Plymouth Town
Plymouth Town is a ballet composed by Benjamin Britten in 1931. A typical performance lasts about 25 minutes.[1]
It was written between the 12 and 28 August and completed on 22 November 1931, shortly after Britten's first year as a student at the Royal College of Music.[2][3] Britten's score is based on the sea shanty "A Roving". The folklorist Violet Alford devised the plot of the ballet.[3] Paul Kildea describes the plot as a "quayside morality tale".[4] The plot of the ballet concerns a sailor led astray by a 'bad girl' who was a "mistress of her trade" as described in "A Roving"; she robs the sailor after the two embark on a pub crawl. The plot was later echoed in Britten's opera Albert Herring.[5][6] Plymouth Town was never performed in Britten's lifetime. He sent the score without success to the Camargo Society, a prominent promoter of British ballet.[3] Britten's biographer David Matthews notes the influence of Gustav Mahler on the orchestration of the ballet, a note on the score instructs the horns and clarinets to play "bells up"; an indication that would have only been seen by Britten on the scores of Mahler's symphonies.[7]
John Bridcut describes the piece as a "fascinating harbinger of the mature Britten" with "moments of wit and poignancy, all delivered with an angular energy".[6]
It was first performed at the Royal College of Music, London on 25 January 2004, conducted by Britten specialist, Michael Rosewell.[1] The sole recording of Plymouth Town was made by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2005.[6] The ballet was staged for the first time on 1 July 2013 by Chethams's School of Music under conductor Jeremy Pike with dancers from The Hammond Dance School with choreography by Jane Elliot at the Opera Theatre of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.[2]
References
- ^ a b "Plymouth Town". Faber Music. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- ^ a b "Britten 100 - First staging of 'Plymouth Town' ballet". Faber Music. Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- ^ a b c "BTC726 Plymouth Town". Britten Thematic Catalogue. Britten Thematic Catalogue. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- ^ Paul Kildea (28 January 2013). Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-192430-4.
- ^ David Rowland; Mervyn Cooke (28 June 1999). The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-521-57476-1.
- ^ a b c John Bridcut (30 October 2012). Essential Britten: A Pocket Guide for the Britten Centenary. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-29074-1.
- ^ David Matthews (15 October 2013). Britten: Centenary Edition. Haus Publishing. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-908323-41-5.
- v
- t
- e
- Paul Bunyan (1941)
- Peter Grimes (1945)
- The Rape of Lucretia (1946)
- Albert Herring (1947)
- The Little Sweep (1949)
- Billy Budd (1951)
- Gloriana (1953)
- The Turn of the Screw (1954)
- Noye's Fludde (1958)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
- Owen Wingrave (1971)
- Death in Venice (1973)
- Curlew River (1964)
- The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966)
- The Prodigal Son (1968)
- Plymouth Town (1931)
- Night Mail (1936)
- The Prince of the Pagodas (1956)
- Sinfonietta (1932)
- Simple Symphony (1934)
- Soirées musicales (1937)
- Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)
- Mont Juic (1937)
- Sinfonia da Requiem (1940)
- Matinées musicales (1941)
- The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946)
- Piano Concerto (1938, rev. 1945)
- Violin Concerto (1939, rev. 1958)
- Young Apollo (1939)
- Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra (1940 rev. 1954)
- Cello Symphony (1963)
- Our Hunting Fathers (1936)
- The Company of Heaven (1937)
- Les Illuminations (1939)
- Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
- Saint Nicolas (1948)
- Spring Symphony (1949)
- Nocturne (1958)
- Cantata academica (1959)
- War Requiem (1961)
- Cantata misericordium (1963)
- Children's Crusade (1969)
- Phaedra (1975)
- Beware! Three Early Songs (1922–26)
- Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940)
- The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945)
- Britten's Purcell realizations (1945)+
- 5 Canticles (1947–75, including Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952), Canticle III: Still falls the rain (1954) and Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi (1971)
- A Charm of Lullabies (1947)
- Winter Words (1954)
- Songs from the Chinese (1957)
- Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (1958)
- Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965)
- The Poet's Echo (1965)
- Who Are These Children? (1969)
- A Birthday Hansel (1975)
- Friday Afternoons (1932–1935)
- A Boy was Born (1933)
- Te Deum in C (1934)
- Advance Democracy (1938)
- A Ceremony of Carols (1942)
- Hymn to St Cecilia (1942)
- Festival Te Deum (1944)
- Rejoice in the Lamb (1943)
- Five Flower Songs (1950)
- Hymn to St Peter (1955)
- Missa Brevis (1959)
- A Hymn of St Columba (1962)
- The Golden Vanity (1966)
- Children's Crusade (1968)
- Sacred and Profane (8 medieval lyrics) (1974)
- Jubilate Deo (1961)
- String Quartet in D major (1931)
- Phantasy Quartet (oboe quartet, 1932)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1941)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1945)
- Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria (organ, 1946)
- Six Metamorphoses after Ovid (oboe, 1951)
- Fanfare for St Edmundsbury (three trumpets, 1959)
- Cello sonata (1961)
- Nocturnal after John Dowland (guitar, 1963)
- Cello suites (1964, 1967, 1972)
- String Quartet No. 3 (1975)
- Homage to Paderewski (1941)
- Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (1953)
- War Requiem (1989 film)
- Benjamin Britten (train)
- Benjamin Britten Academy
- Britten Inlet
- Britten Hall
- Britten Sinfonia
- Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century
- Britten's Children
- Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
- English Opera Group
- The Dark Tower
- Scallop (2003)
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