Editing Benjamin Britten (section)

===Aldeburgh; the 1950s===
The [[Aldeburgh Festival]] was launched in June 1948, with Britten, Pears, and Crozier directing.{{Sfn|Headington|1993|p=151}} ''Albert Herring'' played at the Jubilee Hall, and Britten's new cantata for tenor, chorus, and orchestra, [[Saint Nicolas (Britten)|''Saint Nicolas'']], was presented in the parish church.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=92–93}} The festival was an immediate success and became an annual event that has continued into the 21st century.<ref>Hall, George. "Festival Overtures: Britten in Bloom", ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'' Volume 64.4, April 2013, pp. 436–438.</ref> New works by Britten featured in almost every festival until his death in 1976, including the premieres of his operas ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' at the Jubilee Hall in 1960 and ''[[Death in Venice (opera)|Death in Venice]]'' at [[Snape Maltings]] Concert Hall in 1973.<ref>Mason, Colin. "Benjamin Britten's ''Dream''", ''The Guardian'', 11 June 1960. p. 5; and [[Edward Greenfield|Greenfield, Edward]]. "Britten's ''Death in Venice''", ''The Guardian'', 18 June 1973, p. 8.</ref>

[[File:Benjamin Britten memorial window ... - geograph.org.uk - 1131630.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[John Piper (artist)|John Piper]]'s Benjamin Britten memorial window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh]]
Unlike many leading English composers, Britten was not known as a teacher,{{Efn|[[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]], [[Hubert Parry|Parry]], [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]], [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]], [[Gustav Holst|Holst]] and [[Michael Tippett|Tippett]] were among the leading British composers of their time who held posts at conservatoires or universities.<ref name="wright">Wright, David. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3557473 "The South Kensington Music Schools and the Development of the British Conservatoire in the Late Nineteenth Century"], ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', Oxford University Press, Volume 130 No. 2, pp. 236–282 (Sullivan, Parry and Stanford) {{Subscription}}; [[Diana McVeagh|McVeagh, Diana]]. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/08709?q=elgar&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit "Elgar, Edward"], Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, (Elgar) {{Grove Music subscription}}; Graebe, Martin. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/884536926 "Gustav Holst, Songs of the West, and the English Folk Song Movement"], ''Folk Music Journal'', Volume 10.1, 2011, pp. 5–41 (Vaughan Williams and Holst) {{Subscription}}; and Clarke, David. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/28005 "Tippett, Sir Michael]", ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, accessed 24 May 2013. {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> Those who, like Britten, were not known for teaching included [[Frederick Delius|Delius]]<ref>[[Philip Arnold Heseltine|Heseltine, Philip]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/909510 "Some Notes on Delius and His Music"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', March 1915, pp. 137–142 {{Subscription}}.</ref> and [[William Walton|Walton]].<ref>Kirkbride, Jo. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150325011443/http://sco.org.uk/content/two-pieces-henry-v?print=1 "William Walton (1902–1983), Two Pieces from Henry V (1944)"], [[Scottish Chamber Orchestra]], accessed 10 June 2016</ref>}} but in 1949 he accepted his only private pupil, [[Arthur Oldham]], who studied with him for three years. Oldham made himself useful, acting as musical assistant and arranging ''Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge'' for full orchestra for the [[Frederick Ashton]] ballet ''Le Rêve de Léonor'' (1949),<ref>"Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit – ''Le Rêve de Léonor''", ''The Times'', 27 April 1949, p. 3.</ref> but he later described the teacher–pupil relationship as "beneficial five per cent to [Britten] and ninety-five per cent to me!"{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=214}}

