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Britten 100

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Music: Classical

Programmes featuring music and discussion to mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten.

Full details of the Britten Centenary Weekend (22-24 Nov), based at Snape Maltings – with live and recorded concerts and operas, discussions, and debates.

Full details of the Britten Centenary Weekend (22-24 Nov), based at Snape Maltings – with live and recorded concerts and operas, discussions, and debates. Browse the photo galleries, listen to Britten's music, and watch videos.

Britten 100: Britten's Church Parables

Britten 100: Britten's Church Parables: Episode 1: Curlew River

Britten's Church parables 221113

Episode 1

Episode 1: Curlew River

Britten's Church Parables

Curlew River

BBC Radio 3 - Britten 100, Britten's Church Parables, Curlew River

A Mahogany Opera production of Curlew River, the first of Britten's three Church Parables.

Louise Fryer presents a Mahogany Opera production from the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival of Curlew River, the first of Britten's three Church Parables. With tenor James Gilchrist.

On the face of it, Britten's Three Church Parables, composed in the 60s with their fusion of east and west, might be a sorry attempt to jump on a trendy bandwagon. But they are a triptych of beguiling one-act operas whose individual sound worlds are uniquely Britten's.

Curlew River, the first Parable, takes elements of traditional Japanese theatre and court music which so impressed Britten on his 1956 world tour and transplants them to East Anglia to tell the story of a woman driven mad by the loss of her child. The Madwoman, as with each principal tenor role in the Parables, was written for Peter Pears and here is sung by James Gilchrist.

Rarely presented as a group of three, these critically acclaimed performances were recorded at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival in Orford Church, the place for which they were originally written.
Presented by Louise Fryer.

Britten: Curlew River
The Madwoman .... James Gilchrist (tenor)
The Abbot .... Lukas Jakobski (bass baritone)
The Ferryman .... Rodney Earl Clarke (baritone)
Mahogany Opera
Roger Vignoles (music director)
Frederic Wake-Walker (director)

The Burning Fiery Furnace is tomorrow at 2.00 pm.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Britten's three Church Parables, performed at Orford Church at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival

Louise Fryer presents a celebrated performance given at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival in Orford Church, the place for which they were originally written, of Britten's three Church Parables

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Episode 1: Curlew River

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