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The Latest Breaking News from Benjamin Britten

The experience that coloured everything Britten went on to write

Three months after Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Britten and Yehudi Menuhin performed there. Survivor and cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was ‘transfixed’ – as she told the composer when they played together decades later

The Guardian - UK

Mentors, muses and new music: conductor and composer Ryan Wigglesworth

The musician first visited Aldeburgh as a teenage fanboy. Now, he is at the centre of this year’s festival as its featured artist – and he’s opening with his favourite opera

The Guardian - UK

Britten Sinfonia: Britten in America review – delightful music from a fruitful vacation

This was a virtuosic, witty performance of a mixed programme of works mostly by Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland, who spent the summer of 1939 together in Woodstock

The Guardian - UK

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Peter Grimes at Royal Opera: A poleaxing production

4/5 Benjamin Britten’s opera is reimagined in gritty and grisly fashion in Deborah Warner’s powerful new take

Evening Standard

The Turn of the Screw at the Royal Opera House review: commanding and unsettling

4/5 Claustrophobia and menace run rampant in this tour-de-force adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s opera

Evening Standard

Sir Humphrey Burton obituary

Renowned broadcaster known for arts and music programmes such as Arena, Aquarius and Omnibus

The Guardian - UK

A Ceremony of Carols review – joy and Alleluias for Cardiff Polyphonic Choir

A radiant Christmas celebration brought an emphatic account of Britten’s song cycle, together with past commissions by Welsh composers and newer works that perfectly complemented each other

The Guardian - UK

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Choreographer Cathy Marston: 'Dance encourages empathy'

Acclaimed choreographer Cathy Marston is back at Royal Ballet with a new piece designed around Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto which liberated her into new modes of working

Evening Standard

The Royal Ballet: Perspectives review – intimate seduction, pure dance and enduring beauty

In an engaging triple bill, a new work from Cathy Marston explores the emotional charge of Britten’s Violin Concerto, while works by Justin Peck and George Balanchine showcase the simple joy of dancing to great music

The Guardian - UK

Albert Herring at English National Opera: 'Small scale but packs a punch'

4/5 Small but perfectly formed Albert Herring from an ENO entering its ‘twin city’ era

Evening Standard

Gameshows, Cliff Richard and Stalin’s most hated play: the British culture sent behind the iron curtain

A thaw in relations during the Cold War led to some surprising collaborations between the two nations, involving everyone from Laurence Olivier and Rudolf Nureyev to Gilbert and George. As relations ice over again, what can we learn from this artistic detente?

The Guardian - UK

A Visit to Friends/The Gildas Quartet review – Colin Matthews’s luminous new opera opens Aldeburgh in fine style

With a Chekhov-inspired libretto by William Boyd, this ‘opera within an opera’ had an excellent cast and a lucid staging. Another brand new work by Colin Matthews – his vivid Quartet No 6 – featured the following morning

The Guardian - UK

Ben and Imo at Orange Tree Theatre review: a small gem of a play

4/5 Erica Whyman’s efficient production retells the story of how Benjamin Britten’s catastrophic Coronation piece Gloriana was created

Evening Standard

The week in classical: Peter Grimes; Parsifal; Yunchan Lim – review

Depleted yet straining every sinew, Welsh National Opera deliver a formidable new Peter Grimes. Elsewhere, down the aisle with Wagner and fearless Bach from the world’s next great pianist

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Peter Grimes review – Netia Jones’s brutal new production electrifies

In the hands of Gothenburg Opera, Britten’s storm-tossed masterpiece takes psychological horror to the next level

Evening Standard

Bungalow which was home to composer Imogen Holst protected with listed status

Holst also worked as an assistant to Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

Louder

“I found the underground a more realistic place – bodies all over the floor, film projections on various surfaces, and a right old racket coming from the stage… altogether rather dreamlike”: Robert Wyatt on his improvised life

Fuelled by jazz, socialism and an absurdist slant on the world around him, the retired Canterbury icon’s instincts served him well during a remarkable career

The Guardian - UK

Classical music: Fiona Maddocks’s 10 best concerts and operas of 2024

A last-minute stand-in saves the day; an unusual artistic double act dazzles; plus, electrifying Strauss, Finnish firepower and high-flying Britten…

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The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Opera triple bill: Britten, Weill and Ravel; Hänsel und Gretel; Tosca – review

Two opera studio shows find the next generation of stars in rude health, while the Royal Opera’s latest Tosca revival is the ultimate class act

The Guardian - UK

Diana Cumming obituary

Other lives: Artist whose strange, expressive paintings were admired by Frank Auerbach and collected by Benjamin Britten

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Trouble in Tahiti + A Quiet Place; The Turn of the Screw; Sinfonia of London/Wilson – review

Total commitment carries Bernstein’s uneven suburban double bill; ignore the added subtext and savour ENO’s musically outstanding Turn of the Screw; and Rachmaninov as you’ve never heard him…

The Guardian - UK

The Turn of the Screw review – creepy and challenging, ENO’s new Britten staging is an ambiguous triumph

Isabella Bywater’s intelligent and demanding production injects fresh menace into Henry James’s tale of a ghosts and dark histories

The Independent UK

BBC pulls peace advert from Proms programme for Britten’s War Requiem performance

Exclusive: Peace Pledge Union said text explaining Benjamin Britten’s pacifist beliefs has been pulled from Proms programme

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Double Bryn Terfel; Siwan Rhys; Bozzini Quartet; My Beloved Man – review

A highlight of this summer’s country house opera season shows how these tireless and inventive festivals are vital to the UK’s classical music scene.

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Pekka Kuusisto & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra: DSCH; Camerata RCO – review

A top cast and young local chorus share the honours in Netia Jones’s stylish new Britten staging; Finnish live-wire Pekka Kuusisto and friends conjure Shostakovich in the dark. Plus, Bruckner’s 6th for 10 players…

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