''Peter Grimes'' is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the ''Peter Grimes'' section of George Crabbe's poem ''The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional village which shares some similarities with Crabbe's, and later Britten's, own home Aldeburgh, on England's east coast, around 1830.

It was first performed at Sadler's Wells in London on 7 June 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall and was the first of Britten's operas to be a critical and popular success. It is still widely performed, both in the UK and internationally, and is considered part of the standard repertoire. In addition, the ''Four Sea Interludes'' were published separately (as op. 33a) and are frequently performed as an orchestral suite. The Passacaglia was also published separately (as op. 33b), and is also often performed, either together with the ''Sea Interludes'' or by itself.

Roles

!Role	!Voice type	!Premiere Cast, 7 June 1945(Conductor: Reginald Goodall)
Peter Grimes, ''a fisherman''	tenor	Peter Pears
Ellen Orford, ''a widow, Borough schoolmistress''	soprano	Joan Cross
Auntie, ''landlady of The Boar''	contralto	Edith Coates
Niece 1	soprano	Blanche Turner
Niece 2	soprano	Minnia Bower
Balstrode, ''retired merchant skipper''	baritone	Roderick Jones
Mrs. (Nabob) Sedley, ''a rentier widow''	mezzo-soprano	Valetta Iacopi
Swallow, ''a lawyer''		Owen Brannigan
Ned Keene, ''apothecary and quack''	baritone	Edmund Donlevy
Bob Boles, ''fisherman and Methodist''	tenor	Morgan Jones
Rev. Horace Adams, ''the rector''	tenor	Tom Culbert
Hobson, ''the carrier''		Frank Vaughan
John, ''Grimes' apprentice''	silent role	Leonard Thompson

History

In 1941, shortly after the premier performance of his opera ''Paul Bunyan'', Britten and his partner Peter Pears went to stay at Escondido, California. There they read the poem by Crabbe and were struck by it. Britten, being a native of Suffolk, strongly identified with the tragic story of the Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes. He later said: "In a flash I realised two things: that I must write an opera, and where I belonged."

Britten returned to England in April, 1942. Soon after his return, he asked Montagu Slater to be his librettist for ''Peter Grimes''. Britten and Pears both had a strong hand in drafting the story, and in this process the character of Grimes became far more complex. Rather than being the clear-cut villain he is in Crabbe's version, he became a victim of both cruel fate and society, while retaining darker aspects in his character. It is left to the audience to decide which version is more true, and to see how clear-cut or ambiguous the various characters are.

Pears was certainly the intended Peter Grimes, and it is likely that Britten wrote the role of Ellen Orford for Joan Cross. The work has been called "a powerful allegory of homosexual oppression", and one of "the true operatic masterpieces of the 20th century," but the composer's own contemporary (1948) summation of the work was simpler:

"a subject very close to my heart—the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual."

Though as the writing of the libretto progressed, certain versions showed Grimes' relations with his apprentice to be paederastic, Pears persuaded Slater to cut the questionable stanzas from the final version. Many scholars, instead of viewing this as a celebration of Grimes' abuse, look at it as Britten's condemnation of the homophobia of his era, and what he understood to be the destructive sociological consequences of it. The opera was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundations and is "dedicated to the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky", wife of the Russian-born American conductor Sergei Koussevitzky. Its American premiere was given in 1946 at Tanglewood by Koussevitzky's pupil, Leonard Bernstein.

In 1967, the Metropolitan Opera mounted a "landmark" production directed by Tyrone Guthrie and starring Jon Vickers in the role of Grimes.

Synopsis

Prologue

Peter Grimes is questioned at an inquest over the death of his apprentice. The townsfolk, all present, make it clear they think Grimes is guilty and deserving of punishment. Although the coroner, Mr. Swallow, determines the boy's death to be accidental and clears Grimes without a proper trial, he advises Grimes not to get another apprentice. As the court is cleared, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress, attempts to comfort Grimes as he rages against what he sees as the Borough community's unwillingness to give him a true second chance.

Act 1

The chorus, who constitute "the Borough", sing of their weary daily round and their relationship with the sea and the seasons. Grimes claims to be in desperate need of help to fish, and his friend, the apothecary Ned Keene, finds him a new apprentice (named John) from the workhouse. Nobody will volunteer to fetch the boy, until Ellen (whom Grimes wishes to marry) offers.

When Ellen brings the apprentice to Grimes at the pub that evening, Grimes immediately sets off to his hut, despite the fact that the Borough is weathering a terrible storm.

Act 2

On Sunday morning, while most of the Borough is at church, Ellen talks with John, the apprentice. She is horrified when she finds a bruise on his neck. When she confronts Grimes about it, he brusquely claims that it was an accident. Growing agitated at her mounting concern and interference, he strikes her and runs off with the boy. This does not go unseen: first Keene, Auntie, and Bob Boles, then the chorus generally evolve into a mob to investigate Grimes's hut. As the men march off, Ellen, Auntie, and the nieces sing sadly of the relationship of women with men.

At the hut, Grimes accuses the ever silent John of "telling stories" and then becomes lost in his memories of the dead apprentice, reliving the boy's death of thirst. When he hears the mob of villagers approaching, he quickly comes back to reality and gets ready to set out to sea: he tells John to be careful climbing down to his boat, but to no avail: the boy falls to his death. When the mob reaches the hut Grimes is gone, and they find nothing out of order, so they disperse.

Act 3

Night time in the Borough. While a dance is going on, Mrs. Sedley tries to convince the authorities that Grimes is a murderer, but to no avail. Ellen and Captain Balstrode confide in each other: Grimes has returned after many days at sea, and Balstrode has discovered a jersey washed ashore: a jersey that Ellen recognizes as one she had knitted for John. Mrs. Sedley overhears this, and with the knowledge that Grimes has returned, she is able to instigate another mob. Singing "Him who despises us we'll destroy", the villagers go off in search of Grimes.

