baritone - to representatives of three nations. They were supposed to be the Russian Galina Vishnevskaya, the Englishman Peter Pierce and the German Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. However, at the last moment, Soviet officials, on whom leaving the country depended, did not give the singer permission. Britten's plan remained unfulfilled. The War Requiem premiered on 30 May 1962 at the dedication of the restored St Michael's Cathedral in Coventry, conducted by the author.

The War Requiem is the pinnacle of Britten's work, incorporating the best features of the composer's work. Dramaturgy is built from a comparison of three plans. The front - two soloists (soldiers) and a chamber orchestra - are associated with Owen's poems. This is the horror of war and human suffering. The second is a ritual expression of mourning - a mass performed by a soprano, mixed choir and symphony orchestra. The third is innocence and purity, symbolized by the boys' choir and organ. “This three-dimensionality and the exceptionally intense contrasts it generates can remind one of Dante’s triptych - Hell, Purgatory, Paradise” (G. Orlov). The musical language of the work combines an ancient psalmody, a soldier's song, a recitative close to impressionism, music similar to Bach's ostinatos, and chord fanfares typical of English palace festivities.

Neither in his early years nor in the later stages of his creative evolution did Britten set himself the task of pioneering new technical techniques of composition or theoretical justifications for his individual style. Unlike many of his peers, Britten was never carried away by the pursuit of the “newest,” nor did he try to find support in the established methods of composition inherited from the masters of previous generations. He is guided primarily by the free flight of imagination, fantasy, realistic expediency, and not by belonging to one of the many “schools” of our century.

Britten always valued creative sincerity more than scholastic dogma, no matter what ultra-modern outfits it was dressed in. Benjamin Britten allowed all the winds of the era to penetrate his creative laboratory, but not to control it. His work was influenced by Mahler, Shostakovich, Alban Berg, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

Britten is unthinkable outside the specific national environment that formed him and tied him to himself with thousands of threads. In childhood, youth, and adulthood, he expresses his musical thoughts without resorting to quotes, folklore, or stylization. But he loved English music. Between 1945 and 1948 he arranged English folk songs and published two collections, with a collection of French songs in between. Before that, he composed "Canadian Carnival" for orchestra and a Scottish ballad for two pianos and orchestra.

But not only folklore origins shaped his language. In 1939 he left for the USA, where he stayed for three years. One of the best works of this triennial is Michelangelo's Seven Sonnets for tenor and piano, music of spiritual turmoil, melancholy and bitterness. It was not at all easy to find a performer endowed with a subtle understanding of not only vocal tasks, but the logic and style of modern melodic chant of poems by the great sculptor and poet of the Renaissance. The meeting with Peter Pears marked the beginning of a new stage in Britten's creative path. Communication with Pierce, a singer of exceptionally high culture, combining passionate pathos with deep intellectualism in his art, played a role in the emergence of Britten's interest in vocal music and, as a result, led him to the operatic genre. For many years, opera became for Britten the main area of application of his enormous talent.

Interest in Britten, and with him fame, comes from abroad. In Italy (1934), Spain (1936), Switzerland (1937) at contemporary music festivals, he received high praise for his works.

It is difficult to imagine that, when starting his first opera, the composer saw in the future more than a dozen operas of different genres that would follow. But it is easy to imagine that Britten knew how long ago, how persistently many composers of the 20th century had been struggling to solve the problem of a modern, innovative opera capable of capturing the hall.

Britten knew that opera was considered by many to be a dying genre. Invading this new genre, Britten had high hopes for it, taking into account the most important thing - the mass audience of opera lovers. The first opera “Peter Grimes” immediately brought its author world fame. The plot is borrowed from the short story “The Town” by the English writer of the early 19th century George Crabb.

In the town (where the opera takes place), the life of each of its inhabitants is connected with the sea. The main character of the opera is not at all like a positive hero, against whom small people unfairly took up arms. It is easy to blame Grimes for all those actions that put him outside of society, where not all people are so worthless. Only the retired skipper and the pharmacist treat him with sympathy, and the teacher Ellen loves this cruel, unsociable man. She understands that many of Grimes’ actions, ridiculous and sometimes scary, are due to the fact that he has lost faith in goodness, human understanding, in the fact that for him there can be a smile and warmth of the heart. Peter Grimes dies. He sails alone into the sea, never to return.

