北京国际音乐节纪念本杰明•布里顿百周年诞辰演出

布里顿惊世杰作: 北京国际音乐节纪念本杰明•布里顿百周年诞辰系列演出

为纪念本杰明•布里顿百周年诞辰，北京国际音乐节向中国观众推出这位英国二十世纪作曲家的两部功成名就的大型作品的首演。由著名指挥家夏尔•迪图瓦执棒伦敦之声合唱团、上海交响乐团及上海之春儿童合唱团演绎布里顿的《战争安魂曲》（10 月5 日）。在邓肯•沃德率领下的杭州爱乐乐团与伦敦之声合唱团，首次演绎布里顿以一个被弃乡村渔民悲惨故事为题材的成名之作—歌剧《彼得•格赖姆斯》（交响音乐会版，10 月8 日）。

《战争安魂曲》

时间：2013年10月5日星期六19:30

地点：保利剧院

票价：RMB VIP / 180 / 120 / 80

这部惊世杰作于1962年的首演，也是考文垂大教堂在第二次世界大战期间被德国炮火摧毁后的重建落成的典礼日。在北京国际音乐节上，《战争安魂曲》将在中国首演。

布里顿的《战争安魂曲》可谓二十世纪音乐史上的里程碑，若与莫扎特、勃拉姆斯、威尔第和福莱的安魂曲相提并论也毫不逊色。《战争安魂曲》受益于威尔第《安魂曲》戏剧效果的影响，而与勃拉姆斯将传统祈祷书和本国方言并置的做法不同。《战争安魂曲》的唱词摘自在第一次世界大战中丧生的士兵威尔弗雷德•欧文的诗歌，充分体现了布里顿的和平主义及反战思想。当年世界首演的三位独唱演员也分别来自俄罗斯、英国和德国，突显了全世界对和平的渴望。 2013年的中国首演，同样来自俄罗斯、英国和德国籍的独唱演员阵容更将给人留下深刻的印象。天才布里顿的神来之笔，在其作品中加入了童声合唱—儿童纯朴的声音既是对无辜生命逝去的叹息，也能激起人们对未来的憧憬。本场音乐会是一个绝对不容错过的音乐历程。

歌剧：《彼得•格赖姆斯》

时间：2013年10月8日星期二19:30

地点：保利剧院

票价：RMB VIP / 180 / 120 / 80

被誉为两个多世纪以来最重要的英国歌剧《彼得•格赖姆斯》，创作于第二次世界大战期间。当年，布里顿暂居于加利福尼亚州，偶然读到英国小说家E.M.福斯特撰写一篇关于18世纪诗人乔治•克拉布的诗词文章。克拉布笔下那位渔夫的悲惨人生深深吸引了作曲家，令他感触地共鸣：“个体与群体的斗争—这是一个非常接近我内心的主题。”

歌剧于1945年在萨德勒威尔斯剧院的首演令布里顿声名鹊起，成为了英国当时最伟大的青年作曲家。翌年，伦纳德•伯恩斯坦在坦格尔伍德指挥该作品，演出大获成功，将布里顿置于世人面前，其国际天才的形象由此确立。《彼得•格赖姆斯》的管弦乐部分，尤其是穿插在各幕之间描绘大海不同情境的著名间奏曲，不仅在歌剧院甚至在音乐厅演出也同样受到观众的青睐。

“家是什么？宁静如深海。我的家在哪儿？在平静水面的深处。海水会吸干我的忧伤，潮汐终将涌来。” —取自蒙泰古•斯拉特所作的《彼得•格赖姆斯》脚本（第四幕）

“布里顿创作的《彼得•格赖姆斯》简直就是国宝，是最具标志性的英国歌剧。” —《卫报》

Best of Britten

The 16th Beijing Music Festival celebrates Benjamin Britten’s centenary by introducing two of the composer’s most successful large-scale works to Chinese audiences. Charles Dutoit conducts the London Voices, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Spring Children’s Choir in the China premiere of Britten’s War Requiem, Three nights later (Oct. 8), London Voices returns with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Duncan Ward in the China premiere of Peter Grimes, the tragic tale of an outcast village fisherman and the first of Britten’s operas to become both a critical and popular success.

A Tribute to Benjamin Britten - War Requiem, Op. 66 (China Premiere)

Time: 19:30, Saturday 5 October 2013

Venue: Poly Theater

Tickets: RMB VIP / 180 / 120 / 80

For the centenary year of Benjamin Britten, the Beijing Music Festival presents the China premiere of War Requiem, his landmark work which premiered in 1962 for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, newly rebuilt after being destroyed by German bombs during the Second World War. A musical milestone of the 20th century and a worthy addition to the canon of Requiems (alongside those of Mozart, Brahms,Verdi and Fauré), Britten’s War Requiem is indebted to the dramatic arc of Verdi’s Requiem yet similar to Brahmsin juxtaposing traditional liturgy with vernacular texts. In Britten’s case, the poetry was written by Wilfred Owen, a soldier killed in combat during the First World War, a choice fully reflecting Britten’s own pacifist, anti-war sentiments. The three soloists in the world premiere were from Russia, Britain and Germany,emphasizing the universality of peace. For the work’s 2013 China premiere, soloists from these countries make an equally impressive lineup. One of Britten’s most inspiring strokes of genius was adding a children’s chorus—treble voices both to accentuate the innocence of lives lost and to offer hope for the future. This is an event not to be missed.

A Tribute to Benjamin Britten - Peter Grimes, Op. 33, Concert Version (China Premiere)

Time: 19:30, Tuesday 8 October 2013

Venue: Poly Theater

Tickets: RMB VIP / 180 / 120 / 80

Hailed by many as the most significant British opera in more than two centuries, Peter Grimes was conceived during the Second World War while the composer was living in California, when he came across an article by E. M. Forster on the 18thcentury poet George Crabbe. A tragic story about a sadistic fisherman named Peter Grimes became to Britten an allegory of “a subject very close to my heart—the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual.”

The opera’s premiere in 1945 in at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre marked Britten’s reputation as England’s greatest young composer. Its subsequent success the following year at Tanglewood under the baton of Leonard Bernstein thrust Britten into the limelight as a major international talent. Orchestral music from Peter Grimes—especially the Interludes, depicting different moods of the sea—has earned many fans not only in the opera house but also the concert hall.

（来源：英国使馆文化教育处，编辑 Helen）