Benjamin Britten the apex of his reputation: it was almost universally hailed as a masterpiece." Shostakovich told Rostropovich that he believed it to be "the greatest work of the twentieth century". In 1967 the BBC commissioned Britten to write an opera specially for television. "Owen Wingrave" was based, like "The Turn of the Screw", on a ghost story by Henry James. By the 1960s Britten found composition much slower than in his prolific youth; he told the 28-year-old composer Nicholas Maw, "Get as much done now as you can, because it gets much, much more difficult as you grow older." He did
William Archibald (playwright) the choreographer Charles Weidman: a verse accompaniment for "On My Mother's Side". He also wrote the text for José Limón's "War Lyrics". In 1945, Archibald wrote the book and lyrics for "Carib Song", which was staged at the Adelphi Theatre with choreography by Katherine Dunham and a score by Baldwin Bergersen. Archibald then went on to write another musical, three plays and the libretto for a ballet opera: "Bay Harbour". His first play, "The Innocents", based on the Henry James novella "The Turn of the Screw", opened on Broadway in 1950. With Truman Capote he wrote the screenplay for the