“This hard work, this gray and restless toil..” Benjamin Britten, composer at work

The work of British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) includes 95 opus numbers, and all sorts of musical genre besides 12 operas, an impressive achievement for the twentieth century. Reading the various biographies of the musician, as well as his diaries and letters, shows the frantic life of a composer, the leader of an opera troupe, a festival organizer, a solo pianist and accompanist, and a conductor all rolled into one. This may be accounted for by a very strong work ethic ingrained since childhood, the response to a mother’s ambition, a deep need for recognition due to his pacifism in time of war and his homosexuality, his conception of the artist as being useful to his times and of parable-art, his will to win recognition for musicians and artists in a still very conservative British society.