Britten does not accuse or defend his hero, but illuminates his spiritual world, showing how terrible life is, capable of disfiguring a person and, through a chain of misfortunes, leading him into the darkness of the night of a raging ocean, into oblivion...

In "Peter Grimes" Britten's talent as a musical playwright was revealed for the first time. He achieves the ever-growing interest of listeners through an unusual juxtaposition of solo, ensemble, and choral episodes; he layers the stage action with symphonic interludes - intermissions, which have a great impact on the listeners. Six interludes - "Dawn", "Storm", "Sunday Morning", "Call of the Sea", "Moonlight", "Blank Night" - reflect the dramatic milestones of the action and its symphonic subtexts.

Peter Grimes was first staged in London by Saddler's Wells in 1945. The premiere resulted in an event of national significance, reviving the long-lost glory of English music. The premiere of "Peter Grimes" became an important phenomenon of international significance as a talented work, deeply emotional, democratic in language and cutting-edge. It is possible that “Peter Grimes” in a special way captured with its drama people who experienced a lot of terrible things during the years of the just ended war. Britten's first opera performed on all the major stages in the world.

A year later, the Glydenburne Opera House, whose troupe soon received the name of the Small Opera Company of the Covent Garden Theatre, staged Britten's new opera, The Desecration of Lucretia. The fate of Lucretia, the wife of the Roman commander Lucius Collatinus, was first described by Tacitus, and then retold many times by poets, writers, playwrights, including Shakespeare.

King Tarquin abused Lucretia. She committed suicide, unable to bear the shame. In his opera, Britten, passionately indignant, comes to the defense of Lucretia. One of the most stunning scenes in the opera takes place in the bedchamber. Tarquinius turns his strength, baseness, and weapons against the commander’s faithful, loving wife. The composer talks about Lucretius with the music of a lullaby. It contains the very purity of a serene child's sleep. "The Desecration of Lucretia" is the first opera in which Britten turns to a chamber cast: six performers of stage roles, including minor ones; there are thirteen people in the orchestra, and since the genre of opera is close to ancient tragedy, a chorus is introduced, commenting on the action, preceding the stage events with their remarks. But the choir parts are entrusted to... two singers: a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. It is interesting that the two main performers of the “chorus role” in the Small Opera Company were the outstanding artists Peter Pearce and Sylvia Fischer.

Britten, as it were, recreates the language of the theater of Purcell and Handel, causing direct associations with the style of operatic retelling of the events of ancient history. The grandeur, severity, and strength coming from Handel’s images are contrasted with touchingness, femininity, and trepidation, which make us recall Purcell’s style of writing.

At the beginning of the 18th century, among the lower strata of theater lovers, who were not allowed into fashionable theater halls, the idea of a new genre arose - parody opera. John Gay, a writer, and John Pepusch, a musician, composed an opera, the musical material of which developed and varied street songs, sentimental ballads, and dances of the lower classes. This is how the Beggar's Opera arose, which had a noisy and almost scandalous success, due to the fascinating plot played out among thieves, swindlers, buyers of stolen goods, cheerful girls, small market "dealers" and other people snooping around the back streets of London markets and brothels. 200 years later, Bertolt Brecht wrote “The Threepenny Novel,” which was transformed by composer Kurt Weill into the “Threepenny Opera,” which has been part of the repertoire of hundreds of operetta and drama theaters for 40 years.

It took great courage to write a new edition based on the work of two English authors of the 18th century, based on the melodies of John Pepusch. Britten's new Beggar's Opera, of course, goes beyond the editorial edits of Pepusch's music. It was re-composed and commented by a 20th century composer.

The Beggar's Opera was followed by Billy Budd. And here the composer turns to the complex spiritual world of the heroes. Billy Badd, a young sailor, a good-natured, cheerful, sociable person, is opposed by the fanaticism of the boatswain Clagardt. In a collision with him, the bearer of inhumanity, without wanting it, Billy kills the boatswain and goes to execution.

Billy Budd's intonations naturally form melodic lines akin to folk origins. The boatswain uses a very limited intonational vocabulary of a recitative nature. Naturalistic details are often heard in the orchestra’s remarks accompanying the boatswain’s “speech.” As in “Peter Grimes,” we have before us a hero endowed with complex, contradictory traits, and that is why his image is so life-like.

