Benjamin Britten

The Rape of Lucretia review – powerful, uncompromising and deeply disquieting

Oliver Mears’s production emphasises the underlying outrage at the centre of Benjamin Britten’s 1946 opera

Tim Ashley

16, Nov, 2022 @4:25 PM

An explosive act of violence: why Britten’s Rape of Lucretia speaks to our brutal times

Britten’s opera is a strange, unsettling and unbearably private piece. Set in ancient Rome and written over 70 years ago, its theme is still all too contemporary, writes the director of a new production

Oliver Mears

11, Nov, 2022 @7:00 AM

Raising their voices: why the English song festival is nothing about misty-eyed nostalgia

We have no desire to become a musical version of Jacob Rees-Mogg, says the festival’s artistic director. Instead, we shine a light on neglected voices, challenge received opinions, and prove that ‘cowpat’ is not a musical insult

Iain Burnside

19, Oct, 2022 @8:42 AM

Britten: The Music for String Quartet review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

Britten’s complete works for string quartet are brought together on these three discs in which the Quartet’s rather brittle playing serves the earlier works better than the more mature ones

Andrew Clements

04, Aug, 2022 @2:00 PM

Ed Lyon/James Cleverton/Psappha review – touching, lyrical premieres

Conor Mitchell’s Look Both Ways was the centrepiece of an evening of new music at the Cheltenham festival: a song cycle setting the love letters of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears

Andrew Clements

17, Jul, 2022 @3:46 PM

Snape Maltings concert hall in Suffolk given Grade II* listing

Hall is home to Aldeburgh festival of music and arts, founded by Benjamin Britten, which opens on Friday

Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent

01, Jun, 2022 @5:00 AM

The week in classical: Peter Grimes; Emerson Quartet; RPO/Petrenko

An all-star production of Britten’s opera thrilled; Soviet-era melancholy flowed through Shostakovich’s quartets; and the RPO rose to their game-changing new conductor

Fiona Maddocks

26, Mar, 2022 @12:30 PM

Peter Grimes review – Compelling, unsettling and ravishingly sung

Deborah Warner’s detailed new production sets Britten’s opera in a decayed coastal town in post-Brexit Britain. Allan Clayton – on top form – leads an outstanding cast; conductor Mark Elder emphasises the score’s beauty and well as its violence

Tim Ashley

18, Mar, 2022 @12:42 PM

‘Everyone has blood on their hands’: Britten’s Peter Grimes at the ROH photo essay

How do you breathe life into the tale of the troubled Grimes and the villagers who torment him? We went along to rehearsals to talk to the cast and creative team behind the Royal Opera House’s new production

Tristram Kenton and Imogen Tilden

17, Mar, 2022 @12:15 PM

‘I felt an immediate thrill’: Joe Cornish’s confessions of a Britten addict

In 2014, the film-maker and broadcaster took a chance on his first opera – Peter Grimes. He expected atonal warbling, but instead got hooked for life on the beauty, drama and strangeness of Britten’s music

Joe Cornish

17, Mar, 2022 @12:12 PM