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The Latest Breaking News from Benjamin Britten

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

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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

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

The Guardian - UK

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

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

Evening Standard

“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

Louder

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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…

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 Guardian - 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 Independent 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

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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…

The Guardian - UK

Songs for Peter Pears album review – wide-ranging and lucid collection

Irish tenor Robin Tritschler presentation of songs written for Benjamin Britten’s professional and personal partner of nearly 40 years is a fine achievement

The Guardian - UK

Sumidagawa/Curlew River review – Britten’s work reunited with its medieval Japanese inspiration

New staging of Britten’s work, first seen at the Aldeburgh festival 60 years ago, complemented by authentic Noh play

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: The Merry Widow; Aldeburgh festival – review

Thomas Allen steals a witty, sparkling new production of Léhar’s masterpiece, and a cosmic world premiere from Judith Weir lives up to her star billing

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The Guardian - UK

‘I’ve always been a glass half full person’: Aldeburgh festival’s outgoing CEO Roger Wright

After 10 years at the helm of Britten Pears Arts, Wright is stepping down. He looks back at his festival highlights, and forwards to classical music’s increasingly uncertain future.

The Guardian - UK

Britten: Violin Concerto Chamber Works album review – bravura and brilliance as Faust turns to Britten’s violin writing

Violinist Isabelle Faust, violist Boris Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov honour Britten’s exuberant works with vigour and determination

Wallpaper

Rent British musician Imogen Holst’s home via Modernist Estates

Discover Imogen Holst’s home, designed by H.T. Cadbury Brown, in the seaside town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk

The Guardian - UK

The Guardian view on opera and circus: a populist pairing that scales the heights

Editorial: Featuring awe-inspiring aerial antics, Welsh National Opera’s Death In Venice shows how innovative the art form can still be

The Guardian - UK

Ben and Imo review – Mark Ravenhill races Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst towards a coronation deadline

Samuel Barnett and Victoria Yeates as the composer and his ‘assistant’ test the limits of collaboration as they work towards the completion of Britten’s 1953 opera Gloriana

The Guardian - UK

Death in Venice review – Britten’s final opera soars in WNO’s captivating staging

Olivia Fuchs’ new production casts aerialists as the Polish family to stunning effect. Mark Le Brocq is a sympathetic Aschenbach and Leo Hussain conducts with a sure hand

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Cavalleria rusticana/Aleko; Bath BachFest review – passion and penitence

Opera North pairs Mascagni’s masterpiece with teenage Rachmaninov in a potent double bill. Plus, well-tuned extremes from Tenebrae and a blizzard of notes with Mahan Esfahani

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