Britten - Essays, Letters and Opera Guides

It was hearing an early performance of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes that turned the young emigre writer and musician Hans Keller from psychology to music. Thereafter he became the composer's most fervent advocate, devoting to him a whole issue of Music Survey (the journal he edited with Donald Mitchell) and the first comprehensive book on his music (again edited with Mitchell). This volume is a selection of the best of his writings, dealing with Peter Grimesthrough to Death in Venice and the Third String Quartet. It also includes an illustrated study by A. M. Garnham of the extensive correspondence between Britten and Keller (most of it hitherto unknown), a reprint of the handbooks on The Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring (long out-of-print), and items from the Hans Keller Archive in the University of Cambridge. The book is illustrated with drawings from life by Milein Cosman.