Ian Bostridge tenor
Willard White baritone
Peter Brathwaite bass-baritone

Chorus of Britten Pears Young Artists

Claire van Kampen director
Audrey Hyland music director

A co-production with Ad Lib Productions
Dominic Best film director

The first of Britten's three “Parables for Church Performance”, the work is based on the Japanese Noh play Sumidagawa, which Britten saw during a visit to Japan in early 1956 and which is presented in the Festival on 18 June.

Britten and librettist William Plomer adapted the story from the 15th-century play, studying its history and the techniques of Noh performance, and working it into a new context of medieval religious drama. On its first performance The Times described the work as “possibly the start of a new, perhaps the most important, stage of Britten’s creative life”.

At the centre of the story, which is brought to life by director Claire van Kampen, is a woman in search of her lost child – the Madwoman, a role for which Ian Bostridge is acclaimed.