A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Britten’s opera adapts Shakespeare’s comedy of fairies, lovers, and rustic performers, retaining the play’s plot with alterations and giving greater prominence to the woods and fairy world.
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Britten’s opera adapts Shakespeare’s comedy of fairies, lovers, and rustic performers, retaining the play’s plot with alterations and giving greater prominence to the woods and fairy world.
Melissa Barak’s ballet to Benjamin Britten’s 1934 Simple Symphony for string orchestra, inspired by Balanchine’s La source and Raymonda Variations. Barak also designed the women’s costumes.
In the Suffolk town of Loxford, the May Day committee chooses timid greengrocer Albert Herring as May King because it considers none of the girls worthy of May Queen. After Sid and Nancy secretly spike his lemonade, Albert leaves town for an adventure. He returns the next morning, rejects the committee’s expectations, and stands up to his mother.
On board HMS Indomitable during the French Revolutionary Wars, the cheerful sailor Billy Budd attracts the attention and hostility of Master-at-Arms John Claggart. Claggart arranges a false accusation of mutiny. When Billy is confronted with the charge, his stammer prevents him from answering and he strikes Claggart, killing him. A court-martial sentences Billy to hang. He refuses to support a mutiny in his defense, is executed, and blesses Captain Vere, who later recalls his own failure to save Billy.
In medieval East Anglia, a Madwoman searches for her son, who disappeared a year earlier. A Ferryman tells how a sick boy was abandoned by his master near the river and died, asking to be buried by the path to a chapel. As the Ferryman recounts the story, the Madwoman realizes the boy was her son. She prays at his grave, and the boy’s spirit appears to comfort her. Her madness lifts, and the Abbot closes the parable.
The novelist Gustav von Aschenbach travels from Munich to Venice seeking renewed inspiration. There he becomes fascinated by the Polish boy Tadzio, while cholera spreads through the city. Aschenbach follows Tadzio and his family, conceals the danger from them, and remains in Venice. After the family leaves, Aschenbach watches Tadzio on the beach, grows too weak to rise, and dies as the boy walks out to sea.
Fanfare is a one-act ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, in celebration of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The ballet premiered on June 2, 1953, the night of the coronation, at the City Center of Music and Drama, danced by the New York City Ballet.
At a tournament, Elizabeth I reconciles Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Lord Mountjoy. Essex seeks permission to lead a campaign in Ireland, later becomes Lord Deputy, and eventually returns after failing to suppress the rebellion. Elizabeth’s affection for him conflicts with warnings about his political threat. Essex and his followers attempt to raise support against the Crown; after he is imprisoned in the Tower, Elizabeth signs his death warrant despite pleas for mercy, then reflects on their relationship and her mortality.
After his death, meek businessman Robert Johnson looks back on his life while journeying toward the Inn at the End of the World. Along the way he encounters institutions of insurance and finance and a nightclub, in an elaborate theatrical departure from Priestley’s naturalistic drama.
God warns Noye that a flood will destroy the sinful world and tells him to build an ark. Noye and his family construct it and bring animals aboard in pairs, while his wife and her friends initially refuse to join. A storm fills the ark; after it subsides, Noye sends out a raven and then a dove, which returns with an olive branch. God tells everyone to leave the ark, promises not to destroy the earth by water again, and sets a rainbow as a sign.
As war breaks out between fictional Ostnia and Westland, parallel households occupy opposite halves of a shared stage but cannot perceive one another. Their son and daughter sense each other’s presence, and the play ends with the lovers meeting in a visionary scene.
A pacifist young man rejects his family’s military tradition and is challenged to spend a night in a haunted room. He dies there, leaving his family to confront the cruelty that drove him to prove his courage.