While the chorus can be heard searching for him, Grimes appears onstage, singing a long monologue: John's death has seemingly pushed Grimes, already dangerously unstable, over the edge. Ellen and Balstrode find him, and the old captain encourages Grimes to take his boat out to sea and sink it. Grimes leaves. The next morning, the Borough begins its day anew, as if nothing has happened. There is a report from the coast guard of a ship sinking off the coast. This is dismissed by Auntie as "one of these rumours."

Recordings

Jon Vickers,Heather Harper,Jonathan Summers,Elizabeth BainbridgeJon Vickers,Heather Harper,Norman Bailey (bass-baritone)Anthony Rolfe Johnson,Felicity Lott,Thomas Allen (singer)Philip Langridge,Janice Cairns,Alan Opie,Ann HowardPhilip Langridge,Janice Watson,Alan Opie,Ameral Gunson Glenn Winslade,Janice Watson,Anthony Michaels-Moore,Jill Grove Christopher Ventris,Emily Magee,Alfred Muff,Liliana Nikiteanu

!Year	Cast:Peter Grimes,Ellen Orford,Balstrode, Auntie	!Conductor,Opera House and Orchestra	!Label
1948	Peter Pears,Joan Cross,??,??	|	Reginald Goodall,Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra and BBC Theatre Chorus	Audio CD: EMI Classics 64727 Cat: (excerpts)
1958	Peter Pears,Claire Watson,James Pease,Jean Watson	|	Benjamin Britten,Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus	Decca Records>Decca Cat: 414577(reissued 1990, 2001, 2006)
1978	|	Colin Davis,Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus	Audio CD: PhilipsCat: 462847 (reissued 1999)
1981	Norman Bailey,Elizabeth Bainbridge ||	Colin Davis,Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus	DVD Video: Kultur Cat: 2255 (released 2003)
1992	Thomas Allen,Patricia Payne ||	Bernard Haitink,Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus	Audio CD: EMI ClassicsCat: 5483222 (reissued 2003, EMI Classics: 915620)
1994	|	David Atherton,English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus	DVD Video: KulturCat: 2902
1995	|	Richard Hickox,City of London Sinfonia and London Symphony Orchestra Chorus	Chandos Records>ChandosCat: 9447
2004	|	Colin Davis,London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus	Audio CD: LSO Live Cat: 54
2005	|	Franz Welser-Möst, Orchester und Chor der Zurich Opera>Oper Zürich	DVD Video: EMI ClassicsCat: 00971

References

;Notes ;Sources

Allen, Stephen Arthur, "He Descended Into Hell: ''Peter Grimes'', Ellen Orford and Salvation Denied", ''The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten,'', (Ed. Mervyn Cooke). Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 81-94.

External links

Peter Grimes: From Planning to Performance

Further ''Peter Grimes'' discography

More information about ''Peter Grimes'' and other Britten works, including online research resources, on the Britten-Pears Foundation website

Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes (BBC synopsis)

Hensher, Philip. 2009. "A Man for the People. ''The Guardian'' (8 May).

Category:Operas by Benjamin Britten Category:English-language operas Category:1945 operas Category:Operas Category:Operas set in the British Isles

ca:Peter Grimes da:Peter Grimes de:Peter Grimes es:Peter Grimes fi:Peter Grimes fr:Peter Grimes it:Peter Grimes ko:피터 그라임즈 hu:Peter Grimes ja:ピーター・グライムズ simple:Peter Grimes sl:Peter Grimes (opera) sv:Peter Grimes

name	Sir Peter Pears
birth date	June 22, 1910
birth place	Newark House, Searle Road, Farnham, Surrey, England
death date	April 03, 1986
death place	Red House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England
occupation	tenor }}

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE ( ; 22 June 1910 – 3 April 1986) was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten.

He was born at Newark House, Searle Road, Farnham, Surrey, and educated at Lancing. He went on to study music at Keble College, Oxford, serving as organist at Hertford College, but left without taking his degree. He later studied voice for two terms at the Royal College of Music. He claimed that it was hearing the tenor Steuart Wilson singing the Evangelist in J.S. Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'' that "started me off".

In 1936, while a member of the BBC Singers, he met Benjamin Britten, who was to become his lover. Pears and Britten gave their first recital together in 1937 at Balliol College, Oxford University. In early 1939, Britten and Pears left for America together as pacifists, a few months before the outbreak of war between the British Empire and Germany. There, in 1940, Britten composed ''Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo'', the first of many song cycles for Pears. Upon their return to England in 1942, when they both registered as conscientious objectors, they performed the song cycle at Wigmore Hall on 23 September, and then recorded them for EMI, 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), his adaption of ''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 bellows-mender, he performed a drag parody of Dame Joan Sutherland in the mad scene of ''Lucia di Lammermoor''.

His voice was controversial, the vocal quality being unusual. Felix Benson described it as "dry and white" and that "it took some getting used to". It was cruelly said that he had one good note, E 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 always record well, but there is no doubt that he had unusually good articulation and vocal agility, of which Britten also took advantage. His delivery, and Britten's compositional style, were mercilessly (and accurately) satirised by Dudley Moore in ''Beyond the Fringe'' (''Little Miss Muffet'').

He made his Metropolitan Opera début in October 1974 as Aschenbach in ''Death in Venice''. He sang regularly at the Royal Opera House and other major opera houses in Europe and the United States.

During his life he was considered a notable interpreter of Franz Schubert's ''Lieder'', usually with Britten as accompanist. He also gave notable performances as the Evangelist in Bach's Passions.

