Benjamin Britten on Camera

Gorgeous tunes and orchestral thrills for the young and young at heart: with a twinkle in her eye, the warm, whimsical and occasionally wicked Miriam Margolyes leads us through an orchestral storytelling extravaganza. Matching instruments to their animal counterparts in Prokofiev's timeless classic, Peter and the Wolf exploring witty vignettes and a dazzling fugue in Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and magical tales of love and fantasy in Borodin's Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor. Margolyes is joined by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with Principal Conductor Nicholas Carter in a captivating program filmed live in concert at the 2017 Adelaide Festival - a sellout performance season that was a crowd-pleaser for young and old.

A feat that fully matches its title, an alphabetical trawl through both the history of British music and Russell's own likes and dislikes, the latter summed up by a scene in which he takes a phone call and listens for a bit before concluding that 'it's either an obscene call or the beginning of Michael Tippett's Fourth Symphony.' Gleefully exploiting an already contrived format, Russell uses alphabetical coincidence as an excuse to throw wildly disparate material together: Elgar is fused with Elton John, Holst with Heavy Metal and Punk with Purcell.

Adaptation of John Gay's 18th century opera, featuring Laurence Olivier as MacHeath and Hugh Griffith as the Beggar.

A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.

Liubov Nosova won second prize at the 2024 edition of La Maestra. Here's a look back at her journey through this prestigious competition for female conductors.

A spellbinding film of Benjamin Britten's hauntingly beautiful chamber opera, Curlew River, made to celebrates its 60th anniversary. The standout cast is led by internationally acclaimed tenor Ian Bostridge, as the Madwoman, in a performance lauded as 'heart-wrenchingly poignant', alongside the towering presence of Sir Willard White as the Abbott. Set in the ancient Fenlands of East Anglia, the parable's deeply evocative story tells of a broken woman driven to despair as she searches for her missing child along the banks of the Curlew River. This groundbreaking film interweaves live performance with filming in the Fenlands, framing the action along the hidden paths, on the waterways and under the huge skies of Suffolk's timeless landscape.

Bar Avni is the third major winner of the La Maestra conducting competition. Relive the highlights that convinced the jury in the 2024 edition.

A film about the life of A Passage to India author E M Forster, following his huge growth as a writer and the twists and turns of his personal life.

A version of Benjamin Britten's opera based on the Melville story. Will the virtuous young sailor Billy Budd be hanged for murder?

The Glyndebourne Opera's 1981 production of the Benjamin Britten opera, based on Shakespeare's play.

The premiere of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd in Madrid is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Teatro Real's bicentennial celebrations. Its magnificent libretto, based on the novel of the same name by Herman Melville, tells the story of the sailor Billy Budd: a handsome, loyal, generous, strong, naive, and kind young man whose beauty and personality drive the ship's master-at-arms mad. Unable to control the situation, the master crucifies the naive young man without mercy. This new production by the Teatro Real is being presented for the first time in Madrid, in co-production with the Opéra national de Paris, under the direction of Deborah Warner, one of the great names in stage direction today.

The story of a little boy named Sam, who is exploited by two evil chimney sweeps to clean narrow chimneys.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape.

British educational documentary film about the principal instruments in the modern symphony orchestra, illustrated through Benjamin Britten's composition, "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", for which it was commissioned.

A portrait of one of England's greatest composers. Winner of the Prix Italia.

When a fairy king quarrels with his queen over a young changeling, he orders his servant, a mischievous sprite, to play a prank on her with hilarious consequences. Adapting Shakespeare’s classic comedy of confused identities, bewildered lovers and a startling metamorphosis, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream comprises the composer’s perhaps most atmospheric score. An entrancing orchestration of instrumental colours breathes life into a magic wood setting the scene for a mysterious dream world.

Tony Palmer's documentary about the staging of Britten's choral work.

John Dexter’s brilliant production of Britten’s searing opera stars Dwayne Croft in the title role of the handsome young sailor whose kindness and innocence cause his downfall. The great James Morris is Claggart, master-at-arms on the 18th-century warship Indomitable, who falsely accuses Billy of inciting a mutiny. Philip Langridge sings Captain Vere, the honest commander who knows that Billy is innocent but finds himself unable to save him. Steuart Bedford, Britten’s close collaborator during the last years of the composer’s life, is on the podium.

Children and childhood fascinated Benjamin Britten throughout his life and inspired some of his greatest music. John Bridcut's compelling film sheds light on the composer's own inner child throiugh interviews with several of Britten's former companions and muses.

An opera by Benjamin Britten, on a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, adapted from the story by Herman Melville. Billy Budd is a young sailor aboard a British man-o'-war, persecuted by his master-at-arms, Claggart. Accused of mutiny, Budd accidently strikes Claggart dead, leaving Captain Vere with no choice but to hang him.

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

An English widow goes to Italy, falls in love with a dentist's son and marries him, against her straitlaced family's wishes.

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

During World War I, British soldier Owen is mortified by the examples of cruelty that surround him in the trenches. He combats these terrifying images by maintaining hope in his love for an army nurse. But he also begins to accept his fate as another battlefield sacrifice.

A man suddenly finds himself removed from his virtual reality world when a plug falls out of a socket. When he and another person notice another socket, they start a race to reach it first.

A seaside resort in 1938. For Hilda, it seems as if romance almost died when she married school teacher Ernest. Only the movies can keep this spark alive. As she follows her pompous husband up the cliff walk to visit the obelisk, she wonders how he will react to the two sailors who want to join them.The boisterous Tiny is rather coarse, but his friend Stan has lovely manners and such very blue eyes....

This is a live performance of BENJAMIN BRITTEN's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" shot at Teatro del Liceu in April of 2005 featuring singers DAVID DANIELS, OFELIA SALA, GORDON GIETZ & WILLIAM DAZELEY. HARRY BICKET conducts Orquestra Simfonica del Gran Teatro del Liceu. The production received such great reviews & audience reaction that performances continued in various opera houses throughout Europe that same year. The stage direction by ROBERT CARSEN also received rave reviews and is what is seen here in this program.

From the case files of Scotland Yard, detectives investigate the mysterious death of Peter Adams, artist and possible forger.

Benjamin Britten, Nocturne for Tenor, Chamber Opera Orchestra

A biographical documentary that profiles composer-pianist Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). Still widely regarded as one of the most astonishing musical talents in British history, Britten drew many a comparison to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; he enjoyed his most prolific relationship, on both professional/creative and personal/romantic levels, with vocalist Peter Pears, for whom Britten created many of the central roles in his operas. Griffiths' film explores three of Britten's foremost works, +Peter Grimes, +Death in Venice, and +War Requiem, while touching on the professional and personal nuances of the men's relationship.