In a Suffolk coastal village around 1830, fisherman Peter Grimes is questioned after his apprentice dies at sea. The inquest rules the death accidental, but the townspeople remain suspicious. Grimes takes another apprentice, John, and hopes to marry schoolmistress Ellen Orford if he can gain the Borough’s respect. When Ellen finds a bruise on John, Grimes strikes her and takes the boy away. John dies after falling from a cliff as they hurry to their boat. The villagers later search for Grimes; Captain Balstrode tells him to sail out and sink his boat. The next morning, the town resumes its routine and dismisses a coastguard report of a sinking boat.
Plymouth Town is a ballet composed by Benjamin Britten in 1931. A typical performance lasts about 25 minutes. It was written between the 12 and 28 August and completed on 22 November 1931, shortly after Britten's first year as a student at the Royal College of Music. Britten's score is based on the sea shanty "A Roving". The folklorist Violet Alford devised the plot of the ballet. The plot of the ballet concerns a sailor led astray by a 'bad girl' who was a "mistress of her trade" as described in "A Roving"; she robs the sailor after the two embark on a pub crawl. The plot was later echoed in Britten's opera Albert Herring. Plymouth Town was never performed in Britten's lifetime. He sent the score without success to the Camargo Society, a prominent promoter of British ballet. John Bridcut describes the piece as a "fascinating harbinger of the mature Britten" with "moments of wit and poignancy, all delivered with an angular energy". It was first performed at the Royal College of Music, London on 25 January 2004, conducted by Britten specialist, Michael Rosewell. The sole recording of Plymouth Town was made by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2005. The ballet was staged for the first time on 1 July 2013 by Chethams's School of Music under conductor Jeremy Pike with dancers from The Hammond Dance School with choreography by Jane Elliot at the Opera Theatre of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
A ballet for Ballet Rambert, created largely for dancers Sally Gilmour and Margaret Scott, set to Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony.
Climber Michael Ransom reluctantly accepts a British press and government expedition to the peak of F6, a mountain on the border of a British colony and the fictional country of Ostnia. His rush to reach the summit before the Ostnian climbers destroys him; the story functions as a parable about leadership, ambition, and power.
Nebuchadnezzar orders Ananias, Misael, and Asarias to worship his golden image. They refuse and are thrown into a fiery furnace. God saves them from death, and the voice of an angel joins the three Israelites in a Benedicite.
At Iken Hall in 1810, sweep-boy Sammy becomes trapped in a chimney, and the children rescue and hide him from sweep-master Black Bob and his son Clem. Rowan, the nursery-maid, helps the children feed and wash Sammy. They learn his family sold him into apprenticeship because they had no food, and plan to smuggle him away in a trunk. The children get him onto a coach bound for safety and freedom.
An Emperor must decide which of his two daughters should inherit the throne, and he chooses the evil older sister Belle Epine over the young and beautiful Belle Rose. Belle Rose is taken by magical flying frogs to Pagoda Land, and meets the Prince of Pagoda Land who is in the guise of a Salamander. Belle Rose and the Prince return to the land of her father and confront her evil sister, in the end driving her away.
Kenneth MacMillan’s Royal Ballet production is based on John Cranko’s 1957 ballet, with a scenario by Colin Thubron and music by Benjamin Britten.
A younger son leaves home with his inheritance, loses his fortune in the city, and returns to seek forgiveness. His father welcomes him with celebration, while the loyal elder brother resents the reception; the father urges him to reconcile with his brother.
The Male and Female Choruses frame the story of a Rome ruled by Tarquinius Superbus. After other soldiers discover their wives’ infidelity, Junius goads the king’s son Tarquinius into testing Lucretia’s chastity. Tarquinius rides to her home and rapes her while she sleeps. The next morning, Lucretia sends for her husband Collatinus and tells him of the assault. She stabs herself and dies. Junius plans to use the crime to foment rebellion, while the choruses end the work with a prayer.
A young governess takes charge of Miles and Flora at Bly, where she becomes convinced that the ghosts of former servants Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are trying to claim the children. Mrs. Grose and the children initially deny the apparitions. The governess discovers that Miles took a letter she wrote to his uncle; when she presses him to identify who urged him to do so, he names Quint and dies in her arms.
