Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- List of Illustrations
- 1 My mind beats on
- 2 A thirst, a leaping, wild unrest, a deep desire
- 3 Should I give up the fruitless struggle with the word?
- 4 So be it
- 5 What lies in wait for me here?
- 6 My head is heavy, my eyelids ache
- 7 I must go elsewhere, I must find a clearer sky, a fresher air
- 8 How much better to live, not words but beauty, to exist in it, and of it
- 9 The power of beauty sets me free
- 10 Yet I am driven on
- 11 O voluptuous days, O the joy I suffer
- 12 So the moments pass
- 13 And now, Phaedrus, I will go
- No epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no excuse
- Acknowledgements
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
4 - So be it
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- List of Illustrations
- 1 My mind beats on
- 2 A thirst, a leaping, wild unrest, a deep desire
- 3 Should I give up the fruitless struggle with the word?
- 4 So be it
- 5 What lies in wait for me here?
- 6 My head is heavy, my eyelids ache
- 7 I must go elsewhere, I must find a clearer sky, a fresher air
- 8 How much better to live, not words but beauty, to exist in it, and of it
- 9 The power of beauty sets me free
- 10 Yet I am driven on
- 11 O voluptuous days, O the joy I suffer
- 12 So the moments pass
- 13 And now, Phaedrus, I will go
- No epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no excuse
- Acknowledgements
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
In his biography of Britten, Humphrey Carpenter writes:
Anne Wood recalls the crisis over Lesley Bedford, who sang Lucia in the first production of The Rape of Lucretia and Emmie in the original Albert Herring, both juvenile roles, though she was approaching middle age. ‘It was grotesque. And it suddenly came to the point when Ben saw that it was grotesque. And he could not, he could not make up his mind to say anything to her. I had to do it. And she was distraught.’ Steuart Bedford says his mother had fallen entirely under Britten's spell, and agrees she was utterly crushed by the rejection.
I don't think she did overstep the mark, become too friendly. Humphrey Carpenter got his information from me. But Britten didn't close up on her. Yes, he got Anne Wood to tell her and of course she was very sad about it, but she didn't complain to Ben, and that's what was crucial to their relationship.
Just before Lesley went into hospital for the operation on her neck, Pears departed to New York for a few weeks, leaving Britten in Aldeburgh to compose. Lesley was with Britten when he went. In his first letter to Pears in New York, Britten wrote:
I loathed, more than any moment of my silly life, leaving you. Thank God I was with Lesley, because I made a fool of myself in the car.
Originally Britten and Pears had planned to undertake a concert tour in the autumn of 1948, arranged by Ralph Hawkes, who was based at the Boosey & Hawkes office in New York. But Britten had to cancel the tour because of ill health, and as Pears unexpectedly found himself free for quite a long period, he decided to go to the States regardless and take the opportunity to study with the singing teacher Clytie Mundy. It's possible that he simply needed a break from the intensity of the relationship with Britten, as well as the opportunity to exercise his more active libido. The cancelled tour was rescheduled for 1949.
Britten's health suffered as his anxiety deepened about their relationship. By the end of 1948 he was being X-rayed for stomach ulcers, but none were found.
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- Information
- Knowing Britten , pp. 45 - 53Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021