Operas in which there is no chorus and ballet, no cumbersome symphony orchestra, operas designed for the most portable stage design - this is not Britten's invention. Small one-act interlude operas were known back in the 18th century, during the time of Pergolesi. In the struggle for the vital fate of opera, Britten revives on a new basis the forgotten traditions of the genre, no less important today than in the years of the birth of Pergolesi’s “La Maid-Madam,” one of the most popular interlude operas of the 18th century to this day.

The modern drama "Peter Grimes", the ancient tragedy "The Desecration of Lucretia", the satire on English society of the Victorian era "Albert Herring" and the denunciation of the morals of the English capital of the 18th century. Britten conveys a through-line thought about the evil, vulgarity, and crime of a world where base passions reign, where hypocrisy and hypocrisy are covered up by “position in society,” where the spirit of buying and selling covers not only three-penny market transactions with conscience. Indignation and deep sympathy, an ironic smile and caustic satirical intonation, reverence for purity and fiery denunciation of evil - such is the amplitude of the composer’s spiritual movements, in each work he takes a clear position - a certain attitude towards the heroes of the musical stage action.

Britten's ethical ideal is humanism, but not the kind of it that is expressed by passive sympathy or equally inactive condemnation of evil. In Britten's work, humanism is reflected in the desire to involve the widest audience in the range of ethical problems, to capture it, to call for effective forms of struggle against evil.

During his life, Benjamin Britten brought English music to a fundamentally new level of development, raising it to the forefront, proved that opera is strong in its vocal power and eternal inviolability, and in instrumental music he became a “musical Picasso”, as he wrote music full of unusualness and originality .

Literature

Kovnatskaya L. English music of the twentieth century. Origins and stages of development. M. 1986.

Kovnatskaya L. Britten. M. 1974.

Electronic Appendix No. 1 - additional materials.

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913, Lowestoft, Suffolk - 4 December 1976, Aldborough) was a British composer, conductor and pianist.

Britten was born in Suffolk. He received his initial musical education there. Later he went to study at the Royal College of Music. He was taught by such musicians as J. Arleind, A. Benjamin. Britten's first work was "Simple Symphony". It combined the composer's youth and his professional talent. Britten played the piano very well. At the same time, she reminded everyone that he is a composer. Britten never set grandiose goals and objectives for himself. Above all, he trusted intuition, imagination and heart.

Britten hated avant-gardeism. In the thirties he wrote music for theatre, cinema and radio. Britten admitted that he worked quickly, always and under any circumstances. He wrote about twenty-three pieces of music for films. They were very popular with the audience and were also well received by critics. It also made itself felt that Britten was developing as a creator in England. That is, in the national environment. He wrote the song-symphonic cycle “Our Ancestors are Hunters.” Britten wrote it in 1936. The composition is still considered a sharp historical satire on the English nobility.

Benjamin became famous around the world for his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. The composition was written in 1937. It was dedicated to Britten's first teacher. He also wrote several Variations: “Adagio”, “Romance”, “March”, “Viennese Waltz”, “Fugue Finale”, “Funeral March”, “Italian Part” and others. In addition to his passion for instrumental music, Britten was well acquainted with other genres. He has repeatedly performed at contemporary music festivals in Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. He was appreciated in these countries, as well as in others.

Britten moved to America for three years. There he wrote Michelangelo's Seven Sonnets for piano and voice. Britten had some difficulty finding performers for this work. This man was Peter Pierce. The meeting between the composer and the singer gave rise to a creative collaboration that was long and fruitful. Thanks to Pearce, Britten developed an interest in vocal music. Britten began working with the genre of opera. The first piece was called No. Peter Grimes." It was written based on the poem "Town". Benjamin was returning from America to England and was so carried away by this poem that upon arrival he began to work seriously on the work.

He finished the opera in 1945. It was she who brought fame to the composer and revealed his talent as a playwright. After the premiere, the opera was staged in all famous theaters. She even ended up in the USSR. Another opera, The Desecration of Lucretia, was written in 1946. The ancient plot was the basis of this creation. Britten's third opera was Albert Herring. This opera was radically different from the previous two. The opera was somewhat similar to Italian and comic operas. Britten was always interested in folklore. He arranged English folk songs. One day Britten showed himself as a writer. He published the book “The Wonderful World of Music.” She popularized operatic music and was aimed at young readers.

One of Britten's most significant works was the War Requiem. It was performed for the first time in England in 1962. The success was so resounding that the requiem sold out 200 thousand records in a couple of months. It was performed in almost all countries of the world. Colleagues from the USSR dedicated their Fourteenth Symphony to Britten. The English composer died in 1976.