Peter Pears
This is a "very special" recording for me: Pears my do nothing tenor par excellence, and Britten my do nothing composer par excellence at the piano. Pears was a BBC radio chorister when meeting Benjamin Britten in the late 1930s, first as a friend, then as his significant other. (They were officially a couple, which was very courageous pioneer work; at the time, homosexuality was still prosecutable in the UK.) Britten motivated him to undertake further voice studies, which led to Pears' debut as a opera soloist at the Strand Theater London in 1942 (as Hoffmann), and to an engagement at Saddler's Wells in 1943; for a few years, Pears would sing Almaviva, Tamino, Ferrando, Duca, Vašek or Rodolfo; from 1947, he appeared at Covent Garden in similar roles. In 1945, still at Saddler's Wells, he sang his first Britten premiere, in a role that his partner had explicitly written for him: Peter Grimes. From now on, he starred in the world premiere of almost every Britten opera; and primarily with his Britten roles, he arrived at La Scala, the Met, the Glyndebourne Festival, in Vienna, Zürich, Munich, Rome, or Venice. Still more important, however, was his concert career, often accompanied at the piano by Benjamin Britten. With his lieder recitals, but also in Bach's oratorios, he toured Holland, Switzerland, the Soviet Union, Germany...
A village Romeo and Juliet (Horn player) – London, Royal College of Music, 28 June 1934 Così fan tutte (act 1, Ferrando) – Royal College of Music, 23 February 1935 Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Royal College of Music, Easter 1934 Lady Macbeth Mtsenskogo uezda (Second foreman) – London, Queen's Hall, March 1936 Doktor Faust (Student) – London, Queen's Hall, March 1937 On the frontier (Announcer) – London, Globe, 12 February 1939 Les contes d'Hoffmann – London, Strand, 6 May 1942 Die Zauberflöte – London, New Theater, 19 January 1943 Rigoletto – Blackpool, 3 April 1943 La traviata – London, New Theater, 29 April 1943 Il barbiere di Siviglia – London, New Theater, 29 July 1943 (Wearing lists 30 or 31 July) Prodaná nevěsta (Vašek) – London, New Theater, 10 November 1943 Così fan tutte – London, New Theater, 29 August 1944 Peter Grimes – London, Saddler's Wells, 7 June 1945 The rape of Lucretia (Male Chorus) – Glyndebourne, 12 July 1946 Albert Herring – Glyndebourne, 20 June 1947 The beggar's opera (Macheath) – Saddler's Wells, 6 September 1948 Illuminations (Singer) – London, Covent Garden, 20 July 1950 Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (Narrator) – Hammersmith, Lyric, 1 May 1951 Dido and Aeneas – London, Saddler's Wells, 16 June 1951 Oedipus rex – Köln, 5 October 1951 Billy Budd (Vere) – London, Covent Garden, 1 December 1951 Love in village (Hawthorn) – Aldeburgh, Jubilee Hall, 16 June 1952 Gloriana (Robert Devereux) – London, Covent Garden, 8 June 1953 The turn of the screw (Peter Quint/Prologue) – Venice, Fenice, 14 September 1954 Troilus and Cressida (Pandarus) – London, Covent Garden, 3 December 1954 Façade – London, Scala, 24 September 1955 Savitri (Satyavan) – Aldeburgh, Jubilee Hall, 15 June 1956 Ruth (Boaz) – London, Scala Theater, 2 October 1956 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (David) – London, Covent Garden, 28 January 1957 Les mamelles de Tirésias – Aldeburgh, 16 June 1958 A midsummer night's dream (Flute) – Aldeburgh, 11 June 1960 Curlew river (Madwoman) – Aldeburgh, Oxford Church, 11 June 1964 The burning fiery furnace (Nebuchadnezzar) – Aldeburgh, Oxford Church, 9 June 1966 The prodigal son (Tempter) – Aldeburgh, Oxford Church, 10 June 1968 Idomeneo – Aldeburgh, Maltings, 10 June 1969 Owen Wingrave (Count) – London, Covent Garden, 10 May 1973 Death in Venice – Aldeburgh, Maltings, 16 June 1973 Evgenij Onegin (Triquet) – Aldeburgh, 16 June 1979 I wish to thank Daniele Godor for the picture. References for the repertory: Christopher Headington Peter Pears, Faber and Faber, 1992 For the biography: reference 1; reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens |
