Editing Arthur Bliss (section)

===1940s===
At first, Bliss found little useful work to do in England. He joined the [[BBC]]'s overseas music service in May 1941,<ref>"New BBC Director of Music", ''The Times'', 1 April 1942, p. 7</ref> but was plainly under-employed. He suggested to [[Adrian Boult|Sir Adrian Boult]], who was at that time both the chief conductor of the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] and the BBC's director of music, that Boult should step down in his favour from the latter post.<ref>Jacobs, p. 367</ref> Bliss wrote to his wife: "I want more power as I have a lot to give which my comparatively minor post does not allow me to use fully."<ref name=k195>Kennedy, p. 195</ref> Boult agreed to the proposal, which freed him to concentrate on conducting.<ref name=k195/>{{refn|Boult later had cause to regret his generosity. After Bliss left, a director of music was appointed who had a grudge against Boult and engineered his compulsory retirement.<ref>Kennedy, p. 215</ref>|group= n}} Bliss served as director of music at the BBC from 1942 to 1944, laying the foundations for the launch of the [[BBC Radio 3|Third Programme]] after the war.<ref name=dnb/> During the war, he also served on the music committee of the [[British Council]] together with Vaughan Williams and William Walton.<ref>"News in Brief", ''The Times'', 7 May 1943, p. 6</ref>

In 1944, when Bliss's family returned from the US, he resigned from the BBC and returned to composing, having written nothing since his String Quartet in 1941.<ref name=who>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U152411 "Bliss, Sir Arthur"], ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 21 March 2011 {{subscription required}}</ref> He composed more film music, and two ballets, ''[[Miracle in the Gorbals]]'' (1944),<ref>"Sadler's Wells Ballet", ''The Times'', 27 October 1944, p. 6</ref> and ''[[Adam Zero]]'' (1946).<ref>"Arthur Bliss's New Ballet", ''The Times'', 11 April 1946, p. 6</ref>

In 1948, Bliss turned his attention to opera, with ''[[The Olympians]]''. He and the novelist and playwright [[J. B. Priestley]] had been friends for many years, and they agreed to collaborate on an opera, despite their lack of any operatic experience. Priestley's libretto was based on a legend that "the pagan deities, robbed of their divinity, became a troupe of itinerant players, wandering down the centuries".<ref name=jbp>Priestley, J. B. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/954591 "My Friend Bliss"], ''The Musical Times'', August 1971, pp. 740–741, accessed 22 March 2011 {{subscription required}}</ref> The opera portrays the confusion that results when the actors unexpectedly find themselves restored to deity.{{refn|The similarity of Priestley's plot device to that of [[W. S. Gilbert]]'s for ''[[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]]''<ref>Rees, pp. 30–57</ref> was unremarked by the critics of ''The Times'', ''The Manchester Guardian'' and ''The Observer''.<ref name=olym/>|group= n}} The opera opened the 1949–50 [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] season. It was directed by [[Peter Brook]], with choreography by [[Frederick Ashton]]. The doyen of English music critics, [[Ernest Newman]],<ref>Herbage, Julian. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/924076 Shostakovitch's Eighth Symphony"], ''The Musical Times'', July 1944, p. 201 {{subscription required}}</ref> praised it highly: "here is a composer with real talent for opera ... in Mr. Priestley he has been fortunate enough to find an English [[Arrigo Boito|Boito]]", but generally it received a polite rather than a rapturous reception.<ref name=haltrecht/> Priestley attributed this to the failure of the conductor, [[Karl Rankl]], to learn the music or to cooperate with Brook, and to lack of rehearsal of the last act.<ref name=jbp/> The critics attributed it to Priestley's inexperience as an opera librettist, and to the occasional lack of "the soaring tune for the human voice" in Bliss's music.<ref name=olym>"The Royal Opera – 'The Olympians'", ''The Times'', 30 September 1949, p. 6; Hope-Wallace, Philip, "The Olympians", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 30 September 1949, p. 5; and [[Eric Blom|Blom, Eric]], "Priestley for Bliss", ''[[The Observer]]'' 2 October 1949, p. 6</ref> After the Covent Garden run of ten performances,<ref name=haltrecht>Haltrecht, p. 132</ref> the company presented the work in [[Manchester]],<ref>"Palace Theatre – 'The Olympians'", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 25 March 1950, p. 5</ref> but did not revive it in subsequent years; it received a concert performance and broadcast in 1972.<ref>Greenfield, Edward. "The Olympians on Radio 3", ''The Guardian'', 22 February 1972, p. 10</ref>