Benjamin Britten, the eternal lyrical musician
Benjamin BRITTEN soon @ Théâtres du Monde n° 27 (2017) http://www.theatresdumonde.com/mn_revue.html
The article will be published in French some time in April (32 pages) under the following title:
Jacques COULARDEAU — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — p. 155
Benjamin Britten. L’étranger, l’enfant et la mort dans ses opéras
You will find all the reading and research notes IN ENGLISH, opera by opera in the following file of some 140 pages.
I am pretty sure opera lovers, Benjamin Britten enthusiasts and music lovers will enjoy following, in chronological order, the building of a whole temple dedicated to the figure of the estranged man, rarely estranged woman, confronted to a child, most of the times a boy, at times a boy and a girl and how these children are confronted to death, real sad death that is anything but natural; but also the death that comes as sinister fate, as war and an obsessive and recurrent Jewish reference, be it Biblical or be it 1939 and Bertold Brecht’s visionary poem on the extermination of children, and first of all the Jewish child on the decision of a Nazi judge.
You will of course love and enjoy over and over again Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, that poignant story of an old man seeing his end coming and falling in love with a young teenager he will not speak to, he will not touch nor approach in any way, contemplating in him his possible descent, his possible heritage, his possible continuation in his search for beauty, the formal architecture of beauty that is so mesmerizing when met in pure mental and spiritual expectation to survive in it because beauty will survive his own departure.
Death becomes an offering to God and life in this empathetic search for fulfillment.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
Benjamin BRITTEN & Jacques COULARDEAU @Academia.edu & @slideshare.net (73)
Britten’sOperasSurvivalPsychopompDeath
https://www.academia.edu/30240729/BrittensOperasSurvivalPsychopompDeath
Britten’s Operas Love Rejection Death
http://www.slideshare.net/JacquesCoulardeau/brittens-operas-love-rejection-death
Published on Dec 4, 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0. Introduction p. 2
1. Paul Bunyan 1941–1976 p. 5
2. Peter Grimes 1945 p. 13
3. Rape of Lucretia 1946 p. 18
4. Albert Herring 1947 p. 23
5. Saint Nicolas 1948 p. 30
6. The Little Sweep 1949 p. 33
7. Billy Budd 1951 p. 39
8. Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac 1952 p. 43
9. Gloriana 1953 p. 45
10. Turn of the Screw 1954 p. 51
11. Prince of Pagodas 1957 p. 74
12. Noye’s Fludde 1958 p. 75
13. Midsummer Night’s Dream 1960 p. 79
14. War Requiem 1962 p. 92
15. Curlew River 1964 p. 104
16. Burning Fiery Furnace 1966 p. 109
17. The Golden Vanity 1966 p. 119
18. Prodigal Son 1968 p. 120
19. The Children’s Crusade 1969 p. 124
20. Owen Wingrave 1970 p. 126
21. Death in Venice 1973 p. 136
Research Interests: Music, Music History, Jewish Studies, Death Studies, Children and Families, War Studies, Opera, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Philosophy of Love, Ideologies of Motherhood, Masculinity, Fatherhood, Boys, Child Soldiers, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Psychopomps and ópera
The previous stages in that research for the curious minds among you
Jacques COULARDEAU & Benjamin BRITTEN at Academia.edu (60)
The Turn of the Screw, from James to Britten
https://www.academia.edu/s/6394c1fda3
https://www.academia.edu/27527052/The_Turn_of_the_Screw_from_James_to_Britten
Jacques Coulardeau at Academia.edu (55)
BENJAMIN BRITTEN’S OPERAS
https://www.academia.edu/24239693/BENJAMIN_BRITTEN_S_OPERAS
Abstract:
BENJAMIN BRITTEN’S OPERAS
DEATH — MARGINALITY — TRANSCENDANCE — LOVE DENIAL
Jacques Coulardeau & Paul Bunyan at Academia.edu (62)
Paul Bunyan, from wilderness to consumer’s society
https://www.academia.edu/27809566/Paul_Bunyan_from_wilderness_to_consumers_society
