The English Opera Group was a small company of British musicians formed in 1947 by the composer

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

(along with John Piper,

Eric Crozier Eric Crozier OBE (14 November 19147 September 1994) was a British theatre director, theatrical director, opera librettist and producer, long associated with Benjamin Britten. Early life and career Crozier was born in London and studied at the Ro ...

and

Anne Wood Anne Wood, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 18 December 1937) is an English children's television producer, responsible for creating shows such as ''Teletubbies'' with Andrew Davenport. She is also the creator of ''Tots TV'', ''Boohbah'' ...

) for the purpose of presenting his and other, primarily British, composers' operatic works. The group later expanded to present larger-scale works, and was renamed the English Music Theatre Company. The organisation produced its last opera and ceased to run in 1980.

English Opera Group

Fleeing internal politics at Sadler's Wells Opera at the end of 1945, Britten and singers Joan Cross,

, and Peter Pears joined with designer Piper and producer Crozier to found the English Opera Group. 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 Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a Chamber music, chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas ...

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 Cro ...

'' and give further performances of his opera '' The Rape of Lucretia'' during a tour of British and

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

an 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 The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festi ...

in 1948.Britten-Pears Foundation
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. It gave the North American première of Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Canada's

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a repertory theatre organization that operates from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shak ...

in 1957. 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 Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodie, songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among th ...

's opera '' Les mamelles de Tirésias'' in 1958. The group also performed older operas, such as '' Acis and Galatea'', '' The Beggar's Opera'', ''

Idomeneo (Italian for ''Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', Köchel catalogue, K. 366) is an Italian-language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Vares ...

'', '' Iolanta'', '' La rondine'' and ''

Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are increasingly used ...

'', and works by

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version o ...

and

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

. The

Royal Opera, London The Royal Opera is a British opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Along with English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent G ...

took over management of the group in 1961. In 1971

Steuart Bedford Steuart John Rudolf Bedford (31 July 1939 – 15 February 2021) was an English orchestral and opera conductor and pianist. He was the brother of composer David Bedford and of singer Peter Lehmann Bedford and a grandson of Liza Lehmann and H ...

was appointed musical director, and

Colin Graham Colin Graham OBE (22 September 1931 in Hove, England – 6 April 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri) was a stage director of opera, theatre, and television. Graham was educated at Northaw School (Hertfordshire), Stowe School and RADA. Early in his ...

became director of productions.

English Music Theatre Company

In 1975 the group was enlarged to be able to produce works such as

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

s 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 Sadler's Wells Theatre is a London performing arts venue, located in Rosebery Avenue, Islington. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site. Sadler's Wells grew out of a late 17th-century pleasure garden and was opened as a theatre buil ...

in London. The founder and leader of the company was Colin Graham. One of their 1976 productions was ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...

'' by

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

, conducted by the young Simon Rattle.In the same season the company also presented '' Paul Bunyan'', ''The Turn of the Screw'', ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

'' and ''

La finta giardiniera ' ("The Pretend Garden-Girl"), Köchel catalogue, K. 196, is an Italian-language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on 13 January at the in M ...

'' (under the title of ''Sandrina's Secret''), all conducted by

. Se
"London Diary for October"
''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

'', September 1976, p. 792. . After a final production of Britten's ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'' in 1980, the company was disbanded.

Operas premiered (not including Britten's)

English Music Theatre Company

Prominent former members

* Janet Baker * James Bowman * Owen Brannigan * Joan Cross *

* Nancy Evans * Kathleen Ferrier *

Sylvia Fisher Sylvia Gwendoline Victoria Fisher (18 April 191025 August 1996) was an Australian operatic soprano whose stage career was made in England, who was especially distinguished in German opera, and who created the role of Miss Wingrave in Benjamin Br ...

* Heather Harper * Della Jones * Thomas Lawlor * Norman Lumsden *

Benjamin Luxon Benjamin Matthew Luxon (24 March 1937 – 26 July 2024) was a British baritone. Biography Luxon was born in Redruth, Cornwall on 24 March 1937, the son of Ernest Maxwell Luxon, an amateur singer, and his wife Lucille Pearl, née Grigg. He stud ...

* Peter Pears * Anthony Rolfe Johnson * John Shirley-Quirk * Robert Tear * Jennifer Vyvyan * Olive Zorian

References

Notes Sources * *Matthews, David (2003)
''Britten''
Haus Publishing. * *Seymour, Claire (2007)
''The Operas of Benjamin Britten: Expression and Evasion''
Boydell Press. *White, Eric Walter (1983)
''Benjamin Britten, His Life and Operas''
University of California Press.

External links

Complete list of productions
{{authority control Musical groups established in 1947 British opera companies Theatre companies in England 1947 establishments in England Musical groups disestablished in 1980 Benjamin Britten 1980 disestablishments in England