A TV world premiere and live radio concerts: Britten programming on the BBC this summer
BBC Four will broadcast the world television premiere of Aldeburgh Music’s ‘Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach’ Sunday 24 May, BBC Four, 7pm - an acclaimed open-air opera performance which was commissioned for Benjamin Britten’s 2013 centenary.
Published: 15 May 2015
Britten would, I am sure, have been delighted to see this beautiful film of his masterpiece, Peter Grimes, with the wind and the waves adding a whole new naturalistic dimension to the story, opera sung live in the open air!
- BBC Four world television premiere of Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach
- Steuart Bedford conducted Peter Grimes from a pit dug-out on the beach
- The film was one of the first UK film productions produced in a ‘low carbon way’
- Film directed for the screen by Margaret Williams, directed for the stage by Tim Albery, featuring Alan Oke as Peter Grimes, Giselle Allen as Ellen Orford and the Britten-Pears Orchestra
- BBC Four to broadcast ‘Britten On Camera’ with additional films also online
- BBC Radio 3 to broadcast concerts from Britten’s Aldeburgh Festival
BBC Four will broadcast the world television premiere of Aldeburgh Music’s ‘Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach’ Sunday 24 May, BBC Four, 7pm - an acclaimed open-air opera performance which was commissioned for Benjamin Britten’s 2013 centenary.
The opera featured a recorded track made by the Britten-Pears Orchestra, with Steuart Bedford conducting the live singing and action from a pit dug out of the pebbles in front of the stage on Aldeburgh beach. BBC Four will bring the filmed event to the television public for the first time since the original performances which were watched by the audience from the beach and sold-out each night.
The film of the opera not only captured the special event but broke new film-making boundaries as it used ‘carbon footprinting’ to track its production, becoming one of the first feature films in the UK produced to new low carbon standards. The performance took place on a 50-metre-long ‘storm destroyed’ promenade set, designed by Leslie Travers as a metaphor for the turmoil in Peter Grimes’s mind and was filmed in a multi-camera shoot, with only one camera rehearsal before the final captured piece. Directed for the screen by Margaret Williams, the film was acquired by BBC Four as one of a number of Britten-related programmes this summer and as part of an ongoing partnership between the BBC and Aldeburgh Music. The film is introduced for television by Jonathan Reekie, who commissioned the production for the Aldeburgh Festival in his final year as Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music.
In addition to Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach, BBC Four will also give audiences another chance to see Britten On Camera on Sunday 31 May, 7pm, which includes extraordinary footage from the BBC archive of Britten at work. Britten was one of the great classical composers of the broadcasting age and his music was regularly performed on radio and television throughout his working life. Benjamin Britten On Camera, narrated by James Naughtie, presents some of the highlights of Britten’s broadcast legacy. Contributors include David Attenborough, Michael Crawford, Humphrey Burton and Nicholas Kenyon among others.
Jan Younghusband, BBC Head of Music Television Commissioning, comments: “Benjamin Britten worked regularly with the BBC, he loved the idea of TV and specially created pieces for TV and film. He would, I am sure, have been delighted to see this beautiful film of his masterpiece, Peter Grimes, with the wind and the waves adding a whole new naturalistic dimension to the story, opera sung live in the open air! We are delighted to be able to bring this to the BBC Four audience, together with another chance to see Britten on Camera.”
Roger Wright, Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music, comments: “I am delighted that BBC Four will broadcast Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach and so bring this award-winning production by the Aldeburgh Festival to a wider audience in the opera’s 70th anniversary year.”
To accompany Britten on Film, there will also be three online films: Steuart Bedford Remembers Owen Wingrave; Michael Crawford And Benjamin Britten; and Nigel Douglas On Owen Wingrave. All films are available via the BBC programme page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03j42wt
BBC Radio 3 will continue their long association with Aldeburgh Music, through a range of live concerts starting on 5th June with a live lunchtime concert for the inaugural BBC Music Day featuring young musicians. There will also be live concerts from Aldeburgh Festival featuring pianist Louis Lortie, Ensemble Organum, London Sinfonietta, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Doric Quartet and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. See concert listings below:
05-Jun-15 BBC Music Day concert Lunchtime Concert
14-Jun-15 Mahler Chamber Orchestra Live in Concert
16-Jun-15 Mahler Chamber Orchestra Soloists Lunchtime Concert
22-Jun-15 Louis Lortie Lunchtime Concert
23-Jun-15 Ensemble Organum Early Music Show
24-Jun-15 BBC SO Live in Concert
25-Jun-15 London Sinfonietta Live in Concert
26-Jun-15 Doric Quartet Lunchtime Concert
Emma Bloxham, BBC Radio 3 Live Concerts Editor, comments: “The Aldeburgh Festival is one of the real high points in the musical calendar and I’m delighted that Radio 3 is able to bring so many of its riches to our over 2 million listeners.”
Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh Beach
The production was set in 1945, the year it was first performed at Sadler’s Wells, in the aftermath of the Second World-War.
The Britten-Pears Orchestra, conducted by Steuart Bedford, were recorded live at the concert performances in Snape Maltings Concert Hall in early June, prior to the performances on the beach. Mike Hatch, an experienced opera recording engineer, supervised the sound and provided edited orchestra tracks for playback on the beach. In addition to conducting the singers and chorus, Steuart had to ‘conduct’, in real time, the many different orchestra playback files provided by Mike. Steuart conducted from a pit – dug into the pebbles – in front of the stage.
Director Margaret Williams wrote her camera script based on rehearsals, planning the shoot as a multi-camera recording; it was filmed over three performances. It was important to Margaret Williams, and for the film, to see the sea behind the set as much as possible, so three cameras were high on scaffolding rigs, while Senior Cameraman James Day stood behind the audience on the beach with his camera on a tripod. The fifth camera was in a pit, dug out next to the conducting hut. There were also two small cameras placed in different parts of the set for each performance. The performances were filmed using five cameras and shot progressive at a ratio of 2.38:1.
Margaret asked John Walker, a cameraman who lives locally to Aldeburgh, to shoot material to accompany the Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. From January until May 2013, John set up his camera to capture time-lapse images of amazingly vivid, beautiful skies, seascapes, changing weather states and the landscape of Britten’s 'composing walks', in the marshes around Snape and along the Suffolk coast. The exceptional crew included producers Anne Beresford, Debbie Gray and Executive Producer Jonathan Reekie for Aldeburgh Music, with generous support from Aldeburgh Music and the Britten-Pears Foundation, and the people of Aldeburgh.
Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach was acquired by Carol Sennett on behalf of Head of BBC Music Television Commissioning, Jan Younghusband, for Controller of BBC Two and Four, Kim Shillinglaw.
BBC Radio 3 will broadcast live from Snape Maltings Concert Hall as part of BBC Music Day on 5 June 2015.
The Aldeburgh Festival 2015 starts on 12 June.
AH