Britten, (Edward) Benjamin, Baron Britten

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English composer. He often wrote for individual singers; for example, the role in the opera Peter Grimes (1945), based on verses by George Crabbe, was written for his life companion, the tenor Peter Pears. Among his many works are the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946); the chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia (1946); Billy Budd (1951); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare; 1960); and Death in Venice (after Thomas Mann; 1973).

Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, Britten was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk. He studied piano with Harold Samuel and composition with Frank Bridge. Later, with a scholarship, he studied under Arthur Benjamin and John Ireland at the Royal College of Music, London. He worked in the USA in 1939–42, then returned to England and devoted himself to composing at his home in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where he and Pears established an annual music festival in 1948. His oratorio War Requiem (1961) combines the liturgical text with poems by Wilfred Owen, and was written for the rededication of Coventry Cathedral in 1962.

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