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In Rebecca Solomon's 1851 painting The Governess, the title figure (seated right, with her charge) exhibits the modest dress and deportment appropriate to her quasi-invisible role in the Victorian household.

A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny (formerly called a nurse) or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs. Her charges are of school age, not babies.^[1]

The position is rarer now, except within large and wealthy households such as those of the Saudi royal family^[2] and in remote regions such as outback Australia.^[3] It was common in well-off European families before World War I, especially in the countryside where no suitable school existed nearby. Parents' preference to educate their children at home—rather than send them away to boarding school for months at a time—varied across time and countries. Governesses were usually in charge of girls and younger boys; when a boy was old enough, he left his governess for a tutor or a school.

There has been a recent resurgence amongst families worldwide to employ governesses or full-time tutors. This has been for a number of reasons including personal security, the benefits of a tailored education and the flexibility to travel or live in multiple locations.^[4]

Role[link]

Modern governesses occupy a slightly different role to their traditional counterparts. They are highly-educated individuals who fill the role of both teacher and academic mentor for the children. They structure an education for their pupils which usually offers greater breadth and a higher standard than a school education can.^[5]

Traditionally, governesses taught "The three Rs"^[6] to young children. They also taught the "accomplishments" expected of middle class women to the young ladies under their care, such as French or another language, the piano or another musical instrument, and often painting (usually the more ladylike watercolours rather than oils) or poetry. It was also possible for other teachers (usually male) with specialist knowledge and skills to be brought in, such as, a drawing master or dancing master.

A governess was in an awkward position in the Victorian household, neither quite a servant nor a member of the family. As a sign of this social limbo, she often ate in isolation. She had a middle class background and education, but she was paid and not really part of the family. Being a governess was one of the few legitimate ways an unmarried middle class woman could support herself in that society. Her position was often depicted as one to be pitied, and the only likely way out of it was to marry. Once her charges grew up, she had to seek a new position, or, exceptionally, might be retained by the grown-up daughter as a paid companion.

In fiction[link]

Several well-known works of fiction, particularly in the nineteenth century, have focused on governesses.^[7]

• Becky Sharp, the main character in William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, is employed as a governess.
• Violet Hunter, in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," a Sherlock Holmes story.
• Henry James's most famous governess is the over-sensitive and perhaps hysterical protagonist in The Turn of the Screw.
• Stiva, the brother of the eponymous heroine in Anna Karenina, had an affair with his children's governess.
• Vera Claythorne in Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". She was Cyril Hamilton's governess and drowned Cyril so she could marry Hugo Hamilton once he inherited Cyril's fortune. Her employer was Mrs. Hamilton, Cyril's mother.
• Jane Austen's novel Emma opens with the eponymous heroine losing Miss Taylor, the governess who had become a family companion, to marriage with Mr. Weston. Later, Jane Fairfax engages to become a governess to escape a life of genteel poverty and dependence.
• Maria, the main character in The Sound of Music, leaves convent life to become a governess, and later marries her employer Georg von Trapp
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Hogfather features a governess named Susan Sto Helit.
• Soap opera Dark Shadows featured the character Victoria Winters as the governess to David Collins.
• Libba Bray's Ann in The Sweet Far Thing briefly to her cousins
• Jane Eyre, the eponymous protagonist in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, serves as a governess to the ward of her future husband, Edward Fairfax Rochester.
• Dante serves as governess to Stephen Dedalus and his siblings in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
• Hester, a character in Diane Setterfield's novel The Thirteenth Tale', is a governess at the Angelfield estate.
• Arabella Minton a governess in Eva Ibbotson's novel Journey to the River Sea.
• Agnes in Anne Brontë's novel Agnes Grey, different from her sisters' novels, Agnes Grey portrays a more realistic view of what life for a governess was like in Victorian England.

In film[link]

• The Governess is a 1998 British period drama film written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher.
• Mary Morstan is Dr.John Watson's fiance and future wife in the 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes and the 2010 movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Notable governesses[link]

The daughters of Alexander Graham Bell with their governess, c. 1885.

