Benjamin Britten

Jeremy Tambling (University of Hong Kong)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 22 Nov 1913
Died 4 Dec 1976
Activity 1936-1976

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Composer

Resources

Britten's Works

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Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), the most prominent opera-writer in Britain in the twentieth century, was born at Lowestoft in East Anglia, and was to die nearby, at Aldeburgh. This small Suffolk town, which provided the material for George Crabbe's poem

The Borough

in 1810, was to become the home of the Festival housed in the disused Maltings (in the nearby illage of Snape), which Britten began in 1948 with Eric Crozier (1914-1994), the writer and producer, and the tenor Peter Pears (1910-1986), Britten's partner from 1936 onwards. For Pears, beginning with

Peter Grimes

(1945), Britten wrote much of his operatic music, save those operas written specifically for children. Other influential singers associated with Britten in the 1940s and 1950s included Joan Cross and Jennifer Vyvyan.

The

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2071 words

Citation: Tambling, Jeremy. "Benjamin Britten". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5001, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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