European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave in Chicago Opera Theater Production

May. 05, 2009

Chicago Opera Theater presents five performances of Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, a haunting story about family, war and expectations. Director Ken Cazan and designer Peter Harrison, who worked together for Chicago Opera Theater's production of Death in Venice, collaborate again in this production conducted by Steuart Bedford. Centering on Britten's commitment to pacifism and set in England in 1985, the opera tells the story of a young man's rebellion against the military traditions of his family. Gillian Widdicombe writing in the Financial Times comments:

Britten has packed his most skillful craftsmanship into Owen Wingrave. He uses a handful of musical techniques; among them, a percussive motif representing the military tradition of the Wingrave family, and a sequence of plain chords, that recalls Billy Budd,for the pacifist beliefs of Owen himself...

Commissioned by the Television Service of the BBC, Owen Wingrave comes to Chicago Opera Theater on May 16, 20, 22, 24, 26 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.

To learn more on the life and music of Benjamin Britten, visit www.fabermusic.com and www.brittenpears.org.

Go to www.chicagooperatheater.org for more on this production of Owen Wingrave.

Benjamin Britten
Owen Wingrave (1971)
opera in two acts
3 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, 3 tenors, baritone and bass-baritone
2(2.pic).2.2(2.bcl, Ebcl).2(2.cbsn)-2.2.2.1-timp.3perc-pno.hp-str
106'

News