Britten’s opera adapts Shakespeare’s comedy of fairies, lovers, and rustic performers, retaining the play’s plot with alterations and giving greater prominence to the woods and fairy world.
Melissa Barak’s ballet to Benjamin Britten’s 1934 Simple Symphony for string orchestra, inspired by Balanchine’s La source and Raymonda Variations. Barak also designed the women’s costumes.
In the Suffolk town of Loxford, the May Day committee chooses timid greengrocer Albert Herring as May King because it considers none of the girls worthy of May Queen. After Sid and Nancy secretly spike his lemonade, Albert leaves town for an adventure. He returns the next morning, rejects the committee’s expectations, and stands up to his mother.
On board HMS Indomitable during the French Revolutionary Wars, the cheerful sailor Billy Budd attracts the attention and hostility of Master-at-Arms John Claggart. Claggart arranges a false accusation of mutiny. When Billy is confronted with the charge, his stammer prevents him from answering and he strikes Claggart, killing him. A court-martial sentences Billy to hang. He refuses to support a mutiny in his defense, is executed, and blesses Captain Vere, who later recalls his own failure to save Billy.
In medieval East Anglia, a Madwoman searches for her son, who disappeared a year earlier. A Ferryman tells how a sick boy was abandoned by his master near the river and died, asking to be buried by the path to a chapel. As the Ferryman recounts the story, the Madwoman realizes the boy was her son. She prays at his grave, and the boy’s spirit appears to comfort her. Her madness lifts, and the Abbot closes the parable.
The novelist Gustav von Aschenbach travels from Munich to Venice seeking renewed inspiration. There he becomes fascinated by the Polish boy Tadzio, while cholera spreads through the city. Aschenbach follows Tadzio and his family, conceals the danger from them, and remains in Venice. After the family leaves, Aschenbach watches Tadzio on the beach, grows too weak to rise, and dies as the boy walks out to sea.
Fanfare is a one-act ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, in celebration of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The ballet premiered on June 2, 1953, the night of the coronation, at the City Center of Music and Drama, danced by the New York City Ballet.
At a tournament, Elizabeth I reconciles Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Lord Mountjoy. Essex seeks permission to lead a campaign in Ireland, later becomes Lord Deputy, and eventually returns after failing to suppress the rebellion. Elizabeth’s affection for him conflicts with warnings about his political threat. Essex and his followers attempt to raise support against the Crown; after he is imprisoned in the Tower, Elizabeth signs his death warrant despite pleas for mercy, then reflects on their relationship and her mortality.
After his death, meek businessman Robert Johnson looks back on his life while journeying toward the Inn at the End of the World. Along the way he encounters institutions of insurance and finance and a nightclub, in an elaborate theatrical departure from Priestley’s naturalistic drama.
God warns Noye that a flood will destroy the sinful world and tells him to build an ark. Noye and his family construct it and bring animals aboard in pairs, while his wife and her friends initially refuse to join. A storm fills the ark; after it subsides, Noye sends out a raven and then a dove, which returns with an olive branch. God tells everyone to leave the ark, promises not to destroy the earth by water again, and sets a rainbow as a sign.
As war breaks out between fictional Ostnia and Westland, parallel households occupy opposite halves of a shared stage but cannot perceive one another. Their son and daughter sense each other’s presence, and the play ends with the lovers meeting in a visionary scene.
A pacifist young man rejects his family’s military tradition and is challenged to spend a night in a haunted room. He dies there, leaving his family to confront the cruelty that drove him to prove his courage.
In a Suffolk coastal village around 1830, fisherman Peter Grimes is questioned after his apprentice dies at sea. The inquest rules the death accidental, but the townspeople remain suspicious. Grimes takes another apprentice, John, and hopes to marry schoolmistress Ellen Orford if he can gain the Borough’s respect. When Ellen finds a bruise on John, Grimes strikes her and takes the boy away. John dies after falling from a cliff as they hurry to their boat. The villagers later search for Grimes; Captain Balstrode tells him to sail out and sink his boat. The next morning, the town resumes its routine and dismisses a coastguard report of a sinking boat.
