Benjamin Britten (November 22, 1913-December 4, 1976)🇬🇧 was a Gay, English composer, conductor and pianist who is known for being of the most well renowned classical English composers of the 20th century. Most of his work was in choral and vocal music.
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Peter Pears (June 22, 2010 - April 3, 1986)🇬🇧 was an English operatic tenor, organist and pianist. He was known for his diction and precise attention to the nuances of story of the pieces he would sing and for his extensive repertoire that spanned from the Tudor period through contemporary work.
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Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears met in 1937 and quickly became friends, creative collaborators and lovers. Their partnership lasted for 40yrs (Britten passed in 1976) Pears was Britten’s muse and inspired him to center his operatic & choral work around the tenor voice/range.- including five song cycles. Due to the criminalization of Homosexuality at the time, they lived publicly closeted lives but were as close to “married” as possible in private
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Next we have the first half of the 1940 Song Cycle “Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Opus No. 22” (https://tinyurl.com/2stwzksn), based on actual poetry written by legendary artist Michelangelo. This performance is from their 1956 trip to Japan
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Forgot to mention that Britten wrote “Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Opus No. 22” in the original Italian that Michelangelo used, which was a challenge for both Britten & Pears as they primarily worked in English language music
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And here’s the second half of the song cycle “Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Opus No. 22”(https://tinyurl.com/nx7nufhk) from the same 1956 Japanese performance. Shortly before Britten’s passing, Pears declared this piece to be both his favorite of Britten’s compositions and the most meaningful to them both.
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