Billy Budd
Music by Benjamin Britten · libretto by E. M. Forster · premiered 1951 · at Royal Opera House
Billy Budd, Op. 50, is an opera by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by the novelist E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, based on the novella Billy Budd by Herman Melville. Originally in four acts, the opera received its premiere at the Royal Opera House (ROH), London, on 1 December 1951. Britten later revised the work into a two-act opera, with a prologue and an epilogue.
The revised version received its first performance at the ROH, Covent Garden, London, on 9 January 1964.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Billy Budd (opera)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945). Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, the son of a dentist. He showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer Frank Bridge. Britten first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Benjamin Britten", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Benjamin Britten
- Gloriana (1928)
- Albert Herring (1946)
- Curlew River (1956)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
- Death in Venice (1973)