Benjamin Britten of the "War Requiem", "Peter Grimes" and other works in four continents. In the US the centennial events were described as "coast to coast," with a Britten festival at Carnegie Hall, and performances at the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and Los Angeles Opera. Notes References Sources Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera "Peter
Benjamin Britten (a 'second founder') of opera. The same can already be said today, as far as the modern British – perhaps not only British – field goes, of Britten". In addition to his own original operas, Britten, together with Imogen Holst, extensively revised Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" (1951) and "The Fairy-Queen" (1967). These "realisations" brought Purcell, who was then neglected, to a wider public, but have themselves been neglected since the dominance of the trend to authentic performance practice. His 1948 revision of "The Beggar's Opera" amounts to a wholesale recomposition, retaining the original melodies but giving them new, highly sophisticated