Questions about Britten

1. What literary sources did Britten use for his opera librettos and other vocal compositions?

2. Find in the extract on p. ... the passage in which Britten ac­counts for the scarcity of modern British operas. What opera company was founded by Britten? For what purpose?

3. Whose singing inspired many of Britten's finest works?

4. What festival was founded by Britten?

5. What do you know about Britten's visits to the Soviet Union? With whom did he form a firm friendship?

6. What symphony did Shostakovich dedicate to Britten? And what work did Britten dedicate to Shostakovich?

7. Which of Britten's song cycles is based on poetry by Pushkin?

8. What operas by Britten have been staged in the Soviet Union?

Additional Assignments

1. List the main points of the above extracts.

2. Write a composition or give a short talk describing Britten's approach to the libretto and its literary and dramatic sources.

Menotti. The opera composer

Gian Carlo Menotti was born in Cadegliano, Italy, 1911. He studied at the Verdo Conservatoire in Milan, 1924-27, and then, on Toscanini's advice, continued his studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, 1928-34. Since 1927 Menotti has been a permanent resi­dent in the United States. His tendency as composer was always to­wards opera and his first adult essay, Amelia Goes to the Ball, was conducted by Reiner in 1937 and later at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. As with all his operas, he wrote his own librettos. His first outstanding success was in 1946 with The Medium, but this was eclipsed in 1950 by The Consul, dealing with the plight of refugees at the mercy of heartless bureaucracy. Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first opera to be written for television. His works have achieved considerable popularity and his intention to bring opera nearer to the Broadway theatre goer has been achieved if at some cost in originality of expression. But of his dramatic effectiveness and melodic gist there can be no doubt.

His musical roots are clearly Italian, while at the same time his outlook has been influenced by the American theatre.

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Menotti, who supplied the libretto for Samuel Barber's Vanessa, has also composed a number of non-operatic works.

From: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music

The composer speaks: gian carlo menotti

Opera is the very basis of theater. In all civilizations, people sang their dramas before they spoke them. I am convinced that the prose theater is an offspring of these earlier musicodramatic forms and not vice versa. The need for music accompanying dramatic action is still so strongly felt that in our most popular dramatic form, the cinema, background music is used to underline even the most prosaic and realistic situations.

It is unfair t.o accuse opera of being an old-fashioned and un­gainly dramatic form. Actually, what people put forth as examples is largely the operatic output of the nineteenth century. Considering the length of time that has gone by since then, it is quite amazing what life there still is in those old pieces. How many plays of that same period have survived this test as well? Wouldn't most of us prefer hearing a Verdi opera to sitting through a Victor Hugo's play? I may even venture to say that many of the so-called "great plays" of this century will be forgotten when dear old Traviata is still holding the boards. All of this cannot be explained away simply by con­demning as foolish or gullible millions of music lovers.

To criticize a theater piece as too theatrical is as senseless as to criticize a piece of music for being too musical. There is only one kind of bad theater: when the author's imagination steps outside the very area of illusion he has created. But as long as the dramatic creates within that area, almost no action on the stage is too violent or implausible. As a matter of fact, the skill of the dramatist is almost measurable by his ability to make even the most daring and unpredictable seem inevitable. (...)

Nothing in the theater can be as exciting as the amazing quick­ness with which music can express a situation or describe a mood. Whereas, in the prose theater, it often requires many words to es­tablish a single effect, in an opera one note on the horn will illumi­nate the audience. It is this very power of music to express feelings so much more quickly than words that make librettos, when read out of the musical context, appear rather brutal and unconvincing.

There is no such thing as a good or bad libretto per se.* A good libretto is nothing but one that inspires a composer to write good music. Götterdämmerung* would have been a bad libretto indeed for Puccini, and I can imagine nothing more disastrous than Wagner deciding to set Madame Butterfly to music.

Top many people think that only exotic subjects from the past are suitable for an opera. That is nothing but a romantic inheritance

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from the last century. Just as modern poets have been moved to examine and interpret the uniquely contemporary life, there is no reason why the composer should not do the same. That is not to say that modern opera must have a contemporary subject. As Lorca, Eliot, or Dylan Thomas have found inspiration in sources as varied as folklore, remote historical events, or newspaper headlines, so should the composer permit himself that same freedom.

One may ask why, if opera is a valid and vital form, it hasn't stimulated more successful contemporary contributions to the theater. Most modern composers blame their failures on the librettos, but I am afraid that the fault more often lies with the music. Opera is, after all, essentially music, and such is the ennobling or transfiguring power of music that we have numerous examples of what safely could be labeled awkward plays transformed into inspiring operas. We have, however, no single example of a successful opera whose main strength is the libretto. I have often been accused of writing good librettos and mediocre music, but I maintain that my librettos become alive or illuminated only through my music. Let anyone read one of my texts divorced from its musical setting to discover the truth of what I say. My operas are either good or bad; but if their librettos seem alive or powerful in performance, then the musie must share this distinction.

One of the reasons for the failure of so much contemporary opera is that its music lacks immediacy of communication. Theater music must make its point and communicate Us emotion at the same moment the action develops. It cannot wait to be understood until after the curtain comes down. Mozart understood this, and there is a noticeable difference in immediacy between some of his symphonic or chamber-music styles on the one hand and his operatic style on the other.

From: The New Book of Modern Composers