Pears, a Sponsor of the Peace Pledge Union, died at Red House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Benjamin Britten's grave is next to his, near the grave of Imogen Holst, a close friend.

References

External links

Photos of Peter Pears

Photos of Peter Pears' grave

Category:1910 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:British conscientious objectors Category:British pacifists Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in England Category:English male singers Category:English opera singers Category:English tenors Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:LGBT people from England Category:Old Lancing Category:People from Suffolk Category:English conscientious objectors

ca:Peter Pears de:Peter Pears es:Peter Pears fr:Peter Pears he:פיטר פירס hu:Peter Pears nl:Peter Pears ja:ピーター・ピアーズ pl:Peter Pears pt:Peter Pears ru:Пирс, Питер simple:Peter Pears fi:Peter Pears sv:Peter Pears

Brett Mitchell (born July 2, 1979) is an American conductor, currently serving as the ninth Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. He was Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France from 2006 to 2009, and Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony from 2007 to 2011.

Biography

Born in Seattle, Washington, Brett Mitchell began piano studies at age 6, and studied piano, percussion, and saxophone throughout elementary, middle, and high school. He gave his first public performances as a conductor while at Lynnwood High School in 1995 at the age of 16, leading both orchestra and wind ensemble concerts, and served as music director for his first musical in the spring of 1996 while still a high-school junior.

Mitchell began undergraduate work on a degree in music composition at Western Washington University in the fall of 1997. During his four years there, he studied composition and conducting with Roger Briggs and piano with Margaret Brink and Jeffrey Gilliam. As a conductor, he organized many student performances, conducted the school's orchestra, collaborated with faculty in concerto performances, and served as music director for multiple summer stock and other music theater productions. As a composer, Mitchell wrote both concert works and scores for local television and student films. He won numerous piano scholarships, and was named Presser Scholar and Outstanding Graduating Senior in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

Upon completion of his Bachelor of Music in June 2001, he moved to Austin, Texas, to study orchestral conducting with Kevin Noe at The University of Texas at Austin. For the next four years, he would serve as Music Director of the University Orchestra and sometime cover conductor for the Austin Symphony. Mitchell graduated from The University of Texas with a Master of Music in 2003 and a Doctor of Musical Arts in 2005. His work with Noe led to his employment with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble from 2002 to 2006 as their Associate Conductor, where his responsibilities included leading subscription programs, many world and U.S. premieres, numerous multi-media productions, and several recording projects.

In addition to his graduate work, Mitchell also studied with conductors outside the university, most notably Kurt Masur, with whom he began studies in 2004. In early 2008, Masur chose Mitchell to receive the inaugural Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Scholarship, entailing intensive, one-on-one study with Masur, and assisting him with concerts in Europe and America. Mitchell was also invited to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra and to study with Leonard Slatkin as part of the 2005 National Conducting Institute, and was invited by Slatkin to work with the NSO again in 2006. He has also studied with Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Gerard Schwarz, Gunther Schuller, Marin Alsop, Jorma Panula, and Larry Rachleff. Mitchell was the youngest of ten semifinalists from a pool of over 500 applicants in the Third International Conductors’ Competition Sir Georg Solti in 2006, and was selected as a finalist for the Conductors Guild’s 2007 Thelma A. Robinson Award.

After completing his training, Mitchell took a position as Director of Orchestras and Music Director of the opera program at Northern Illinois University from 2005 to 2007. He led the Philharmonic in six concerts each year, and led his first two opera productions during his tenure: Igor Stravinsky’s ''The Rake’s Progress'' and Mark Adamo’s ''Little Women''. The Philharmonic was also invited to perform at the Illinois Music Educators Association's All-State Conference for the first time in over a decade in January 2007. His tenure there also saw the Philharmonic's first performance of a Gustav Mahler symphony in a dozen years (Symphony No. 1 in April 2006) and their return to the recording studio, recording Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in May 2007. Mitchell ended his time at NIU with a week-long festival devoted to the music of Kevin Puts.

While teaching at NIU, Mitchell was invited by his mentor Kurt Masur to audition to become Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France. In February 2006, Mitchell successfully auditioned and was named to the post. During his tenure, he conducted the orchestra and assisted Masur and guest conductors such as Seiji Ozawa and Daniele Gatti at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and on tour. He left the orchestra in May 2009 after three and a half years in the position.

In February 2007, Mitchell was appointed American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony by Hans Graf. In that role, he led the orchestra in several dozen concerts—including on all subscription series—in Jones Hall and throughout the greater Houston area each season. His title was augmented to Assistant Conductor/American Conducting Fellow in June 2008; prior to his final season with the orchestra (2010-11), his title was modified again to Assistant Conductor, reflecting the end of his fellowship with the League of American Orchestras. During his four-year tenure with the Houston Symphony (which ended in May 2011), he led the orchestra in over one hundred performances, several of which were broadcast nationwide on SymphonyCast and Performance Today. Mitchell will return to the Houston Symphony as a guest conductor for five performances during the 2011-12 season (October 2011, December 2011, and April 2012).

In May 2010, after a two-year search including more than 150 candidates from around the world, Mitchell was appointed the ninth Music Director of Michigan's Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. Having taken the helm in September 2010 (the beginning of orchestra's 75th-anniversary season), Mitchell leads the orchestra in its complete series of classical, pops, and education concerts throughout his initial three-year contract.

In recent seasons, Mitchell has also led the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, three productions at the Moores Opera Center, members of the Dallas Symphony and Boston Modern Orchestra Project at New York’s Skaneateles Festival, and the Northwest Mahler Festival Orchestra in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. He served as musical assistant at the New York Philharmonic during the 2007-08 season and as cover conductor for several programs with The Cleveland Orchestra in 2009, and has led performances with Musiqa and SOLI, the principal new music ensembles of Houston and San Antonio, respectively. He made his European debut in 2004 in a series of three concerts with Romania’s Brasov Philharmonic (to which he returned in February 2009), and made his Latin American debut in 2005 with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico City.

