Benjamin Britten not his own in which Britten was a somewhat dazzled accomplice". The American public liked it, but the critics did not, and it fell into neglect until interest revived near the end of the composer's life. Britten's subsequent operas range from large-scale works written for full-strength opera companies, to chamber operas for performance by small touring opera ensembles or in churches and schools. In the large-scale category are "Peter Grimes" (1945), "Billy Budd" (1951), "Gloriana" (1953), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1960) and "Death in Venice" (1973). Of the remaining operas, "The Rape of Lucretia" (1946), "Albert Herring" (1947), "The Little
Salvator Rosa (opera) He and his librettist, Ghislanzoni, had originally wanted to call the opera "Masaniello", after Eugène de Mirecourt's novel on which it is based. However, Auber's 1828, "La muette de portici" set in the same historical period, was already known in Italy by that name. Instead, Ghislanzoni made Salvator Rosa (a secondary character in de Mirecourt's novel) the chief protagonist. The central love affair between Isabella and Masaniello in the novel became one between Salvator Rosa and Isabella in the opera. Like many fictional works based on the life of Salvator Rosa, de Mirecourt's novel derived from an 1824 biography of