• Katherine Swynford, who was governess to the children of John of Gaunt, and later became his mistress, the mother of his Beaufort children, and his duchess. She was a great-great grandmother of Henry VII of England through his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort.
• Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, governess to Princess Mary, later Queen Mary I of England. They were also distant cousins.
• Katherine Ashley, governess to Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• Madame de Maintenon, who became the last mistress of Louis XIV of France, gained entry to his inner circle as governess to his illegitimate offspring, the children of Madame de Montespan.
• Louise Lehzen, Queen Victoria's governess.
• Anne Sullivan, the so-called Miracle Worker, who educated the remarkable deaf and blind girl Helen Keller.
• Anna Leonowens, governess in what is now Thailand, whose memoir Anna and the King of Siam reached the stage as The King and I
• Marion Crawford ("Crawfie"), governess of Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Princess Margaret.
• Marie Curie, governess in multiple households, later became one of the most influential women in the history of science.
• Reginald Fleming Johnston, Puyi's Scottish tutor from 1919 to 1924, published Twilight in the Forbidden City in 1934.
• Maria Von Trapp, governess to the Von Trapp children in "The Sound of Music"

Other uses[link]

The term "governess" also refers to a female politician who serves as governor, although it is now considered archaic, and has been replaced by "governor".

See also[link]

• Agatha Christie's classic mystery And Then There Were None
• Home schooling

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Broughton, Trev and Ruth Symes: The Governess: An Anthology. Stroud: Sutton, 1997. ISBN 0-7509-1503-X
• Hughes, Kathryn: The Victorian Governess, London: Hambledon, 1993. ISBN 1-85285-002-7
• Peterson, M. Jeanne: "The Victorian Governess: Status Incongruence in Family and Society, in Suffer and Be Still: Women In the Victorian Age, ed. Martha Vicinus. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972.

External links[link]

Education portal

• Britishtutors.com, British Tutors - Tuition agency providing governesses worldwide
• The Victorian Governess, a bibliography, at Victorian Web
• VAM.ac.uk, Richard Redgrave's 'The Governess' discussed at the V&A Museum.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Rhys Meyers at London premiere of Mission: Impossible III, 25 April 2006
Born	Jonathan Michael Francis O'Keeffe (1977-07-27) 27 July 1977 (age 34) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actor, model, vocalist
Years active	1994–present

Jonathan Rhys Meyers (born Jonathan Michael Francis O'Keeffe, 27 July 1977) is an Irish actor and model.

He is best known for his roles in the films Velvet Goldmine, Mission Impossible III, Bend It Like Beckham, Match Point and his television roles as Elvis Presley in the biographical miniseries Elvis, which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and as King Henry VIII in the historical drama The Tudors.^[1][2] He has been the face of several advertising campaigns for Hugo Boss fragrances.^[3]

Early life[link]

He was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Mary Geraldine Meyers and musician John O'Keeffe.^[4][5] He was raised Roman Catholic by his family.^[6] Born in Drimnagh, he moved to Cork, at one year old and was raised there with his three younger brothers, Jamie, Alan, and Paul, who are all professional musicians.^[7] When he was three, his parents separated. His mother raised Rhys Meyers and his brother Alan while his other two brothers went to live at their grandmother's house with their father.^[8] Rhys Meyers attended North Monastery School.^[9]

Career[link]

Rhys Meyers was expelled from the North Monastery Secondary School at age 16 for truancy and spent much of his time hanging out in pool halls. Casting agents looking for Irish boys to appear in War of the Buttons spotted Rhys Meyers at a Cork pool hall, the Victoria Sporting Club, and invited him to audition.^[10] Although he was passed over for War of the Buttons, the casting agents encouraged him to pursue a career in acting.^{[citation needed]} His first film role came soon afterward, in A Man of No Importance (1994). In 1996, he appeared in Michael Collins, as the title character's assassin. In 1999, he appeared in Ride with the Devil as psychopathic guerrilla fighter Pitt Mackeson.

Rhys Meyers has starred in television series including Gormenghast (2000) and in the CBS 4-hour mini-series Elvis (2005) as Elvis Presley alongside Randy Quaid as Colonel Tom Parker and Rose McGowan as Ann-Margret, but didn't sing for his role in the miniseries.^[11] The latter earned him an Emmy^[12] nomination and a Golden Globe win.^[13] He has starred in the CBC/Showtime co-production The Tudors (2007) as Henry VIII. He was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in 2007 for the role.^[14]

His film roles range from a David Bowie-inspired glam rock star in Velvet Goldmine (1998) to a dedicated girls' football coach in Bend It Like Beckham (2002). He appeared in Vanity Fair (2004) opposite Reese Witherspoon. He co-starred opposite Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie in Oliver Stone's epic Alexander (2004). In 2005, Rhys Meyers starred in Woody Allen's film Match Point, for which he received a Chopard Trophy at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2006, he appeared in Mission: Impossible III. Subsequent projects included August Rush (2007) and The Children of Huang Shi (2008), Shelter, co-starring Julianne Moore, and From Paris with Love (2010), co-starring John Travolta.^[15]

