Benjamin Britten Lord Harewood called it "the first genuinely successful British opera, Gilbert and Sullivan apart, since Purcell." Dismayed by the in-fighting among the company, Cross, Britten and Pears severed their ties with Sadler's Wells in December 1945, going on to found what was to become the English Opera Group. A month after the opening of "Peter Grimes", Britten and Yehudi Menuhin went to Germany to give recitals to concentration camp survivors. What they saw, at Belsen most of all, so shocked Britten that he refused to talk about it until towards the end of his life, when he told Pears that
Victorian Opera (Melbourne) an operatic ghost story by Benjamin Britten. The Baroque opera "Julius Caesar" by Handel, presented at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, 20–30 July, conducted by Richard Gill and directed by former Australian Ballet principal Stephen Heathcote. Two world premieres by the Victorian Youth Opera. Firstly, "The Parrot Factory" a newly commissioned work by Frederick and Mary Davidson, performed at the CUB Malthouse Merlyn Theatre 1–5 October. Secondly, "The Cockatoos" by Sarah de Jong and Sarah Carradine presented at the New Ballroom, Trades Hall, 10–12 December. The 2012 season was Richard Gill's final season as Artistic Director, and concluded