Abstract

Allen Frantzen's essay examines Benjamin Britten's “Billy Budd” (1951) in relation to the Festival of Britain, treating the opera as an example of a more conservative “mid-century modernism.” Frantzen analyzes in depth the changes Britten's librettists, E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, made to the novella by Melville, in order to conclude that Britten's opera offers an art that seeks to establish itself within English society and culture, but that nevertheless makes clear, both in its music and text, that change is on its way.

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