References

External links

Brett Mitchell's official website

Brett Mitchell on Twitter

Brett Mitchell on YouTube

Brett Mitchell's biography at the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra

Brett Mitchell's biography at the Houston Symphony

Category:1979 births Category:American conductors (music) Category:Living people Category:Western Washington University alumni

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work ''A Boy Was Born'' in 1934. With the premiere of his opera ''Peter Grimes'' in 1945, he leapt to international fame. For the next fifteen years he devoted much of his compositional attention to writing operas, establishing him as one of the leading 20th century figures in this genre. Britten's interests as a composer were wide-ranging; he produced important music in such varied genres as orchestral, choral, solo vocal (much of it written for the tenor Peter Pears), chamber and instrumental, as well as film music. He also took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, and was a fine pianist and conductor.

Life

Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 22 November 1913, the youngest of four children. His father, Robert, was a dentist, and his mother Edith, a talented amateur musician who gave Britten his first lessons in piano and notation. He showed musical gifts very early in life, making his first attempts at composition aged five, and thereafter composing prolifically as a child. He started piano lessons with a teacher from his pre-prep school when aged 7, and viola lessons with Audrey Alston when 10 years old.

Britten heard Frank Bridge’s orchestral poem ''The Sea'' at a festival and was, as he put it, ‘knocked sideways’. Alston was a family friend of Frank Bridge and was able to arrange an introduction. After examining Britten's work, Bridge took him on as a composition pupil, and the first lesson took place on 10 January 1928, a few weeks after Britten's 14th birthday. One of the first pieces composed during the period of Bridge's tutelage was the ''Quatre Chansons françaises'' for soprano and orchestra, though it appears that Britten's abilities as an orchestrator were essentially self-taught rather than learned from Bridge.

He later studied, 1930–33, at the Royal College of Music under John Ireland (composition) and Arthur Benjamin (piano). Britten also used his time in London to attend concerts and become better acquainted with the music of Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler, and Dmitry Shostakovich. Although ultimately dissuaded by his parents (at the suggestion of College staff), Britten had also intended postgraduate study with Alban Berg in Vienna.

Britten was a prolific juvenile composer: some 800 works and fragments precede his early published works. His first compositions to attract wide attention were the ''Sinfonietta'' Op. 1, ''A Hymn to the Virgin'' (1930) and a set of choral variations ''A Boy was Born'', written in 1934 for the BBC Singers. In this same period he wrote ''Friday Afternoons'', a collection of 14 songs mostly for unison singing, for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn where Britten's brother, Robert, was headmaster.

Early professional life

In April 1935, he was approached by the film director Alberto Cavalcanti to write the film score for the documentary ''The King's Stamp'', produced by the GPO Film Unit. He subsequently met W. H. Auden, who was also working for the GPO Film Unit; together they worked on the films ''Coal Face'' and ''Night Mail''. They also collaborated on the song cycle ''Our Hunting Fathers'' Op. 8, radical both in politics and musical treatment, and other works.

Of more lasting importance to Britten was his meeting in 1937 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator and inspiration as well as his life partner. In the same year he composed a ''Pacifist March'' (words, Ronald Duncan) for the Peace Pledge Union, of which, as a pacifist, he had become an active member, but the work was not a success and soon withdrawn. One of Britten's most noteworthy works from the 1930s was ''Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge'' for string orchestra, Op. 10, written in 1937.

In early 1939, Britten and Pears followed Auden to America. There, in 1940, Britten composed ''Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo'', the first of many song cycles for Pears. Already friends with the composer Aaron Copland, Britten encountered his latest works ''Billy the Kid'' and ''An Outdoor Overture'', both of which manifestly influenced his own music. While in America Britten wrote his first music drama, ''Paul Bunyan'', an operetta (to a libretto by Auden). The period in America was also remarkable for a number of orchestral works, including the ''Violin Concerto'' Op. 15, and ''Sinfonia da Requiem'' Op. 20 (for full orchestra).

In the meantime, Britten had had his first encounter with Balinese gamelan music through the transcriptions for two pianos made by the Canadian composer Colin McPhee. Britten first met McPhee at Stanton Cottage in the summer of 1939, and the two subsequently performed a number of McPhee's transcriptions for a recording. This musical encounter was to bear fruit decades later in several Balinese-inspired works including ''The Prince of the Pagodas'', ''Noye's Fludde'' and ''Death in Venice''.

Return to England

Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942, and both applied for recognition as conscientious objectors; Britten was initially refused recognition, but gained it on appeal. He completed the choral works ''Hymn to St. Cecilia'' (his last large-scale collaboration with Auden) and ''A Ceremony of Carols'' during the long sea voyage. He had already begun work on his opera ''Peter Grimes'' based on the writings of Suffolk poet George Crabbe, and its première at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success thus far. However, Britten encountered opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment and gradually withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 and the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly (though by no means solely) to perform his own works. From 1949 to 1951 he had his only private pupil, Arthur Oldham. One of Oldham's achievements was the setting for full orchestra of Britten's ''Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge'', for the Frederick Ashton ballet ''Le Rêve de Léonor'' (1949).

''Peter Grimes'' was the first in a series of English operas, of which ''Billy Budd'' (1951) and ''The Turn of the Screw'' (1954) were particularly admired. His Shakespeare opera, ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', followed in 1960. These operas share common themes. Even in his comic opera ''Albert Herring'' of 1947, all feature an 'outsider' character excluded or misunderstood by society. Often this is the eponymous protagonist, as in ''Peter Grimes'' and ''Owen Wingrave''.

