Stars: Gerald Finley, Peter Savidge, Hilton Marlton, Anne Dawson, Elizabeth Gale, Charlotte Hellekant, Martyn Hill, Westminster Cathedral Cho Choristers, Kent Nagano

Director: Margaret Williams

Summary: A performance of Benjamin Britten's opera which tells the story of a man who refuses to go into the military. Kent Nagano conducts. Also 'Britten - The Hidden Heart'.

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Owen Wingraveis perhaps Britten's most radical opera, both politically and artistically. Originally written for television, and here presented in a 2001 Channel 4 version, the 1970 score is based, like The Turn of the Screw, on a Henry James ghost story. Britten, though, is more in tune than James with the pacifism into which Owen revolts from a long family tradition of military service. The fluid, impassioned, often declamatory music given Owen makes him one of the most sympathetic of Britten's outsider protagonists, though he has a streak of self-centredness, which stops him being an implausible paragon. Gerald Finley is quite admirable in the part, conveying fully the sense that by losing and dying at the hands of family ghosts, Owen demonstrates the integrity which is central to his character. The other parts are admirably filled here, notably Martyn Hill as Owen's harsh General grandfather, Josephine Barstow as his aunt and Charlotte Hellekant as the fiancee who unknowingly sends him to his death. They and Elizabeth Gale are quite extraordinary in the first act quartet of recrimination and condemnation.

This excellent performance compares vocally with the original on almost entirely equal terms--modern technology means that the ghost scenes are far more dramatic and plausible. Kent Nagano and the Berlin Orchestra do full subtle justice to the chamber orchestra sonorities of one of Britten's most interesting scores, never overstressing its complex musical architecture at the expense of the drama.

On the DVD:Owen Wingraveis presented in a widescreen 16:9 visual aspect ratio with PCM stereo sound. It is accompanied by The Tender Heart, a documentary about Britten's career full of personal reminiscences by his surviving friends, colleagues and family, that concentrates on Peter Grimes, the War Requiemand Death in Venice, the three popular masterpieces of his early, middle and late career. It has menus and subtitles in English, French, German and Spanish. --Roz Kaveney

Aspect Ratio:	4:3
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Subtitles:	English, French, German, Spanish
Release Date:	November 3, 2003
Runtime:	92 minutes
Certification:	Exempt.
Catalogue Number:	100 372
Keywords:	Music, Opera, Works, Performance, Owen, Plays, Stage, Classical, Britten, Performing, Operetta, Arts, Wingrave
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts