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Clifford D AlperTowson University, Baltimore
edited by Mervyn Cooke
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999
368 pages, $59.95, $22.95 paper
In his introduction, Cooke cites Britten's ability, even at a very early age, to assimilate whatever appropriate musical idioms he required. This book, divided into four major parts, includes ''Apprenticeship,'' ''The operas,'' ''Perspectives,'' and ''The composer in the community.'' This review will concentrate on Part II and the chapters on vocal music in Part III.
In the chapter on Peter Grimes, Stephen Arthur Allen writes of the ''sea'' as an additional operatic character and even as a metaphor for Grimes himself (echoes of Wagner's Flying Dutchman?). Allen provides a thorough and perceptive discussion of this opera, balancing theoretical elements with subjective ones, and offering a succinct overview of Britten's most familiar operatic effort.
Arnold Whittall's chapter on The Chamber Operas cites Britten's 1946 statement that he endeavored to compose a ''new art form,'' the chamber opera, to ''stand beside the grand opera as the quartet stands beside the orchestra'' (95). Whittall points out that The Rape of Lucretia (1946), Albert Herring (1947), and The Turn of the Screw (1954) represent the composer's finest efforts in this field. He mentions Britten's favorite theme of ''the conflict between the vulnerable and vicious'' (96), thus his interest in André Obey's Le viol de Lucrèce (1931). Albert Herring he classifies as a ''serious comedy''
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behind which lies all the tension of Peter Grimes. Whittall's discussion provides a...