- Peter Pears
Infobox actor
name = Peter Pears
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caption =
birthdate = birth date|1910|7|22|df=y
birthname =
birthplace =Farnham ,Hampshire ,England
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deathdate = Death date and age|1986|3|4|1910|7|22|df=yes
deathplace =Aldeburgh ,Suffolk ,England ,England
occupation =tenor Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears (pronounced /piːrz/ "PEERS"; ["Mountain Music," "Time Magazine,"
19 August 1946 ]Farnham ,22 June 1910 –Aldeburgh ,3 April 1986 ) was an Englishtenor and life-long partner of thecomposer Benjamin Britten .He was educated at
Lancing College and went on to study music atKeble College, Oxford , serving as organist at Hertford College, but left without taking his degree. He later studied voice for two terms at theRoyal College of Music .He met Britten in 1936, when he was a member of the
BBC Singers .citation |title=Benjamin Britten: A Guide to Research |first=Peter John |last=Hodgson |year=1996 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0815317956 |page=16] Pears and Britten gave their first recital together in 1937 atBalliol College ,Oxford University . They left for America together as conscientious objectors when WWII became inevitable. Upon their return, they performed Britten's "Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo" together atWigmore Hall , and then recorded them forEMI , their first recording together.Many of Britten's works contain a main tenor role written specifically for Pears. These include the "Nocturne", the "
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings ", the Canticles, the operas "Peter Grimes " and "Albert Herring " (title roles), "The Beggar's Opera " (Macheath), "Owen Wingrave " (Sir Philip Wingrave), "Billy Budd" (Captain Vere), "The Turn of the Screw" (Quint), "Death in Venice" (Aschenbach) and the three Church Parables.Pears was co-librettist for "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and created one of his few comic roles in it: As Flute the Bellowsmender he performed a drag parody of
Joan Sutherland in the mad scene ofLucia di Lammermoor .His voice was controversial, the vocal quality being unusual, described as "dry" and "white". It was cruelly said that he had one good note, E-natural a third above middle C, which is why the crucial aria of "
Peter Grimes ", "Now the Great Bear and Pleiades", is mainly written on that note. Its quality did not record well, but there is no doubt that he had unusually good articulation and vocal agility, of which Britten also took advantage.He made his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in October 1974 as Aschenbach in "Death in Venice". He sang regularly at theRoyal Opera House and other major opera houses in Europe and the United States.He was also a celebrated interpreter of
Franz Schubert 's "Lieder ", usually with Britten as accompanist and he gave notable performances as the Evangelist inJohann Sebastian Bach 's Passions.He was knighted in 1978.
His grave is in the churchyard of Saint Peter and Saint Paul's Church in
Aldeburgh ,Suffolk , adjacent to the grave ofBenjamin Britten .References
External links
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Pears-Peter.htm Photos of Peter Pears]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6826915 Photos of Peter Pears' grave]
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