If you sometimes (rightly) may feel that Benjamin Britten (100 this year and of course a genious) might be slightly (I don't dare top put it more strongly) over-valued in some quarters, then e.g. one of the operas of competitor Arthur Benjamin (1893-1960) should be mandatory listening. It puts Britten back in the perspective of what British opera really could be like before he started out. Arthur Benjamin's Dickensian "Tale of Two Cities" from 1950 is an ordeal in a BBC radio opera production of the time, even with some of the then best British singers - dramatic soprano Amy Shuard is one -
http://youtu.be/4k7681Z7vVM - here in a great outburst against the French Revolution!
Dramaturgically effectively put together from the novel and not without striking details. But dismal music, sometimes even positively ugly. Let us listen to Arthur Benjamin's Jamaican Rumba instead - it's said he made no difference between light and serious music, hm ... http://youtu.be/mvfe4fW0PCc
And here you can read more by Australian conductor Carolyn Watson on Arthur Benjamin's forgotten operas. http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/arthur-benjamin-s-forgotten-operas-em-prima-donna-em But careful: That something is forgotten does not mean it deserves revival. Amy Shuard can be better heard in more satisfying stuff - http://youtu.be/r9Y1_lb3QpM - a short passage from her Sieglinde in Wagner's Walküre.
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