Benjamin Britten first recording of the "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings", which has frequently been reissued, most recently on CD. Britten's first operatic recording was "The Turn of the Screw", made in January 1955 with the original English Opera Group forces. In 1957 he conducted "The Prince of the Pagodas" in an early stereo recording, supervised by Culshaw. Decca's first major commercial success with Britten came the following year, with "Peter Grimes", which has, at 2013, never been out of the catalogues since its first release. From 1958 Britten conducted Decca recordings of many of his operas and vocal and orchestral
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera) every problem posed by Shakespeare has been solved, but Mr. Britten has accomplished so much that one may safely predict a wide vogue for his latest and happiest opera. A dissenting voice was Britten's estranged collaborator W. H. Auden. In a letter to Stephen Spender after seeing the 1961 London production, Auden dismissed it as "Dreadful! Pure Kensington". The opera has entered the general operatic repertory, and has become one of the most frequently performed operas written since the second world war. "Dream" was performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1961, produced by John Gielgud and conducted