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
The Black Spider (opera) Transylvanian, in others more sinister, while the “spider” music enables the orchestra share the limelight with the singers. Judith Weir attended the premiere on February 8, 2009. The "Hamburg" Version has been subsequently performed in Bonn (2010), Regensburg (2011) and Dortmund (2014). The Black Spider (opera) The Black Spider is an opera in three acts by Judith Weir with a libretto by the composer. The work is loosely based on the 1842 novella "Die schwarze Spinne" by Jeremias Gotthelf. Norman Platt, director of Kent Opera, described how his finance director Robin Jessel lent him a recording of "King Harald's Saga"