Famous people. Benjamin britten

New operas are getting harder and harder...

• A year after the premiere of "Lucretia" Britten conducts the premiere of his new opera - "Albert Herring". For the plot of his third opera, Britten turns to Maupassant, whose story "The Chosen One of Madame Husson" is transferred to English soil. The action of the opera takes place in the small English town of Loxford, similar to its French counterpart - the city of Clochemerle, famous for its memorable scandal. The similarity here is not in the plot, but in the methods of satirical ridicule of the provincial "quiet and smoothness", the inviolability of "moral principles".

• The opera begins with a scene at Lady Billows's house, where the venerable old lady announces to the audience a prize of twenty-five pounds for the most moral girl in the city. But none of the candidates meet the conditions of the competition. Then they break the tradition: "Instead of the Queen, we will elect the King!" The choice falls on Albert Herring - a virtuous guy from a greengrocer's shop. Award Ceremony! And finally, the denouement: a day after the triumph, the hero’s virtues are removed from the roadside ditch, where he ended up after visiting a tavern and some other places that people in society talk about without raising their eyes ...

Albert Herring is a descendant of the Italian classical opera.

• The music of "Albert Herring" with its liveliness, organic appearance of ensembles, wide layers of vocal episodes is associated with the writing techniques of the Italian comic opera. But specifically English intonations are constantly heard both in melodic constructions and in recitatives.

historical opera

• At the beginning of the 18th century, in the lower strata of theater lovers who were not allowed into fashionable theater halls, the idea of a new genre was born - parody opera. John Gay - a writer and John Pepusch - a musician composed an opera, the musical material of which was developed and varied by street songs, sentimental ballads, dances of the social classes. This is how the "Beggars' Opera" arose, which had a noisy and almost scandalous success, due to the fascination of the plot played out among thieves, swindlers, buyers of stolen goods, cheerful girls, small market "dealers" and other people darting through the back streets of London markets and brothels. After 200 years, Bertolt Brecht wrote The Threepenny Romance, which was turned by the composer Kurt Weill into the Threepenny Opera, which has been on the repertoire of hundreds of operetta and drama theaters for 40 years.

• It took great courage to write a new edition based on the work of two English authors of the 18th century, based on the melodies of John Pepush. Britten's new Beggar's Opera, of course, goes beyond editorial editing of Pepusch's music. It has been recomposed and commented on by a composer of the 20th century.