Plymouth Town is a ballet composed by Benjamin Britten in 1931. A typical performance lasts about 25 minutes. It was written between the 12 and 28 August and completed on 22 November 1931, shortly after Britten's first year as a student at the Royal College of Music. Britten's score is based on the sea shanty "A Roving". The folklorist Violet Alford devised the plot of the ballet. The plot of the ballet concerns a sailor led astray by a 'bad girl' who was a "mistress of her trade" as described in "A Roving"; she robs the sailor after the two embark on a pub crawl. The plot was later echoed in Britten's opera Albert Herring. Plymouth Town was never performed in Britten's lifetime. He sent the score without success to the Camargo Society, a prominent promoter of British ballet. John Bridcut describes the piece as a "fascinating harbinger of the mature Britten" with "moments of wit and poignancy, all delivered with an angular energy". It was first performed at the Royal College of Music, London on 25 January 2004, conducted by Britten specialist, Michael Rosewell. The sole recording of Plymouth Town was made by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2005. The ballet was staged for the first time on 1 July 2013 by Chethams's School of Music under conductor Jeremy Pike with dancers from The Hammond Dance School with choreography by Jane Elliot at the Opera Theatre of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
A ballet for Ballet Rambert, created largely for dancers Sally Gilmour and Margaret Scott, set to Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony.
Climber Michael Ransom reluctantly accepts a British press and government expedition to the peak of F6, a mountain on the border of a British colony and the fictional country of Ostnia. His rush to reach the summit before the Ostnian climbers destroys him; the story functions as a parable about leadership, ambition, and power.
Nebuchadnezzar orders Ananias, Misael, and Asarias to worship his golden image. They refuse and are thrown into a fiery furnace. God saves them from death, and the voice of an angel joins the three Israelites in a Benedicite.
At Iken Hall in 1810, sweep-boy Sammy becomes trapped in a chimney, and the children rescue and hide him from sweep-master Black Bob and his son Clem. Rowan, the nursery-maid, helps the children feed and wash Sammy. They learn his family sold him into apprenticeship because they had no food, and plan to smuggle him away in a trunk. The children get him onto a coach bound for safety and freedom.
An Emperor must decide which of his two daughters should inherit the throne, and he chooses the evil older sister Belle Epine over the young and beautiful Belle Rose. Belle Rose is taken by magical flying frogs to Pagoda Land, and meets the Prince of Pagoda Land who is in the guise of a Salamander. Belle Rose and the Prince return to the land of her father and confront her evil sister, in the end driving her away.
Kenneth MacMillan’s Royal Ballet production is based on John Cranko’s 1957 ballet, with a scenario by Colin Thubron and music by Benjamin Britten.
A younger son leaves home with his inheritance, loses his fortune in the city, and returns to seek forgiveness. His father welcomes him with celebration, while the loyal elder brother resents the reception; the father urges him to reconcile with his brother.
The Male and Female Choruses frame the story of a Rome ruled by Tarquinius Superbus. After other soldiers discover their wives’ infidelity, Junius goads the king’s son Tarquinius into testing Lucretia’s chastity. Tarquinius rides to her home and rapes her while she sleeps. The next morning, Lucretia sends for her husband Collatinus and tells him of the assault. She stabs herself and dies. Junius plans to use the crime to foment rebellion, while the choruses end the work with a prayer.
A young governess takes charge of Miles and Flora at Bly, where she becomes convinced that the ghosts of former servants Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are trying to claim the children. Mrs. Grose and the children initially deny the apparitions. The governess discovers that Miles took a letter she wrote to his uncle; when she presses him to identify who urged him to do so, he names Quint and dies in her arms.