Introduction

Summary

In his introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten (1999), Mervyn Cooke remarks in some astonishment that, ‘as the century draws to a close’ there persists a noticeable strain of ‘bigoted views’ towards Britten, particularly with regard to his sexuality. This trend, as his introduction then goes on to explore, serves mainly to distract from the remarkable breadth and scope of Britten's repertoire and also to imbue studies of his works, particularly the operas, with a very specific slant. The Companion, until now the most recent book of essays on Britten to be published, successfully counteracts such narrowness of perspective. Yet Cooke also recounts the history of ‘Britten criticism’, and we find that, although ‘posterity, on the whole, continues to serve Britten well’, some writers have tended to throw a protective arm around the composer, shielding him from potential disapprobation; and even as recently as 1999 it appeared that certain elements of Britten studies required particular pleading. The result of this has been that, at times, negative critical readings of the composer's works or, more particularly, his life may have been blue-pencilled.

This collection was not specifically devised in opposition to previous Britten literature, or to draw direct comparisons with Cooke's collection. However, Benjamin Britten: New Perspectives on his Life and Work arrives exactly ten years after the Companion, and the intervening years have quite definitely witnessed a noticeable shift in perspective. For example, it is a feature of this new volume that while some of the ‘controversial’ elements of Britten's history are engaged with head-on – most notably his pacifism – they are not necessarily explained away or excused. Furthermore, a palpable objectivity towards the composer is in evidence here, and this is most likely due to the ‘newness’ of the contributors, most of whom are entering the world of Britten criticism for the first time.

These essays had their origin in papers presented at a Britten Study Day held at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in April 2008, and, although they have undergone considerable revisions since then, the spirit of the original study day is preserved in the order of the collection and in the freshness of the approach.