Britten biography 2013 spike

The two radio programs on which the following article is based went to air in November 2013 to mark the centenary of Britten's birth.

Britten biography 2013 spike lee

It is largely based on the Grove article on the composer and gives a very simple, pared-back overview of this great (and I mean great) composer's life.

Since that time I have read Paul Kildea's superlative biography, Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century, which was also produced to mark the composer's centenary.

Anyone wanting the closest we have to a definitive biography of Britten - respectful, detailed, yet shorn of hagiography - is unhesitatingly directed to this book.

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I was once talking to a group of music lovers who were participating in an adult education course I was teaching.

At one point I mentioned the name Benjamin Britten and a number of those within earshot turned up their noses. I was honestly taken aback at this and asked why they didn’t like the