Throughout the 1950s Britten continued to write operas. ''[[Billy Budd (opera)|Billy Budd]]'' (1951) was well received at its [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] premiere and was regarded by reviewers as an advance on ''Peter Grimes''.<ref>Blom, Eric. "Britten's ''Billy Budd'', ''The Observer'', 2 December 1951, p. 6; Hope-Wallace, Philip. "Britten's ''Billy Budd''", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 3 December 1951, p. 5; and Porter, Andrew. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/730800 "Britten's ''Billy Budd''"], ''[[Music & Letters]]'', Volume 33, No. 2, April 1952, pp. 111–118 {{Subscription}}.</ref> ''[[Gloriana]]'' (1953), written to mark the [[coronation of Elizabeth II]], had a cool reception at the gala premiere in the presence of the Queen and the British [[The Establishment|Establishment]] ''en masse''. The downbeat story of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] in her decline, and Britten's score – reportedly thought by members of the premiere's audience "too modern" for such a gala<ref name=hso/> – did not overcome what Matthews calls the "ingrained philistinism" of the ruling classes.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=107}}{{Efn|The critic [[Andrew Porter (music critic)|Andrew Porter]] wrote at the time: "The audience naturally contained many people distinguished in political and social spheres rather than noted for their appreciation of twentieth-century music, and ''Gloriana'' was not well received at its first hearing. The usual philistine charges brought against it, as against so much contemporary music ('no tunes – ugly, discordant sounds', and the rest), are beneath consideration. On the other hand, those who found ''Gloriana'' ill-suited to the occasion may be allowed to have some right on their side."<ref name="hso">Porter, Andrew. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/731059 "Britten's ''Gloriana''"], ''[[Music & Letters]]'', Vol. 34, No. 4 (October 1953), pp. 277–287 {{Subscription}}.</ref>}} Although ''Gloriana'' did well at the box office, there were no further productions in Britain for another 13 years.<ref>[[Edward Greenfield|Greenfield, Edward]]. "''Gloriana'' at Sadler's Wells", ''The Guardian'', 22 October 1966, p. 6.</ref> It was later recognised as one of Britten's finer operas.<ref>[[Rupert Christiansen|Christiansen, Rupert]]. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/10111461/Gloriana-Brittens-problem-opera.html "Gloriana: Britten's problem opera"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' 18 June 2013; and Church, Michael. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/classical-review-richard-joness-revelatory-roh-revival-of-brittens-underrated-gloriana-8668470.html "Richard Jones's revelatory ROH revival of Britten's underrated Gloriana"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 21 June 2013.</ref> ''[[The Turn of the Screw (opera)|The Turn of the Screw]]'' the following year was an unqualified success;<ref>Mason, Colin. "Britten's New Opera at Venice Festival: Welcome for ''The Turn of the Screw''", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 15 September 1954, p. 5.</ref> together with ''Peter Grimes'' it became, and at 2013 remained, one of the two most frequently performed of Britten's operas.<ref>[http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en&show=operas&by=Britten "Operas, Britten"], Operabase, accessed 25 May 2013. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223092029/http://www.operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en&show=operas&by=Britten |date=23 February 2013}}.</ref>

In the 1950s the "fervently anti-homosexual" [[Home Secretary]], [[David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir|Sir David Maxwell Fyfe]],{{Sfn|Weeks|1989|pp=239–240}} urged the police to enforce the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] laws making homosexual acts illegal.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=334}}{{Efn|The principal law against homosexual acts was the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885]], in which [[Labouchere Amendment|Section 11]] made any kind of sexual activity between men illegal for the first time. It was not repealed until the passage of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]]}} Britten and Pears came under scrutiny; Britten was visited by police officers in 1953 and was so perturbed that he discussed with his assistant [[Imogen Holst]] the possibility that Pears might have to enter a [[lavender marriage|sham marriage]] (with whom is unclear). In the end nothing was done.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=335}}

An increasingly important influence on Britten was the music of the East, an interest that was fostered by a tour there with Pears in 1956, when Britten once again encountered the music of the Balinese gamelan{{Sfn|Britten|2008|p=388}} and saw for the first time Japanese [[Noh]] plays, which he called "some of the most wonderful drama I have ever seen."{{Sfn|Britten|2008|p=441}} These eastern influences were seen and heard in the ballet ''[[The Prince of the Pagodas]]'' (1957) and later in two of the three semi-operatic "Parables for Church Performance": ''[[Curlew River]]'' (1964), ''[[The Burning Fiery Furnace]]'' (1966) and ''[[The Prodigal Son (Britten)|The Prodigal Son]]'' (1968).{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|pp=434–435, 478–480}}

He was invited to a competition to compose the future anthem of the [[Federation of Malaya]] (now [[Malaysia]]) in 1956. He attempted a composition after several couple of days which he described as "curious" and "unsuccessful". The committee returned the score with suggestions that he could make it "sound more [[Music of Malaysia|Malaysian]]", but to no avail.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Perdota |first1=Greg |title=Benjamin Britten: An Anthem for Malaysia |url=https://interlude.hk/benjamin-britten-anthem-malaysia |work=Interlude |date=27 October 2015}}</ref>