Event Description
Britten’s Endgame – a film by John Bridcut
Writer and film-maker John Bridcut presents a documentary released in 2013 to mark the centenary of the birth of composer Benjamin Britten which explores Britten’s creativity in the face of death. Those closest to him watched anxiously as he raced to complete his final opera Death in Venice, tackling an edgy subject which resonated with his own life. Britten’s eventual heart operation after years of stress and illness left him incapacitated and prematurely old and frail, yet somehow he rediscovered his creative urge to compose two late masterpieces.
Nine years after Bridcut made his award-winning Britten’s Children, this is a rich and poignant film about the final years of a surprisingly insecure composer and the impact of what Britten’s partner Peter Pears called ‘an evil opera’.
The film features specially filmed performances of Britten’s music by Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), John Graham-Hall and Allan Clayton (tenors), Xavier Phillips (cello), the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Paul Kildea, Schola Cantorum of Oxford conducted by James Burton, and the Fitzwilliam String Quartet.
Running time: 1hr 59mins
Release date: 2013
Tickets
£8.50/£9.50 – available to book via the Malvern Theatres website
