The Burning Fiery Furnace

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox opera

| name = The Burning Fiery Furnace

| composer = Benjamin Britten

| image = Benjamin Britten, London Records 1968 publicity photo for Wikipedia crop.jpg

| caption = The composer in 1968

| image_upright =

| description = A Parable for Church Performance

| librettist = William Plomer

| based_on =

| premiere_date = {{start date|1966|06|09|df=y}}

| premiere_location = Church of St Bartholomew, Orford, Suffolk

}}

The Burning Fiery Furnace is an English music drama with music composed by Benjamin Britten, his Opus 77, to a libretto by William Plomer. One of Britten's three Parables for Church Performances, this work received its premiere at the St Bartholomew's Church, Orford, Suffolk, England, on 9 June 1966 by the English Opera Group.{{cite journal | jstor=942504 | last=Warrack| first=John | title=First Performances: Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace | journal=Tempo | volume=New Series | issue=78 | pages=22–23 | date=Autumn 1966 }}

Colin Graham was the stage director of this first production.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/apr/10/guardianobituaries.musicnews | title=Colin Graham | work=The Guardian | author=Alan Blyth | date=2007-04-10 | accessdate=2017-02-25}} Set designs were by Annena Stubbs. The United States premiere was presented at the Caramoor Summer Music Festival on 25 June 1967 with Andrea Velis as Nebuchadnezzar.{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C05EFDA1438E53BBC4E51DFB066838C679EDE|title=Britten Parable Makes U.S. Debut; 'Fiery Furnace,' 2d Church Work, Given at Caramoor|author=Allen Hughes|newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 26, 1967|page=39|author-link=Allen Hughes}}

The scale and manner of instrumentation are similar to those in Curlew River, but one notable difference is the use of the alto trombone.{{cite journal | url=http://oq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/4/3/178 | last=Thomas | first=Christopher J. | title=The Church Parables | journal=The Opera Quarterly | volume=4 | issue=3 | pages=178–184 | year=1986 | accessdate=2008-05-01 | doi=10.1093/oq/4.3.178}}

Clifford Hindley has commented on a reading of a subtext sympathetic to homosexuality on the part of both Britten and Plomer in their treatment of the story.{{cite journal | url=https://academic.oup.com/mq/issue/76/2 | last=Hindley | first=Clifford | title=Homosexual Self-Affirmation and Self-Oppression in Two Britten Operas | journal=The Musical Quarterly | volume=76 | issue=2 | pages=143–168 | date=Summer 1992 | accessdate=2017-02-27 | doi=10.1093/mq/76.2.143}}