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Guide to Britten
Our big success in 'Airs on a Shoestring' was undoubtedly 'A Guide to Britten', which is a comprehensive musical tour of all Benjamin Britten's operas, and all other works up to that date. Laurier Lister liked it very much - he thought it was a bit highbrow, he warned us that while the show was on the pre-London tour, we could expect no reaction at all from the audiences. This actually didn't happen, and the very first time when it was played, which wasn't a sort of cultural centre, by any means, everybody loved it. I think revues at that time did rather under-rate the growing general knowledge and intelligence of audiences everywhere, and this was part of their downfall. This is how we first did 'Guide to Britten' at the read-through.
Who?
Who is
Benjamin Britten,
Benjamin Britten,
Benjamin Britten?
Benjamin Britten,
Benjamin Britten,
Benjamin Britten?
Please don't send him up again,
Please don't send him up again.
MF: Edward Benjamin Britten, born Lowestoft 1913
DS: That is approximately
MF: Entered the Royal College of Music, studied under Frank Bridge
DS: According to Percy Scoles
His work was soon in rehearsal,
Because he always used... Purcell!
A rising young composer,
He published every spring,
An olde English folk song
For Peter Pears to sing.
The judges at each festival
Admired his sinfonietta,
The voted it the best of all,
They'd never heard a better
'Twas applauded by the masses,
The middle classes too,
And even by the Harewoods and the county set,
Yes, even by the Doggy Doggy Few.
MF: Art songs,
DS: Quartets,
MF: Cantatas,
DS: A Spring Symphony for Sackbut, Psaltery and Siffleur.
But this was not all... No!
MF: Whenever he had a spare half hour,
It was always:
DS: Let's make an opera!
MF: Ummmmmmmm! (Foghorn)
DS: Peter Grimes
MF: Cribbed from Crabbe.
Ummmmmmmmm! (Foghorn again)
DS: Peter Grimes
MF: Sung all over the civilised world. And in America.
Pierre Grimes!
Pedro Grimo!
Pyotr Grimsky!
Peter J. Grimes!
Of the first Beggar's opera, they used to say
That it made Gay rich,
And it made Rich gay,
Revived by our hero after all these years,
It made bundles for Britten,
And piles for Pears.
The Rape of Lucretia was splendid fun,
And night after night,
Was discretely done,
But best of them all, we should like to state,
Was the night when the curtain came down too late.
His mother kept Albert Herring in curls,
He was never allowed to go out with girls
His terrible fate he long endured,
Until Albert Herring got pickled, and cured.
MF: Nor did uncle Benjy forget the dear little children, composing for them:
DS: The young person's guide to the orchestra!
MF: In which are explained the capabilities of each instrument, such as, the pianoforte.
You can play on the white note,
You can play on the black notes.
You can screw up the stool,
You can screw it down.
The turn of the screw.
You can raise the lid,
And you can shut it again.
DS: Aarg!
So much for the pianoforte.
DS: back to opera, and Billy Budd.
(Lyrics by Alan Melville)
With floggings and hangings,
And pitch and toss,
And nothing but men,
Oh, it made Joan Cross.
As for Gloriana
DS: Gloriana!
That Gloriana,
Was a social success,
It turned out a regular orgy,
And Bess.
So rule Brittania, while Britten rules the staves,
All the music-loving public are his slaves.
Of course, we'd both admired Benjamin Britten's music very much, we'd hoped that he might have come along and even enjoyed that affectionate parody, but he never did. However, the Royal family came to Airs on a Shoestring, they didn't understand a word of it, or course. Bang goes me peerage.
Originally from the album 'And The We Wrote...'.
The published lyrics include these lines about Gloriana:
As for Gloriana ... !
As Covent Garden discovered all too soon!
You can pay John Piper
But you can't call the tune!
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