Britten was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) in the Coronation Honours, 1953.

An increasingly important influence was the music of the East, an interest that was fostered by a tour with Pears in 1957, when Britten was struck by the music of the Balinese gamelan and by Japanese Noh plays. The fruits of this tour include the ballet ''The Prince of the Pagodas'' (1957) and the series of semi-operatic "Parables for Church Performance": ''Curlew River'' (1964), ''The Burning Fiery Furnace'' (1966) and ''The Prodigal Son'' (1968). The greatest success of Britten's career was, however, the ''War Requiem'', written for the 1962 consecration of the newly reconstructed Coventry Cathedral.

Britten developed close friendships with Russian musicians Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich in the 1960s. He composed his ''Cello Suites'', ''Cello Symphony'' and ''Cello Sonata'' for Mstislav Rostropovich, and conducted the first Western performance of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony. Shostakovich dedicated this score to Britten, and often spoke very highly of his music. Britten himself had previously dedicated ''The Prodigal Son'' (the third and last of the 'Church Parables') to Shostakovich. He was honoured again by appointment to the Order of Merit (OM) on 23 March 1965.

In his last decade, Britten's health deteriorated, and his later works became more and more sparse in texture. They include the operas ''Owen Wingrave'' (1970) and ''Death in Venice'' (1971–1973), the ''Suite on English Folk Tunes "A Time There Was"'' (1974) and ''Third String Quartet'' (1975)— which drew on material from ''Death in Venice''— as well as the dramatic cantata ''Phaedra'' (1975), written for Janet Baker.

Having previously declined a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage on 2 July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk. A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church there, with a gravestone carved by Reynolds Stone. The grave of his partner, Sir Peter Pears, lies next to his, and near to that of Imogen Holst, a close friend. A memorial stone to him was unveiled in the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey in 1978.

The Red House in Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears lived and worked together for almost thirty years, is now the home of the Britten-Pears Foundation established to promote their musical legacy.

Music

Operas

Britten's operas are firmly established in the international repertoire. According to Operabase, he has more operas played worldwide than any other composer born in the 20th century, and only Puccini and Richard Strauss come ahead of him if the list is extended to all operas composed after 1900. Operetta in two acts, 114' op. 33 op. 37 op. 39 op. 43 op. 45 op. 50 op. 50 op. 53 op. 54 op. 59 op. 64 the composer and Peter Pears, after A Midsummer Night's Dream op. 85 op. 88

Title	! Opus	Description	Libretto and source	! Premiere	Publ.
''Paul Bunyan (operetta)	Paul Bunyan''	op. 17	|	W H Auden, after the American Paul Bunyan>folktale	, Brander Matthews Hall, New York	Faber
''Peter Grimes''	|	Opera in a prologue and three acts, 147'	Montagu Slater, after the poem ''The_Borough_(George_Crabbe_poem)>The Borough'' by George Crabbe	, Sadler's Wells, London	B&H
''The Rape of Lucretia''	|	Opera in two acts, 107'	Ronald Duncan, after the play ''Le Viol de Lucrèce'' by ''André Obey''	, Glyndebourne_Festival_Opera>Glyndebourne	B&H
''Albert Herring''	|	Comic opera in three acts, 137'	Eric Crozier, loosely after the short story ''Le Rosier de Mme. Husson'' by Guy de Maupassant	, Glyndebourne_Festival_Opera>Glyndebourne	B&H
''The Beggar's Opera''	|	Ballad opera, 108'	after the ballad opera by John Gay	, Cambridge Arts Theatre	B&H
''The Little Sweep	Let's Make an Opera (The Little Sweep)''	|	An Entertainment for Young People, 130'	Eric Crozier	, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival	B&H
''Billy Budd (opera)	Billy Budd''	|	Opera in four acts, 162'	E M Forster and Eric Crozier, after Billy_Budd>the novella by Herman Melville	, Royal Opera House, London	B&H
''Billy Budd (opera)	Billy Budd'' (revised)	|	Opera in two acts, 158'		, Royal Opera House, London (revised version)	B&H
''Gloriana''	|	Opera in three acts, 148'	William Plomer, after ''Elizabeth and Essex'' by Lytton Strachey	, Royal Opera House, London	B&H
''The Turn of the Screw (opera)	The Turn of the Screw''	|	Opera in a prologue and two acts, 101'	Myfanwy Piper, after The Turn of the Screw>the novella by Henry James	, Teatro La Fenice, Venice	B&H
''Noye's Fludde''	|	Music-theatre for community performance, 50'	After the Chester Miracle Play	, Orford Church, Aldeburgh Festival	B&H
''A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)	A Midsummer Night's Dream''	|	Opera in three acts, 144'	the play by Shakespeare||	, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival	B&H
''Owen Wingrave''	|	Opera for television in two acts, 106'	Myfanwy Piper, after the short story by Henry James	, BBC2 TV broadcast; , Royal Opera House, London (staged)	Faber
''Death in Venice (opera)	Death in Venice''	|	Opera in two acts, 145'	Myfanwy Piper, after Death in Venice>the short story by Thomas Mann	, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival	Faber

Other genres

Britten was an accomplished pianist, frequently performing chamber music and accompanying lieder and song recitals. However, apart from the ''Holiday Diary'' (1934), ''Piano Concerto'' (1938), ''Young Apollo'' (1939), ''Diversions'' (written for Paul Wittgenstein in 1940), ''Scottish Ballad'' (1941), he wrote relatively little music that puts the piano in the spotlight, and in a 1963 interview for the BBC said that he thought of it as "a background instrument".

