290
A
fter Purcell’s death in 1695
and on through the 18th
and 19th centuries, British
music was dominated by European
composers, such as Handel, Johann
Christian Bach, and Mendelssohn.
It was not until the publication of
Edward Elgar’s En ig ma Va riat ions,
in 1899, that a British composer
began almost single-handedly to
revitalize the country’s music.
At this time, British opera was
in an especially perilous state.
The comic operas of Gilbert and
Sullivan were popular, as was
Edward German’s operetta Merrie
England, but there were no serioussuccessors to Purcell. Elgar would
never finish The Spanish Lady,
his only attempt at opera, while
Vaughan Williams labored for
years on his first opera, Hugh the
Drover, working folk songs and
idioms into the music in the hope
of creating a truly British work.
When the opera opened in 1924,
it met with little initial success.
The young Benjamin Britten
disliked the English pastoral school
and wrote of Vaughan Williams,
“I am afraid I don’t like his music,
however much I try.” Britten had
hoped to pursue postgraduate
studies with the Austrian
composer Alban Berg, a student
of Arnold Schoenberg, whose
Lyric Suite he admired, but was
dissuaded by his parents.
In 1930, the year Britten began
his studies at the Royal College of
Music in London, the Vic-Wells
company was formed in a bid to
champion British theatre, opera,
and ballet. In 1934, the Old Vic
Theatre became the center for
spoken drama and Sadler’s Wells20TH-CENTURY BRITISH OPERA
The beach at Aldeburgh, the coastal
village that inspired Peter Grimes. The
opera was staged live here in 2013 to
mark the centenary of Britten’s birth.IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
20th-century British operaBEFORE
1689 First performance
of Henry Purcell’s opera
Dido and Aeneas.1871–1896 Librettist W.S.
Gilbert and composer Arthur
Sullivan together produce 14
comic operas, including HMS
Pinafore and The Mikado.1902 Edward German’s opera
Merrie England, a tale of
amorous rivalries at the court
of Elizabeth I, opens at the
Savoy Theatre in London.1922 Following the success
of his orchestral suite
The Planets, Gustav Holst
composes his one-act opera
The Perfect Fool.AFTER
1955 Michael Tippett’s first
opera, The Midsummer
Marriage, is performed at
Covent Garden.1966 The one-act opera
Purgatory, by Hugo Weisgall,
premieres at England’s
Cheltenham Festival.1968 The Aldeburgh Festival
includes the first performance
of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera
Punch and Judy.1984 Where The Wild Things
Are, by Oliver Knussen to a
libretto by Maurice Sendak,
receives its first performance
at London’s National Theatre.Music ... has the beauty of
loneliness of pain: of strength
and freedom. The beauty of
disappointment and never
satisfied love.
Benjamin BrittenUS_288-293_Britten.indd 290 26/03/18 1:01 PM