The documentary was excellent and as good as one can expect from Bridcut. Incidentally his previous film "Britten's Bo"..sorry "Britten's Children" has recently been released on DVD. I remember reading Bridcut's book "Britten's Children" and wanting to see this documentary but finding no DVD available. In the end I had to go to The Red House and watch it in Benjmain Britten's own library (which was very moving) while being plied with coffee by the Britten Pears Foundations amiable archivist Dr Nick Clark. I am not familiar with the Death in Venice opera and would like to see it. I always imagine Mahler when I think of Death in Venice though: that bloody film!
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Britten on Camera (shown tonight on BBC4) made one thing clear. In the enlightened early years of BBC2 (when Attenborough was in charge) Britten was actively 'courted' by the BBC who recognised we had a living genius in our midst. Furthermore huge resources were devoted to (for instance) filming Billy Budd at The Maltings, by Britten's insistence, rather than in a convenient TV studio. Would this happen today?Last edited by ardcarp; 17-11-13, 06:57.Comment
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Very interesting film and I know exactly what you mean and sympathise with the point made. However, in 1966 I was 16 and had yet to develop any great interest in classical music, let alone Britten opera. I suspect that the 16 year old me might have asked himself why the enlightened BBC was spending so much money in that way and hardly broadcasting any of the music I and all my friends were listening to (on Radio Luxembourg and pirate stations).Originally posted by ardcarp View PostComment
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I was out this evening and when I got in I noticed that it said 'not available' on iPlayer.
does anyone know if it will be available?Comment
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yes, if Attenborough himself hadn't been particularly interested in music, perhaps that courting might never have happened - to spend nine days in Aldeburgh filming Wingrave must have been comparatively expensive, I wonder what the audience figures for its transmission were.Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
In the Britten on Camera film it was odd to see a review of one of the operas appearing in The Sun newspaper - does The Sun still review contemporary opera ?Last edited by mercia; 17-11-13, 06:44.Comment
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Owen Wingrave was, on the film, described as 'Britten still at the height of his powers' though someone (was it Sheridan Morley?) suggested it was not one of Britten's greatest works. I remember struggling as I watched the original TV outing of O.W. and having exactly mercia's thought...how many people are actually watching this?
I can't quite accept gurnemanz's suggestion that BBC2 should in those days have been throwing its cash at fashionable ephemera (aka pop music). Though this does open up the debate 'What is art?' Discuss.
I chuckled at that too!In the Britten on Camera film it was odd to see a review of one of the operas appearing in The Sun newspaper - does The Sun still review contemporary opera ?Last edited by ardcarp; 17-11-13, 06:56.Comment
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At that time The Sun was owned by the Mirror Group (who started it as a broadsheet to replace the Daily Herald) and was quite unlike the paper it became after the Murdoch Group bought it.Originally posted by mercia View PostComment
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I was slightly disappointed in Britten On Camera, in a way I wasn't with the Bridcut film. I'd seen most of the material before - much of it's available on DVD - and in fact there is very much more than was shown. I also didn't think the commentary was very good, and there were quite a few inaccuracies. However, I'll watch it again and give it another chance.
Eric Crozier - a bit weird? I've never quite understood why he turned so viciously against Britten. He wrote a private memoir that is really unpleasant.
I've always found it a bit ironic that when Britten became a major celebrity, basically after the War Requiem, his music became less immediately accessible. I remember eagerly awaiting each new work, and then being rather bemused at the time by the Church Parables and Owen Wingrave.
(Peter Pears was 58 when the BBC film of Peter Grimes was made, not in his 60s as Colin Matthews said, though still not young, of course - but does Peter Grimes have to be young? I don't think so. It never occurred to me to think he was too old for the part, though he was only 34 at the first performance. Grimes to me is no particular age, and Pears could certainly still sing it.)Comment
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Very interesting Mary. I watched the programme (admittedly,not very attentively at times) and didn't pick up on these. Can you give examples so that I can eradicate any erroneous impressions that I may unconsciously have received?Originally posted by Mary Chambers View Post
I read something about a satirical charade that he organised at a private party, showing the characters of Albert Herring in later life all having turned to crime, was probably part of it, but he also apparently objected to something Britten had written in a letter to the BBC. Crozier had a quick temper at times and did not easily forgive a slight (not unlike Britten!).Originally posted by Mary Chambers View PostComment
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had you seen the Britten at 50 programme before, Mary ?Originally posted by Mary Chambers View PostComment
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I may have seen it at the time, but can't quite remember. My first impression last night was that I'd seen most of the extracts they showed, on other programmes probably.Originally posted by mercia View Post
The films of Billy Budd and Peter Grimes are on DVD, as are Idomeneo, the informal folk song recital, and the films about the recording of The Burning Fiery Furnace and Britten's Festival.
I'll note down the inaccuracies when I watch it again. It doesn't take much to annoy me! The one about Pears's age in the Grimes film was one.Comment
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What, even Curlew River? Are you still? Surely it's one of his most original and moving works?Originally posted by Mary Chambers View PostComment
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I found the programme interesting in parts, but not well-organised or satisfying overall. As others have said, many parts were familiar from elsewhere and I'm not sure that I learnt much that I did not know before. Rather than being presented as the culmination of the relationship between the BBC and BB (which it surely was), Owen Wingrave was dealt with quite rapidly - and after that the programme suddenly ended, as if they had run out of time.
Early on, just as Noye's Fludde was about to be discussed, an extract from Friday Afternoons was shown, which some might have taken to be part of N F - newcomers could have been confused. I was interested when Michael Crawford said that BB changed the notes for him as his voice began to mature during rehearsals for NF. We were shown the changes - as far as I could see, the passages were simply dropped down an octave, so nothing like as drastic as he seemed to suggest.
It was wonderful to see James Blades again - many from my generation will have enjoyed his one-man shows back in the 1960s/70s. (On second thoughts, they were not one-man shows. His seemingly long-suffering wife gave support from the piano.)
One irritation to me was the reference to Proms from the 30s and 60s as 'BBC Proms'. This obsession with prefacing BBC to every reference to the Proms only began a decade or so ago (at the same time as we began to hear about 'the BBC News' at every opportunity). I noticed that Nicholas Kenyon referred, accurately to 'The Proms', but the commentary consistently used this anachronism. They were 'The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts' for decades!Comment
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I had hoped that the Coventry Cathedral Requiem performance from 1962 would be shown or issued, but apparently not. Let`s face it, the rest of Europe had the 50th anniversary performance (now on DVD) but not us, oh no...Comment
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