One of Britten's best known works is ''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' (1946), which was composed to accompany ''Instruments of the Orchestra'', an educational film produced by the British government, narrated and conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Its subtitle is ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell''; the theme is a melody from Henry Purcell's ''Abdelazar''. Britten gives individual variations to each of the sections of the orchestra, starting with the woodwind, then the string instruments, the brass instruments and finally the percussion. Britten then brings the whole orchestra together again in a fugue before restating the theme to close the work. The original film's spoken commentary is often omitted in concert performances and recordings.

Britten's church music is also considerable: it contains frequently performed 'classics' such as ''Rejoice in the Lamb'', composed for St Matthew's Northampton (where the Vicar was Revd Walter Hussey), as well as ''A Hymn to the Virgin'', and ''Missa Brevis'' for boys' voices and organ.

As a conductor, Britten performed the music of many composers, as well as his own. Among his celebrated recordings are versions of Mozart's 40th Symphony and Elgar's ''The Dream of Gerontius'' (with Pears as Gerontius), and an album of works by Grainger in which Britten features as pianist as well as conductor.

''Nocturnal after John Dowland'' for guitar (1963) has an indisputably central place in the repertoire of its instrument. This work is typically spare in his late style, and shows the depth of his lifelong admiration for Elizabethan lute songs. In each of the eight variations Britten focuses on a different feature of the work's theme, Dowland's song ''Come, Heavy Sleep'', or its lute accompaniment, before the theme emerges complete at the close of the work.

In 2005, the Britten-Pears Foundation in partnership with the University of East Anglia was awarded funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to produce a thematic catalogue of Britten's works. The project is distinguished by being the first composer thematic catalogue to be published initially online. (All previous thematic catalogues have been print publications, though some have been published online later.) The work involves gathering and cataloguing manuscript and published notation and published recordings, producing a chronology, and assigning identifiers to Britten's works. These identifiers are in addition to Britten's own opus numbers and, after the style of preceding thematic catalogues such as BWV for J.S. Bach, comprise the letters 'BTC' followed by numbers assigned in chronological order. The catalogue includes numerous unpublished works and is expected, when completed in 2013, to include around 1,200 works. (Britten's ''published'' output includes around 200 works, of which 95 were assigned opus numbers.)

Reputation

Early in his career, Britten made a conscious effort to set himself apart from the English musical mainstream, which he regarded as complacent, insular and amateurish. Many contemporary critics distrusted his facility, cosmopolitanism and admiration for composers such as Mahler, Berg, and Stravinsky, not at the time considered appropriate models for a young English musician.

Britten's status as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century is now secure among professional critics. However, criticism of his music is apt to become entangled with consideration of his personality, his politics (especially his pacifism in World War II) and his sexuality. Humphrey Carpenter's 1992 biography further described Britten's often fraught social, professional and sexual relationships, as did Alan Bennett's 2009 play ''The Habit of Art'', set while Britten is composing the opera ''Death in Venice'' and centred on a fictional meeting between Britten and W. H. Auden (Britten was played in the premiere production by Alex Jennings).

In 2003, a selection of Britten's writings, edited by Paul Kildea, revealed other ways that he addressed such issues as his pacifism. A further study along the lines begun by Carpenter is John Bridcut's ''Britten's Children'', 2006, which describes Britten’s infatuation with a series of pre-adolescent and adolescent boys throughout his life, most notably David Hemmings.

For many musicians, however, Britten's technique, broad musical and human sympathies and ability to treat the most traditional of musical forms with freshness and originality place him at the head of composers of his generation. A notable tribute is ''Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten'', an orchestral piece written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

Awards

UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers 1961, (for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'')

Grammy Awards 1963 – Classical Album of the Year, Best Classical Composition by a Contemporary Composer, Best Classical Performance – Choral (Other Than Opera) (all for War Requiem)

Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 1964

Sonning Award 1967 (Denmark)

Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 1974

BRIT Awards 1977 – Best Orchestral Album (of the past 25 years) (for War Requiem)

Grammy Hall of Fame Award 1998 (for War Requiem)

Recordings by Britten

Facets of Benjamin Britten Pearl, Pavilion Records (0220 GEM)

Benjamin Britten – Premiere recordings 1938–46 Pearl, Pavilion Records (0002 GEM)

Britten the Performer (BBC Legends Music)

Benjamin Britten: In Rehearsal and Performance with Peter Pears

See also

''Britten's Children''

List of compositions by Benjamin Britten

References

Sources

F. Avellar de Aquino. "Song of Sorrow". in The Strad Magazine, London, v. 117, Vol. 1391, p. 52–57, 2006. (on Britten's 3rd. Cello Suite)

Philip Brett. "Benjamin Britten", ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (accessed 18 October 2004), grovemusic.com (subscription access).

Bridcut, John, ''Britten's Children'', Faber and Faber, 2006. ISBN 0-571-22839-9

Britten, Benjamin (edited by Philip Reed, Mervyn Cooke and Donald Mitchell) ''Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume IV, 1952–1957'' The Boydell Press, 633pp

Britten, Benjamin (edited by John Evans) ''Journeying Boy: the Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten, 1928–1938'' (London: Faber and Faber), 2009)

Humphrey Carpenter, ''Benjamin Britten: a biography'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1992) ISBN 0-571-14324-5

Peter Evans. ''The Music of Benjamin Britten'' (London: J. M. Dent, 1979) ISBN 0-460-04350-1

Michael Kennedy, 1981. ''Britten'' (London: J. M. Dent, 1983) ISBN 0-460-02201-6

Donald Mitchell, "Britten, (Edward) Benjamin, Baron Britten (1913–1976)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 18 October 2004: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30853

Michael Oliver. ''Benjamin Britten'' (London: Phaidon Press, 1996) ISBN 0-7148-3277-4

External links

Britten-Pears Foundation: biographies of Britten and Pears, timelines, work lists and descriptions, performance schedules.

