Britten - The Burning Fiery Furnace - 1968 BBCtv broadcast. With Pears, Drake, Luxon, Tear
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- The 1968 television broadcast of the original English Opera Group production of Britten's second Church Parable "The Burning Fiery Furnace", recorded in Orford Parish Church, where it was first performed. With Peter Pears, Bryan Drake, Benjamin Luxon, Robert Tear, Paschal Allen, Peter Leeming, members of the English Opera Group and the English Chamber Orchestra. Music directed by Benjamin Britten and Viola Tunnard. Production and setting by Colin Graham. Produced for television by John Culshaw.
Britten was a genius. It is a piece of chamber theatre, not typical opera. I love it.
I shall be at Aldeburgh for the Church Parables in June, and will cast a critical eye on Mahogany Opera's production - I did see all the original productions, even though I was a teenager at the time - I specially look forward to seeing James Gilchrist in the Tenor leads - a great English singer IMHO
Thank you Oliver for a brilliant upload. Further to one of the comments uploaded here, I recently saw a performance by Welsh Opera of Berg's Wozzeck relocated to baked bean factory!! Why do modern producers not try to reproduce faithfully the composers intentions? Maxwell Davies insisted he would never write another opera after one of his was similarly mistreated. Ben Britten was the most exact composer and I prefer to trust his judgement over some jumped up modern producer.
I've just found this. and I'm staggered - I had no idea it existed. I heard the radio broadcast, saw the Proms performance, and have had the LP and then the CD since they were released, but to have a video record of that original production, in what must have been one of the earliest colour recordings is fantastic. Many, many thanks for this.
It's wonderful that you are doing this Oliver. I sang in the EOG in 1967 and these films bring back such intense memories!
How amazing to see this after so many years. Like Paull, I also sang with the EOG and I'm in this, Robert Tears Acolyte and one of the boys singing the "entertainment". I remember Paull well - I think we were both fairies in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream. Thank you Oliver!
My mother was in the audience at the first performance of The Burning Fiery Furnace. She has never forgotten it.
How fantastic! I'm seeing both the Southwark ones and the Buxton. I understand one from Orford is being recorded & will be broadcast on 22 November. Would be nice if they released it on CD.
What a gift! To see the integrity, ingenuity and consummate sensitivity of this production is to be set in an oasis in the wilderness that today’s operatic landscape has become: half desert, half tangled garden. It takes confidence and concentration to tell a story like this. Every move, every gesture matters: must carry some weight. The result is transcendent.
Oliver: Thanks so much for this. I so much admired your father's singing, particularly in Britten's operas, such as Billy Budd and this, in which he is superlative as the Abbot/Astrologer. A wonderful piece from the very beginning and that haunting 'Salus aeterna', and perfect for Orford Church where I heard it in the 1980s with David Johnston as Nebuchadnezzar, in his way quite the equal of PP. Of course the BBC documentary is now available on DVD, with John Shirley-Quirk in the cast as Ananias (the role here taken by Ben Luxon), otherwise very similar to here.
Thank you so much Oliver !
Thank you so much for finding and uploading this. Wow, just wow! what a cast! and what a performance!
I thought I knew this piece. But I've just seen parallels with Billy Budd that I had never noticed before.
Thanks Paull - It's heartwarming to get such nice feedback!
Thank you so much for this. I'm seeing Mahogany Opera's staging of The Parables in July & this will really help my homework.
Curlew River was recorded in, I think, 1966, by Netherlands TV, with the original cast - The tapes still exist and I am trying to get a copy. The Prodigal Son was not televised with its original production/cast. Thanks for your kind comment!
I'm still trying to get it, Veronique!! It will be posted as soon as I get a copy.
Oliver, it would be wonderful if you could post Curlew River too ! Thank you for all these uploads.
This is absolutely brilliant! I've been waiting decades to see one of the original productions - modern versions almost all totally ignore the very detailed instructions for performance Britten gave, so it's fascinating to see them carried out here. Were either of the other church parables recorded? I believe Japanese TV broadcast them all in the late 70's.
Thank you for uploading this. I remember seeing this on tv when I was young teenager (mine was in black and white !). I was immediately captivated and I have the music now on cd and download and listen often. I would love to see alive performance. How on earth do I find out when/where there will be one? Anyone out there who can help??
As a kid I played the part of one of the Entertainers (16:50)
Thank you, Mr Drake! In high school I bought the l.p. of this and have loved it my whole life since. Here's an idea: Viewers who love this might also be interested in [You Tube]: J.S. Bach - Saint Matthew Passion BWV 244 - music dir. Paul Goodwin [galicja]
Nebuchadnezzar: tenor Peter Pears
Astrologer: baritone Bryan Drake
Ananias (Shadrack): baritone John Shirley-Quirk
Misael (Meshach): tenor Robert Tear
Azarias (Abednego): baritone Victor Godfrey
Herald and Leader of the Courtiers: baritone Peter Leeming
Dang, I with this would be released on DVD. Does anyone know why this, something of such great historical importance hasn't been released? Other Britten/BBC things are on DVD... Grimes, Wingrave, etc.
+John Randolph The reason that it hasn't been released on DVD is that the BBC cannot locate the artist's original contracts, so they cannot negotiate for commercial release - the same applies to the original TV broadcast of the first of the Church Parables, Curlew River. Sorry!
Wow, that's kind of amazing. I hope that there is someway to eventually rectify that. I know the BBC also broadcast an early performance of the War Requiem from Proms with Britten conducting (the chamber orchestra) and I wish that would be released. I wonder if some similar legal obstacle is preventing that.
subtitles would have been nice, a bit hard to understand otherwise. Certainly an interesting piece although I think his Curlew River is a better work in this genre.
It would be wonderful if you could get that! It is the original, 'pure' version of the 'church parable' idea - an incredibly fruitful new concept of modern music-theatre for which Britten gets far too little credit. I shall look out for it!
The Herald steps forward to announce that the king Nebuchadnezzar has commanded a royal feast to be given in honour of three men from Israel - Ananias, Azarias and Misael - who have been appointed to rule over three provinces in Babylon. The king enters accompanied by the obsequious Astrologer. The three Jews are to be given new names: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. During a divertissement given by three young entertainers the Astrologer notices that the three men are refusing all food. When they decline even to drink the wine offered, the insulted King rises and leaves the feast in confusion. The Herald enters to announce that a golden image of Merodak, the great god of Babylon, is to be set up. Anyone refusing to worship the image shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. The instrumentalists warm up for their processional march while the Jews pray. While the Courtiers pay homage to Merodak, the three men refuse to serve the image of gold. The furious king demands they be thrown into the fire. The furnace is heated seven-fold, but the men emerge unscathed. The astonished king dismisses the Astrologer and the image of Merodak falls. The King, Courtiers and three Jews sing a Benedicite in praise of the one God. The Monks resume their habits and the Abbot draws a moral conclusion. The Monks process away from the acting area, chanting the plainsong with which the work opened.
Not the greatest quality, but an important historic document.
Sad not to see JSQ in the cast!
He's in the BBC documentary of the commercial recording of this work - directed by Tony Palmer and now available on DVD - as Ananias (the role here taken by Ben Luxon).