November 22 - Benjamin Britten (The Musical Birthday Series)

Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was one of the leading British composers of the mid/late twentieth century.

Product Placement

Said the elderly Benjamin Britten

When surveying the things he had written,

“I hope that posterity

Will view them with charity,

And find a small niche they can fit in."

Compare and Contrast

Billy Budd

  (Latent lust).

Noye’s Fludde

  (Blatant trust).

Albert Herring: A Synopsis

Albert Herring, rather drunk,

Thought himself to be a hunk.

Loaded, as he was, with Scotch

Went out on his first debauch.

When he up and disappeared

Mayhem and foul play were feared.

Worthies of the town heard tell

That he perished in a well,

But when their threnody was through,

Albert turned up good as new.

Peter Grimes: Synopsis

Day’s begun,

The rising sun,

A gentle English tide.

Peter Grimes

Committed crimes,

Or so the village cried.

“He’s no felon,”

Countered Ellen,

“And I will be his guide.”

But the boy

In his employ

Took a fatal slide.

In the end,

Without a friend,

He sank his boat and died.

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