Sexuality in Four Operas by Benjamin Britten

Abstract

Benjamin Britten is a famous genius composer in England, who left several operas with distinctive personal characteristics in his life. In these operas, there is also a lot of detail about his characters in the sexual relationship as an expression of the stance to argue against the stereotypes of the gender relationship in the art. Many of Britten’s operas deal with the relationship of males and males in love. And some even have specific homosexual backgrounds. As an outstanding talented composer, opera seems to be the form to explore Britten’s clearest and strongest sexual desire, and even opera becomes the outlet of his impulse sexual desire [1]. His partnership with Peter Peirce, who was also a major actor in many of his operas, was an important drive for spirits to write his opera. Because they are in a love relationship although they are not open news to the public, their stories are redesigned to be the art performance in the opera. The relationship between Billy Budd and the captain, who are the main characters in the opera Billy Budd, is believed to be related to Britten’s own love experience. In some of his operas, including Billy Budd, and Death in Venice, same-sex relationships and sexual orientation are explored topics in these operas. These works have been interpreted as Britten’s attempt to express his values and opinions on sexual relationships and love in music based on his identity, his experience, and society’s attitude towards homosexuals. This paper intends to analyze Benjamin Britten’s discussion of sexuality from four operas, Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd and Death in Venice.