Owen Wingrave

1970 opera by Benjamin Britten

Owen Wingrave, Op. 85, is an opera in two acts with music by Benjamin Britten and libretto by Myfanwy Piper, after a short story by Henry James. It was originally written for televised performance. Britten had been aware of the story since his work with Piper on his previous opera modelled after a James work, The Turn of the Screw in 1954. BBC television commissioned an opera for television from him in 1966 and, in 1968, he and Piper began work on the libretto. The work was completed by August 1970. The premiere was recorded at Snape Maltings in November 1970 and first broadcast on BBC2 on 16 May 1971. The music is influenced by Britten's interest in twelve tone serialist techniques. A large tuned percussion section anticipates the musical treatment of his next (and last) opera, Death in Venice. In addition to its being an expression of Britten's own pacifism, he was reported as saying that this opera was partly a response to the Vietnam War. The costumes were designed by Charles Knode, who also designed some of the costumes for Death in Venice. Britten had never owned a television at that time. It has been reported that he hated television and never owned a set at all. This is not strictly true. Perhaps he would have never purchased a set himself, but he was given one by Decca for his 60th birthday in November 1973.

Britten originally intended the work for both television and the stage, although after the stage premiere on 10 May 1973 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, it has rarely been seen in either medium. The US premiere of the opera was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1973, with Colin Graham directing the production. It was seen at Glyndebourne in 1997, following performances by Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1995. A new production by The Royal Opera opened in April 2007 in the Linbury Studio Theatre, with a reduced orchestration by David Matthews. It was performed in May 2009 at the Chicago Opera Theater as well as the Wiener Kammeroper in Vienna directed by Nicola Raab with English baritone Andrew Ashwin in the title role. A new production was presented in January 2010 by Opera Frankfurt and directed by Walter Sutcliffe. Opera Trionfo (Netherlands) presented the opera in 2013 directed by Floris Visser and conducted by Ed Spanjaard and a planned reprise in 2014. Visser also directed the opera at Theater Osnabrück in Germany; this production premiered on 16 January 2016 under the baton of Daniel Inbal. In September 2020, during the COVID 19 pandemic, Grange Park Opera produced a video version of the opera as part of its 2020 "Interim Season", directed by Stephen Medcalf, with the setting moved from the Edwardian period to the 1950s.

1971: The original commercial recording of the opera is the Decca recording with the same cast, chorus and orchestra as in the first performance. 2005: DVD recording of a newer TV production on Kultur, with the setting updated to the 1950s at the time of the Suez crisis. The cast credits are as follows: Gerald Finley (Owen Wingrave), Charlotte Hellekant (Kate), Peter Savidge (Coyle), Hilton Marlton (Lechmere), Josephine Barstow (Miss Wingrave), Anne Dawson (Mrs Coyle), Elizabeth Gale (Mrs Julian), Martyn Hill (General Sir Philip Wingrave); Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin; Kent Nagano, conductor; Margaret Williams, director. 2008: Chandos CHAN 10473(2); Peter Coleman Wright (Owen Wingrave), Pamela Helen Stephen (Kate), Alan Opie (Coyle), James Gilchrist (Lechmere), Elizabeth Connell (Miss Wingrave), Janice Watson (Mrs Coyle), Sarah Fox (Mrs Julian), Robin Leggate (General Sir Philip Wingrave and Narrator); Tiffin Boys Choir; City of London Sinfonia; Richard Hickox, conductor. Source: Recordings of Owen Wingrave on operadis opera discography. org. uk