''Britten's Children'' is a scholarly 2006 book by
John Bridcut
John Bridcut is an English documentary filmmaker, best known for his films about British composers. His most famous work, ''Britten's Children'' (2004), is a study of the influence that Benjamin Britten's close relationships with children had on t ...
that describes the English composer
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's relationship with several adolescent boys. Bridcut has been praised for treating such a sensitive subject in "an impeccably unsensational tone". The Britten-Pears Foundation described the book as having been "enthusiastically received as shedding new light on one of the most interesting aspects of Britten's life and career, in a study that is thoroughly researched, wonderfully readable and thought-provoking". Bridcut's book followed his television documentary ''Britten's Children'' shown on
BBC2 in June 2004.
Bridcut writes that 13-year-old boys were Britten's ideal. He liked to imagine himself as still thirteen years old and once explained his ability to write so well for children, "It's because I'm still thirteen". Bridcut provides ample evidence that Britten was sexually attracted to young boys, but similarly shows that it is unlikely that Britten ever stepped over the line of propriety.
Britten lived with his long-time partner
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years.
Pears' musical career starte ...
. Nevertheless, as Bridcut notes, there was frequent and continuing gossip in society about Britten's infatuation with boys. Britten would provide each new favourite with gifts and treats, and was a prolific letter-writer. The thousands of surviving letters are the source for many of Bridcut's observations.
Britten had a close friendship with
Wulff Scherchen (son of the conductor
Hermann Scherchen, and later known as John Woolford
) whom he met when Wulff was 14 and Britten 21. Five years later in 1939, Britten dedicated the song "Antique" from his song cycle ''
Les Illuminations
''Illuminations'' is an incomplete suite of prose poems by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, first published partially in ', a Paris literary review, in May–June 1886. The texts were reprinted in book form in October 1886 by Les publications de L ...
'' to Wulff. As a German national, Scherchen was interned during World War II, following which he served in the British army. He and Britten continued to correspond, but when they met again in 1942 Britten found the 22-year-old "rather altered, I am afraid ... rather vindictive, and hard." The friendship faded, and Wulff eventually married.
The relationship with Wulff overlapped Britten's meeting with Peter Pears – Pears is also the dedicatee of a song in the Rimbaud cycle. In 1989 Wulff recalled, "I adored Peter. He was a wonderful father figure ... and I thought in a sense that he was the father to Benjamin at the same time ... He would restrain Benjamin when Ben was going off the rails ... He had this air of stability that Ben didn't have."
Thirteen-year-old Piers Dunkerley, whom Britten met aged 20 and described by Bridcut as "emphatically good-looking", was another early favourite. The composer's website reports that Dunkerley, one of Britten's closest friends, took part in the 1944
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
. Unlike the other three dedicatees of Britten's
War Requiem
The ''War Requiem'', Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The ''War Requiem'' was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was bui ...
, Dunkerley "survived the war but committed suicide in June 1959, two months before his wedding" and three years before the premiere of the requiem at
Coventry Cathedral's reconsecration.
Thirteen-year-old Harry Morris, whom Britten met in 1936, was from a troubled home, and Harry was the only boy ever to accuse Britten of
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
. They were on holiday in Cornwall together and Bridcut recounts that Harry claimed that Britten made "what he understood as a sexual approach from Britten in his bedroom". Harry said he screamed and hit Britten with a chair and then Britten's sister Beth rushed into the room. Harry left the next morning and told his mother what had happened, but she did not believe him. John Bridcut was interviewed by
Andrew Marr
Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Beginning his career as a political commentator, he subsequently edited '' The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 1998 and was political editor of BBC ...
on BBC Radio 4's ''
Start the Week
''Start the Week'' is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular ...
'' in June 2006. Britten's sexual attraction for 13/14-year-old boys was the subject of the interview and the incident with Harry Morris, when Britten "may have crossed the line", was described in detail.
Bridcut writes about Britten's friendship with
Humphrey Maud
Sir Humphrey John Hamilton Maud (17 April 1934 – 10 November 2013) was a British diplomat.
Life
Humphrey Maud was the son of the civil servant and diplomat John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud and his wife, the pianist Jean Hamilton. ...
which started when the boy was nine. They became close friends a few years later when Humphrey was at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
. Humphrey's father
Sir John Maud, who was then Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education and would therefore have been wary of any potential scandal, eventually intervened to ask Britten to stop inviting Humphrey to spend school holidays with him at Aldeburgh. Humphrey himself told Bridcut: "I certainly don't think that he
ir John Maudwas ever afraid that I might be the victim of my friendship with Britten. I think it was a precautionary measure; just in case others might think ill of it, it would be as well that it should be seen to stop." Britten dedicated ''
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'', Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell''. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the ''Abdelazer'' sui ...
'' to Humphrey and the other Maud children.
