This Spring Season, Britten’s opera returns to our stages with our production of Peter Grimes. Italians, Austrians and Germans usually dominate the opera stages and as such Britten’s arrival stands out, but he’s not the only great opera composer from Great Britain…
Purcell
Henry Purcell is often considered one of the greatest English opera composers of all time. Born in London in 1659, he could be considered a prodigy, having started composing from age nine and, amongst his other work, composed seven operas in his lifetime, the most popular of which is Dido and Aeneas. Dido’s Lament is played annually at the Cenotaph remembrance parade in Whitehall on Armistice Day, and therefore may well be one of the most well-known arias in Britain.
Britten
Suffolk-born Britten is one of the most celebrated modern British composers, having composed more than 100 works in his lifetime, 16 of which were operas. He brought acclaim to British opera in a way that hadn’t been seen for 300 years since the work of Purcell, and his operas are great examples of the English canon with distinctly 20th-century music, dark themes and vocal challenges. This Spring, WNO are performing a new unmissable production of Peter Grimes, and Spring 2024 saw our award-winning Death in Venice brought to our stages.
Sir Karl Jenkins
It’s not just England who turn out great opera composers, and our very own land of song has been home to many opera and classical music composers of note. One such example is Gower-born Sir Karl Jenkins. Jenkins has dabbled in jazz, rock and advertising music but has gained much success from his work in the world of classical music, including his choral work In These Stones, Horizon’s Sing, commissioned in 2004 for the opening of our home, Wales Millennium Centre.
Sir James MacMillan
Scotland is also home to classical greats, and Ayrshire born Sir James MacMillan is one such composer. Many of his works have religious or political themes, including the many masses he has composed throughout his career and his orchestral work The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which tells the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 17th-century Scotland. He’s also dabbled in the world of opera, having been commissioned by WNO to compose The Sacrifice in 2007.
Vaughan Williams
Gloucestershire-born Vaughan Williams was a great English composer of Welsh descent, born in 1872 with works including operas, ballets, symphonic and chamber music. Vaughan Williams spent three months learning under Ravel, and his music has enduring popularity into the 21st century. His operas don’t stand out in his repertoire for their popularity as much as The Lark Ascending and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and he cited the lack of success for his final opera The Pilgrim’s Progress being due to the lack of heroine and love duets in the work.
If you’re looking to get your fix of some Great British music, you can look forward to the arrival of Britten’s Peter Grimes from April 5. The gritty tale of isolation and loneliness set in a small Suffolk town tells the gripping story of a troubled fisherman against the backdrop of Britten’s iconic Sea Interludes.