Boosey & Hawkes (Britten's publishers up to 1963): biographies, work lists and descriptions, recordings, performance schedules

Faber Music (Publishers set up by Britten for his works after 1963): biography, work lists, recordings, performance schedules

Biographies and profiles

MusicWeb International. Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), by Rob Barnett

Gresham College. 'Britten and Bridge', lecture and performance investigating the relation between the two composers, 5 February 2008 (available for download as text, audio or video file).

On An Overgrown Path (blog). Photo essay on Britten's childhood home, November 2008.

BBC. Audio (.ram files) of 1957 and 1963 interviews

Portraits

National Portrait Gallery. Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (1913–1976), 109 portraits.

Worklists and performances

Scott Eric Smith. An extensive list of Benjamin Britten's works (archived / current)

Britten-Pears Foundation/AHRC. A thematic catalogue of Britten's works (under development)

Operabase. Recent and future performances of Britten operas.

Interpretations

Britten: A Ceremony of Carols (op. 28). Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge/ Harp: Frances Kelly/ Conductor: Richard Marlow (1997)

Britten: On This Island, Kishani Jayasinghe

Britten: Cello Symphony performed by cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

University of Iowa. Audio recording of Lachrymae, Viola: Christine Rutledge, piano: Darlene Lawrence. Clapp Recital Hall (1998).

Category:1913 births Category:1976 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:BRIT Award winners Category:British conscientious objectors Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in England Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:English Anglicans Category:English pacifists Category:English socialists Category:English classical pianists Category:English classical violists Category:English composers Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:Grammy Award winners Category:LGBT composers Category:LGBT people from England Category:Life peers Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Modernist composers Category:Old Greshamians Category:Opera composers Category:People from Lowestoft Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Ballet composers Category:Sacred music composers Category:Decca Records artists Category:English conscientious objectors

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This is a list of people whose names in English are commonly appended with the phrase "''the Great''", or who were called that or an equivalent phrase in their own language. Other languages have their own suffixes such as ''e Bozorg'' and ''e azam'' in Persian and Urdu respectively.

In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to be a colloquial version of the Old Persian title "Great King". This title was first used by the conqueror Cyrus II of Persia.

The Persian title was inherited by Alexander III of Macedon (336–323 BC) when he conquered the Persian Empire, and the epithet "Great" eventually became personally associated with him. The first reference (in a comedy by Plautus) assumes that everyone knew who "Alexander the Great" was; however, there is no earlier evidence that Alexander III of Macedon was called "''the Great''".

The early Seleucid kings, who succeeded Alexander in Persia, used "Great King" in local documents, but the title was most notably used for Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC).

Later rulers and commanders began to use the epithet "the Great" as a personal name, like the Roman general Pompey. Others received the surname retrospectively, like the Carthaginian Hanno and the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great. Once the surname gained currency, it was also used as an honorific surname for people without political careers, like the philosopher Albert the Great.

As there are no objective criteria for "greatness", the persistence of later generations in using the designation greatly varies. For example, Louis XIV of France was often referred to as "The Great" in his lifetime but is rarely called such nowadays, while Frederick II of Prussia is still called "The Great". A later Hohenzollern - Wilhelm I - was often called "The Great" in the time of his grandson Wilhelm II, but rarely later.

Rulers

Abbas I of Persia (1571-1629), Shah of Iran

Akbar (1542-1605), ruler of the Mughal Empire of South Asia, mainly India

Alain I of Albret (1440-1522), French aristocrat

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), King of Macedonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, and all of Mesopotamia

Alexander I of Georgia (1386–1446), King of Georgia

Alfonso III of León (c. 848-910), King of León, Galicia and Asturias

Alfred the Great (848/849-899), King of Wessex

Antiochus III the Great (c. 241–187 BC), ruler of the Seleucid Empire

Ashoka the Great (c. 304–232 BC), Indian emperor of the Maurya dynasty

Ashot I of Iberia “the Great”(died 826/830), presiding prince of Iberia (modern Georgia),

Askia Mohammad I (c. 1442–1538), ruler of the Songhai Empire

Bhumibol Adulyadej (born 1927), King of Thailand

Bolesław I Chrobry (967-1025), sometimes called "the Great", first King of Poland

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the following section)

Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (1736-1809), founder and ruler of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (in what is now Thailand)

Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995-1035), King of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden

Casimir III the Great (1310-1370), King of Poland

Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress of Russian

Chandragupta II (reigned 375-413/415), also known as Vikramaditya, ruler of the Gupta empire in India

Charlemagne (died 814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans

Chulalongkorn (1853-1910), King of Siam (now Thailand)

Chlothar II (584-629), King of Neustria and King of the Franks

Conrad, Margrave of Meissen (c. 1097-1157), Margrave of Meissen

Constantine I (c. 272-337), Roman Emperor

Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), founder and ruler of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire

Darius the Great (550 – 486 BC), third ruler of the Persian Empire

Devapala (died 850), ruler of the Pala Empire in the Indian subcontinent

Dionysius I, Greek tyrant of Syracuse

Ferdinand I of León and Castile (c. 1015–1065), King of León and Count of Castile

Frederick the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia

Genghis Khan (1162?-1227), founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire

Gero (c. 900–965), ruler of Marca Geronis, a very large march in Europe

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594-1632), King of Sweden, founder of the Swedish Empire, and noted military leader

Gwanggaeto the Great, King of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea

Hanno the Great, the name of three leaders of Carthage, in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd centuries BC

Henry I, Duke of Burgundy (946–1002)

Henry IV of France (1553-1610), King of France and King of Navarre

Herod the Great (73/74 BC-4 BC), King of Judea

Hugh the Great (898-956), Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris