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (17 May 1933 – 16 July 2019) was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, ''Half an Arc ...
was another friend of Britten. Fourteen-year-old Jonny "could not help flirting slightly" and was "at once aware I attracted him". Jonny and his siblings and cousins provided the children's names for Britten's opera ''
The Little Sweep
''The Little Sweep'', Op. 45, is an opera for children in three scenes by the English composer Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Eric Crozier.
''Let's Make an Opera!''
''The Little Sweep'' is the second part of a stage production entitled ' ...
''.
David Spenser
David Spenser (''né'' De Saram; 12 March 1934 – 20 July 2013) John Tydemanbr>David Spenser obituary ''The Guardian'', 1 August 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2013 was a British actor, director, producer and writer. Spenser played the title role ...
was thirteen years old when he had the role of Harry in Britten's opera ''
Albert Herring
''Albert Herring'', Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.
Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera ''The Rape of Lucretia''. The libretto, by Eric Croz ...
''. When he first went to stay with Britten at Crag House, they shared a double bed, Britten explaining that with the recent move from the Old Mill at Snape it was the only bed in the house. Not all Britten's young boys were musicians. He was very fond of a local boy Robin Long, known as "Nipper", and he used to take the boy sailing.
Bridcut interviewed a number of Britten's children including the actor
David Hemmings. Hemmings was twelve when he came into Britten's life as the creator of the role of Miles in Britten's ''
The Turn of the Screw
''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in '' Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmil ...
''. The conductor
Charles Mackerras
Mackerras in 2005
Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Engli ...
observed, "David Hemmings was an extremely good looking young chap and he also very much played up to Ben's obvious adoration of him, and drank it in," and adds, "Obviously it was a sexual attraction but I'm sure that it was never actually fulfilled." Hemmings told Bridcut: "He was not only a father to me, but a friend – and you couldn't have had a better father or a better friend.
..Everybody asks me whether or not he gave me one, whether or not it was a sexual relationship. The answer to that question, as I have often said, is: no, he did not. I have slept in his bed, yes, only because I was scared at night...and I have never ever, ever felt threatened by Ben at all because I was more heterosexual than Genghis Khan!"
Bridcut also writes at length about Roger Duncan. Duncan was aged eleven when he first met Britten. Their relationship was unusual in that Britten persuaded Roger's father to share him and Roger spent many weeks staying with Britten. Roger's father was the writer Ronald Duncan, the librettist of ''
The Rape of Lucretia
''The Rape of Lucretia'' (Op. 37) is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, written for Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the title role. Ronald Duncan based his English libretto on André Obey's play '.
Performance history
The opera was fi ...
''. Both Roger and Humphrey Stone, another young friend, recall enjoying regular naked midnight swims with Britten.
Bridcut makes it clear that Britten was inspired by his love of young boys to write extensively for children, and particularly for boy trebles. Among his finest works are ''
The Turn of the Screw
''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in '' Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmil ...
'', with the dark relationship between Quint and Miles, and ''
Death in Venice
''Death in Venice ''(German: ''Der Tod in Venedig'') is a novella by German author Thomas Mann, published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a Poli ...
'', based on
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
's novella about the tragic love of a novelist for the beautiful boy Tadzio.
Jonathan Keates' review in ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' sums up the dilemma of writing about Britten's children: "Nowadays a known homosexual who sought out the company and affection of small boys would probably end up on a police register or behind bars. In treating Britten's fondness for the young of his own sex as something more than lipsmacking paedophilia, this book does him a service both as a man and an artist." In a similar vein, in a review in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', David Matthews wrote "Many
paedophiles
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
were abused as children, and their dangerous desires are motivated by hatred. Britten's were motivated by love, which may have been to a large extent narcissistic and, as John Bridcut's book reveals, often ended with an abrupt withdrawal of attention when the boy grew up, but which was fundamentally benign."
Influence
Australian composer
Lyle Chan
Lyle Chan is an Australian composer known for his unique approach of writing cumulative works with only one work per genre.
He has described his music as a diary or memoir, particularly of emotions.
“I call it a perpetual work in progress," ...
discovered the relationship between Britten and Wulff Scherchen on reading ''Britten's Children'' in 2015. He sought out Scherchen, then a 95-year-old man living in Australia, and obtained his consent to create a song cycle out of the story of the relationship. The
was commissioned by the
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, t ...
and premiered at the 2016
Brisbane Festival
Brisbane Festival is one of Australia's leading international arts festivals, and is held each September in Brisbane, Australia.
Its presence dominates the city for three weeks in September and its line-up of classical and contemporary music, ...
.
References
* John Bridcut, ''Britten's Children'', Faber and Faber, 2006. {{ISBN, 0-571-22839-9
* Donald Mitchell and Philip Reed (eds.), ''Letters from a Life: Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten 1913–1976, Faber and Faber, 1991
2006 non-fiction books
Biographies about musicians