English Opera Group

Fleeing internal politics at Sadler's Wells Opera at the end of 1945, Britten and singers Joan Cross, Anne Wood, and Peter Pears joined with designer Piper and producer Crozier to found the English Opera Group.Gilbert, p. 107 The new company's goal was to première Britten's operas, and to present other, mostly British, small-scale operas.Rosenthal, Harold. English Opera Group in Sadie, vol. 2, p. 52 The company's first project was to première Britten's chamber opera Albert Herring and give further performances of his opera The Rape of Lucretia during a tour of British and continental European venues. It also commissioned and premièred a new piece by Lennox Berkeley, a setting of the Stabat Mater. Despite heavy subsidies, however, the costs of touring could not be recouped, so Britten and the group's other directors decided that it should be based at a home venue. This was the prime reason for the inauguration of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948.Britten-Pears Foundation. [http://www.brittenpears.org/?page=research/archive/special/english.html The English Opera Group and English Music Theatre Company archive]. Accessed 9 June 2011

The first opera commissioned by the group, Brian Easdale's The Sleeping Children, was premièred in 1951.'[https://www.jennifervyvyan.org/repertoire/modern/brian-easdale/ Brian Easdale', Jennifervyvyan.org] It gave the North American première of Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Canada's Stratford Festival in 1957.J. Alan B. Somerset. 1991. The Stratford Festival Story, 1st edition. Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|978-0-313-27804-4}} Aside from other new works by Britten, the group commissioned and produced eleven other new operas by British composers. It also gave the British première of Francis Poulenc's opera Les mamelles de Tirésias in 1958. The group also performed older operas, such as Acis and Galatea, The Beggar's Opera, Idomeneo, Iolanta, La rondine and Trial by Jury, and works by Henry Purcell and Gustav Holst.

The Royal Opera, London took over management of the group in 1961. In 1971 Steuart Bedford was appointed musical director, and Colin Graham became director of productions.

In 1975 the group was enlarged to be able to produce works such as operettas and musicals in addition to opera. As well as appearing at festivals such as Aldeburgh, the company undertook regional tours and yearly performance seasons at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. The founder and leader of the company was Colin Graham. One of their 1976 productions was The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill, conducted by the young Simon Rattle.In the same season the company also presented Paul Bunyan, The Turn of the Screw, Cinderella and La finta giardiniera (under the title of Sandrina's Secret), all conducted by Steuart Bedford. See [https://www.jstor.org/stable/957775 "London Diary for October"], The Musical Times, September 1976, p. 792. {{subscription required}}. After a final production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1980, the company was disbanded.

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• Janet Baker
• James Bowman
• Owen Brannigan
• Joan Cross
• Eric Crozier
• Nancy Evans
• Kathleen Ferrier
• Sylvia Fisher
• Colin Graham
• Heather Harper
• Della Jones
• Thomas Lawlor
• Norman Lumsden
• Benjamin Luxon
• Peter Pears
• Anthony Rolfe Johnson
• John Shirley-Quirk
• Robert Tear
• Jennifer Vyvyan
• Olive Zorian

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Notes

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Sources

• {{cite book|last=Gilbert |first= Susie|year=2009 |title=Opera for Everybody |location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn= 978-0-571-22493-7}}
• Matthews, David (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=DsV8lpOEjP8C&pg=PA171 Britten]. Haus Publishing. {{ISBN|1-904341-21-7}}
• {{cite book | editor-last = Sadie| editor-first = Stanley| editor-link =Stanley Sadie | year = 1992| title = The New Grove Dictionary of Opera | publisher = Oxford University Press| location = Oxford| isbn = 978-0-19-522186-2}}
• Seymour, Claire (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=16kb93EhezkC&pg=PA183 The Operas of Benjamin Britten: Expression and Evasion]. Boydell Press. {{ISBN|1-84383-314-X}}
• White, Eric Walter (1983). [https://books.google.com/books?id=WUPPVlD7UnwC&pg=PA80 Benjamin Britten, His Life and Operas]. University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-04894-6}}

• [http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/eogListofProductions.pdf Complete list of productions]

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Category:Musical groups established in 1947

Category:British opera companies

Category:Theatre companies in England

Category:1947 establishments in England

Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1980

Category:Benjamin Britten

Category:1980 disestablishments in England