The man who put British opera on an international stage and changed the UK’s musical map for ever, his pacifism and his sense of being an outsider inspired much of his most memorable writing Starting ...

IN THE past, I have never held a very high opinion of Benjamin Britten's operas. I found his chosen plots too sombre and his music too dreary; the only one of his works that I enjoyed was Billy Budd, ...

English National Opera’s staging of Britten’s 1947 opera Albert Herring - Alastair Muir Seething beneath the comic surface of Britten’s witty 1947 opera Albert Herring is social criticism of the ...

Award-winning Opera North is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with a series of productions next week at the Theatre Royal. Britten is one of the most successful British opera ...

Benjamin Britten wrote this opera about an American folk hero when he was in the USA during the Second World War but it has never been among the same composers most popular operas even in England and ...

Director Phyllida Lloyd plus soprano Dame Josephine Barstow proved an award winning formula last time Opera North decided to stage a Benjamin Britten opera. Now the company is capitalising on the ...

Owen Wingrave is often described as Benjamin Britten's pacifist opera, but it is far from peaceful. Neil Bartlett's new production - first seen in Aldeburgh in June and coming to the Edinburgh ...

A powerful and brilliantly performed take on Britten’s opera of dark, ghostly suggestion Based on Henry James’ unsettling story of the sinister goings-on at Bly Manor, where a new governess has just ...

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter It was not Benjamin Britten ...

The cast of Benjamin Britten’s opera Billy Budd — set in 1797 — is all male, which may be one reason why it’s not often staged: Deborah Warner’s bold and persuasive production is the Royal Opera’s ...

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. With a bit of luck there might have been a bottle of champagne left in the cellar from before the war. But the rest ...