Trivia / Benjamin Britten

• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Britten's 1941 version of ballet Les Sylphides, which kept Fryderyk Chopin's music but replaced Alexander Glazunov's orchestration with Britten's, was used for American productions until the 1970s, but then believed lost for decades. The score was eventually rediscovered in 2013.
• Production Posse: Britten's partner, tenor Peter Pears, played major roles in many of his operas. Pears was the titular Grimes in 1945's Peter Grimes, the male chorus in 1946's The Rape of Lucretia, the title role in 1947's Albert Herring, Macheath in the 1948 adaptation of The Beggar's Opera, Captain Vere in 1951's Billy Budd, the Earl of Essex in 1953's Gloriana, the Prologue and Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream, General Sir Philip Wingrave and the narrator in Owen Wingrave, and Gustav von Aschenbach in Death in Venice. Pears also co-wrote the libretto to A Midsummer Night's Dream with Britten.

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