Hugh Magnus of France (1007-1025), co-King of France

Hugh I, Count of Vermandois (1057-1101)

Humphrey I de Bohun (died c. 1123), Anglo-Norman aristocrat

Ivan III of Russia (1440-1505), Tsar of Russia

John I of Portugal (1358-1433), King of Portugal and the Algarve

John II of Aragon (1398-1479), King of Aragon and, through his wife, King of Navarre

Justinian I (483-565), Byzantine Emperor

Kamehameha I (c. 1758-1819), first King of Hawai'i

Kanishka (died c. 127), ruler of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia and parts of India

Kvirike III of Kakheti (1010-1029), King of Kakheti in eastern Georgia

Kublai Khan (1215-1294), Mongol ruler in the 13th century and Emperor of China; founder of the Yuan Dynasty

Llywelyn the Great (c. 1172–1240), Prince of Gwynedd and de facto ruler of most of Wales

Louis I of Hungary (1326-1382), King of Hungary, Croatia and Poland

Mangrai the Great (1238-1317), Lanna, northern Thailand

Emperor Meiji (1852-1912), Emperor of Japan

Mircea I of Wallachia (1355–1418)

Mithridates II of Parthia (died 88 BC), ruler of the Parthian Empire (in present day Iran)

Mithridates VI of Pontus (134 BC–63 BC), ruler of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom

Mstislav I of Kiev (1076-1132), Grand Prince of Kievan Rus

Narai (1633-1688), King of Ayutthaya (in what is now modern Thailand)

Naresuan (1555-1605), King of Ayutthaya

Odo the Great (died c. 735), Duke of Aquitaine

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912-973)

K'inich Janaab' Pakal (603-683), ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque

Parakramabahu I of Polonnaruwa (1123–1186), King of Sri Lanka

Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (died 1075), King of Croatia

Peter the Great (1672-1725), Tsar of Russia

Peter III of Aragon (1239-1285), King of Aragon and King of Sicily

Pompey (106 BC-48 BC), military and political leader of the late Roman Republic, rival of Julius Caesar

Radama I (1793–1828), first king of greater Madagascar

Raja Raja Chola I (c. 947-1014), Indian emperor of the Cholas.

Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014-1044), Tamil King of India

Ramesses II (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC), considered the greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt

Ram Khamhaeng (around 1237 to 1247-1298), King of Sukhothai (in present day Thailand)

Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona (1082-1131), also Count of Provence and various other counties

Rhodri the Great (c. 820–878), King of Gwynedd (in present day Wales)

Roman the Great (after 1160-1205), Grand Prince of Kiev

Samudragupta (c. 335–375), ruler of the Gupta empire in the Indian subcontinent

Sancho III of Navarre (c. 992-1035), King of Kingdom of Navarre

Sargon of Akkad (died c. 2215 BC), ruler of the Akkadian Empire

Sejong the Great (1397-1450), Korean king

Shapur II (309-379), king of the Sassanid Empire, Persia

Simeon I of Bulgaria (864/865-927), ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire

Stephen III of Moldavia (1433-1504), Prince of Moldavia (Romania)

Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia (c. 1308-1355), King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks

Taksin (1734-1782), King of the Thonburi Kingdom (Thailand)

Timur (1336-1405), better known as Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Dynasty

Theobald II, Count of Champagne (1090–1151), Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV, Count of Champagne and of Brie

Theodoric the Great (454-526), King of the Ostrogoths, regent of the Visigoths and a viceroy of the Byzantine Empire

Theodosius I (347-395), Roman emperor

Tigranes the Great (140-55 BC), Emperor of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia (285-339), King of Armenia

Umar (c. 586 to 590–644), second caliph of the Muslim Empire

Valdemar I of Denmark (1131-1182), King of Denmark

Valentinian I (364-375), Roman Emperor

Vladimir I of Kiev (c. 958-1015), ruler of Kievan Rus

Vytautas (c. 1350-1430), archduke of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy

William I, Count of Burgundy (1020-1087), Count of Burgandy and Mâcon

William V, Duke of Aquitaine (969-1030), also Count of Poitou

Xerxes I (519-465 BC), King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia)

Yu the Great (c. 2200-2100 BC), legendary ruler in ancient China

Religious figures

Abraham the Great of Kashkar (ca. 492-586), monk and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East

Abraham Kidunaia (died c. 366, hermit, priest, and Christian saint of Mesopotamia

Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280), medieval German philosopher and theologian

Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), early Christian saint of Egypt

Babai the Great (c. 551–628), Assyrian church leader

Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Greek bishop and theologian

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the previous section)

Euthymius the Great (377-473), abbot and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint

Gertrude the Great (1256-c. 1302), German Benedictine, mystic, theologian and Roman Catholic saint

Pope Gregory I (c. 540-604)

Hiyya the Great, 3rd-century rabbi, Palestine

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

Pope Leo I (c. 391 or 400-461)

Macarius of Egypt (c. 300-391), Egyptian hermit

Pope Nicholas I (c. 800-867)

Photius I of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893), Eastern Orthodox saint and Patriarch of Constantinople

William of Maleval (died 1157), founder of the Catholic congregation of Williamites

Other

Beli Mawr, a figure in medieval Welsh literature and genealogies

Emmy the Great, folk singer

Matteo Rosso the Great, Roman politician and father of Pope Nicholas III

Prokop the Great, Hussite general in Bohemia

See also

Epithet

List of monarchs by nickname

List of nicknames of European Royalty and Nobility: G-I

James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus

Ajax (mythology), called Ajax the Greater

Notes

Category:Monarchs Great, List of people known as The Category:Greatest Nationals Category:Epithets

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