Customer Reviews

Benjamin Britten; a Biography

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This is a good but not outstanding biography of the great Benjamin Britten. Carpenter was well equipped to tackle Britten's life. An experienced biographer, some of his prior work, like his very good biography of Auden, covers the same period and some of the same aspects of British artistic life as this book. Carpenter had the cooperation of the Britten estate and a wide variety of Britten's friends and associates. It is based on a wide variety of documentary material and interviews. This book is thorough, well written, and organized well. As a narrative of Britten's personal and professional lives, it is very strong and unlikely to be surpassed. The book shows very well Britten's remarkable creativity. A disciplined worker, Britten produced a large volume of outstanding music while also performing and working as a major force in the development of British musical life. Carpenter also shows, though implicitly, that Britten was a charismatic figure. He had a remarkable ability to attract the services of other talented individuals, allowing him to realize very ambitious projects such as his operas and the development of the Aldeburgh festival. Carpenter is fair in this treatment of Britten, showing both the attractive and unfortunate aspects of his personality, such as his tendency to callously discard co-workers when he felt he could work more productively with others.
Carpenter is less good in dealing with Britten's music. This is true both for Britten's output in general and specific works. Nowhere in this book do we get any sense of why Britten chose to focus on vocal music. Britten did produce important orchestral and chamber work, but his most important output was opera, less conventional music theater like his church parables, choral music, and songs. Britten's ability to set text to music was truly remarkable. Did Britten see this as his great strength as a composer or were there other reasons for the focus of his career? Carpenter tends also to interpret individual works, particularly the operas, in light of very specific aspects of Britten's life, especially his sexuality. In many cases, such as the operas Peter Grimes and Death in Venice, this makes good sense. With these interpretations, Carpenter seems also to be following the lead of some other scholars who have studied Britten. This approach, however, seems not so much wrong as excessively reductive. For example, Carpenter's discussion of Britten's underappreciated opera Gloriana, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II, focuses on the character of the Earl of Essex, who Carpenter sees as embodying some of Britten's preoccupations about his life as public artist. The main figure of the opera, however, is Elizabeth I, and an important theme of the work is the collision of private needs and public responsibilities in the exercise of power. Surely, this was not lost on the premiere audience, which included the young Elizabeth II, who later became something of a patron of Britten. Carpenter gives no real sense of the position that Britten occupies in the history of 20th century music, probably because he doesn't have the musicological knowledge necessary to establish this kind of context. Less understandably, Carpenter misses an opportunity to discuss Britten's important role in the professionalization and expansion of post-war British musical and artistic life. Carpenter's own narrative shows the somewhat amateurish quality of pre-war British musical life and its remarkable evolution in the post-war period, a process in which Britten was a important creative figure.
This book is a useful source for those interested in Britten specifically, 20th century music, opera, and the history of British intellectual life. There is still an opportunity to write a first rate biography of Britten.

Carpenter, through numerous quotes from colleagues, friends and written correspondence from the composer himself provides a rare and intimate view into Britten's creative mind and personality. The only tedious aspect of this in-depth biography is in Carpenter's descriptions of Britten's pieces. Carpenter tries to speculate about how much of Britten's real life went into his music. The result comes off as searching for Britten's homosexuality and lost innocense in tones. It is however an absorbing and educating read

I enjoyed this book tremendously. When I first heard there were naysayers about it I rushed to the web to see if there were glaring inaccuracies, but that does not seem to be the case. Corn Soup (another reviewer here) is simply wrong in saying that the book has "nary a word" on Britten's poorly paid staff, fawning on royalty, and particularly his ill-treatment of people once he was done with them. Even his ambiguous relationships with boys is covered in the book, and the author does not leave us without his opinion -- several times he puts forth the idea that Britten didn't give in to desires to have sex with them, although, quite appropriately, he does not present this as fact. Which it isn't, unless someone knows of new evidence? If so, I doubt Carpenter had that evidence at hand. As to his musical analysis, certainly there could be more and it could be more probing; Carpenter put in enough to suit non-musicologists and to go along with the themes of his book. Personally, I don't hold that against him. A perfect book? Doubt it. Nonetheless, one of the most thorough and most satisfying biographies I've read.

Carpenter has given us a top rate book of Britten the man. He unfortunately sheds no light on Britten's actual music. By all means, read the book, but ignore his ... "analyses," and take his attempts psychology with a grain of salt.

This book is terribly marred by an unnecessary reliance on a limited number of sources. Many defenses of Britten's personality and reputation simply stink of excuse making and cover-up. Read the book, and you will notice this pattern, which doesn't much credit the late Humphrey Carpenter.

There is also no attempt by Carpenter to pursue the obvious contradictions of behavior and statement, in other words pure hypocrisy, that flow throughout the narrative. Britten's fawning behavior towards the British Royal family and other noble families, his self-created adulation machines for himself and in the media for his music, his poorly remunerated musical and household help, his love for fast expensive cars and large private houses, his horrendous and cowardly treatment of people he had no further use for, are all glossed over with nary a comment.

The redeeming factor in this book, though, are hints that Carpenter leaves in the book that seem to point to something more than the official story. There are a few hints, mentioned in passing and, again, not commented on at length or at all by the author, that point to something a little more ominous. Most of this involves Britten's attitude towards his boys. My conclusion from these stories was that Britten was a much worse predator and a much worse person than the apologia called "Britten's Children" which was published in 2006 by Faber and Faber, the publishing firm that Britten himself helped create, presents.

As other comments have suggested, the musical analysis is not helpful, and takes up more space than it merits.

Britten wrote some interesting music, though he is no where near as influential and as important as some of the sycophants quoted in the book would have you believe, and he was a bizarre and spiteful person. The fact that you can divine that from this cautious biography though, is valuable enough to merit 3 stars.