11 - Britten and France, or the Late Emergence of a Remarkable Lyric Universe

Summary

Since the 1990s the French public has become more and more absorbed by Benjamin Britten's operas. This was not always the case, however, and their acceptance as part of the French musical landscape did not come about without a certain number of upheavals, conflicts and negotiations. As early as the 1940s, Britten's instrumental pieces were frequently played in Paris, and one could hear his orchestral music on the radio, in particular his Simple Symphony. But in trying to win over the media and the Parisian music theatres, his operas were up against some hostile trends. The Parisian intelligentsia and the sectarian spirit of certain schools barred their acceptance. Judged too conservative, too far from the serial avant-garde which was in vogue at the time, Britten's lyric works also had to struggle against a general tendency of dismissing opera, an art form considered out of date and bourgeois. On the whole, Britten's music was only vaguely familiar, and damned with faint praise. ‘It's well done, it's pleasant’, as Mario Bois recalled in a news release for Boosey & Hawkes in June 1962 entitled ‘Britten? … Connais pas!’ Nevertheless, he indicated that certain outstanding personalities of French artistic life were interested in Britten's latest scores:

People like Charles Bruck, Frédéric Goldbeck, Jean Giraudeau, Manuel Rosenthal, Charles Panzera, and Pierre Pagliano, are watching for his latest score to appear and are ready to do their best work for it. As far as the dramatic works are concerned, in spite of the even sharper difficulties that lyric music is meeting in the provinces as opposed to Paris, admirable ventures have been carried to fruition, by men such as Roger Lalande, Jacques Pernoo, Pierre Deloger, Henri Bécourt, and others who, regrettably, cannot be mentioned here.

Thus, far from Paris, informed and enthusiastic composers, orchestra leaders, singers, opera directors, and producers accomplished courageous and pioneering work: the result was to establish Britten in France as a first-rate lyric composer. Let us then try to untangle and shed light on the personal, political and cultural networks which allowed Britten's operas to emerge in France.