Rhys Meyers, a self-taught singer and guitarist, has appeared in a number of musical roles. His first such role was that of rock star Brian Slade in Velvet Goldmine; two of the songs he sang ("Baby's On Fire" and "Tumbling Down") are on the film's soundtrack. He sang briefly in the TV miniseries version of The Magnificent Ambersons, performed in studio scenes of the miniseries Elvis and played the flute in Gormenghast. In the 2007 music drama August Rush, Rhys Meyers performed on-screen as singer-songwriter Louis Connelly and is credited for four songs on the soundtrack – "Break", "Moondance", "Something Inside", and "This Time". Of the four, "This Time" and "Break" were considered in the Best Original Song category of the 80th Academy Awards.^[16] "This Time" was not released as a single but peaked at #84 of the Canadian Hot 100.^[17]

Rhys Meyers was chosen as the face for the Versace men's collection of Autumn/Winter 2006 and Spring 2007,^{[citation needed]} and he has also been the face of the Hugo Boss men's fragrance range since 2005.^{[citation needed]} He is signed to Independent Models in London.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2008, he became a celebrity ambassador for the Cork-based charitable organization The Hope Foundation.^[18]

On 5 October 2008, Rhys Meyers received an Honourary Patronage from the Trinity College Philosophical Society in Dublin, Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

In May 2005, Rhys Meyers checked into a rehabilitation facility, Promises in Malibu, California, seeking treatment for alcohol abuse. On 24 April 2007, the Associated Press reported that Rhys Meyers returned to treatment. The actor's representative Meredith O'Sullivan confirmed the news to People magazine citing his need to take a break from his busy schedule in order to maintain sobriety.^[19][20]

On 27 February 2009, the actor checked into rehab a third time, seeking help for alcohol addiction; and checked out on 15 March 2009.^[21]

In May 2010, it was reported that Rhys Meyers was banned for life from flying on United Airlines due to "belligerent" and "disruptive" behaviour including reported use of a racial slur in an incident involving alcohol^[22][23] at John F. Kennedy airport.^[24]

In November 2011, Meyers was ordered by a French court to pay a restitution of €1,000 and was given a judgement of a suspended sentence for public intoxication 24 months earlier.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Awards

• Nominated: London Film Critics Circle Awards, British Newcomer of the Year (1998), Velvet Goldmine, The Disappearance of Finbar, The Governess
• Won: Venice International Television Festival, Canal Grande Award for the Best Young Promising Actor (2002), The Magnificent Ambersons
• Won: Chopard Trophy, Outstanding Newcomer (2005), Match Point
• Won: GQ UK Men of the Year Awards, Lab Series Man of the Year (2006)
• Won: Monte Carlo Television Festival Golden Nymph Awards, Best Performance by an Actor — Drama (2008), The Tudors^[26]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jonathan Rhys Meyers

• Jonathan Rhys Meyers at the Internet Movie Database
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers at Emmys.com

Photo by Yousuf Karsh, mid 1950s

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten,^[1] OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist; and one of the central figures of 20th century British classical music. 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 his life partner, 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 an outstanding pianist and conductor.

Life[link]

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.^[2] 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.

John Piper's Benjamin Britten memorial window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh

Britten heard Frank Bridge’s orchestral poem The Sea at a festival and was, as he put it, ‘knocked sideways’.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt and then 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 12 songs mostly for unison singing, for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn where Britten's brother, Robert, was headmaster.^[5]

Early professional life[link]

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.^[6] 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.^[7] 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 April 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.^[8] 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.^[9] This musical encounter was to bear fruit decades later in several Balinese-inspired works including The Prince of the Pagodas,^[10] Noye's Fludde^[11] and Death in Venice.^[12]

Return to England[link]

Britten and Pears returned to England in April 1942, and both applied for recognition as conscientious objectors; Britten was initially allowed only non-combatant service in the military, but gained unconditional exemption 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; 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).^[13]

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.^[14]

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.^[15]

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.

	Op92; A Birthday Hansel for high voice and harp (1975) Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Performance by Alexander Kaimbacher (Tenor) and Volker Kempf (Harp).
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Having previously declined a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage on 2 July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk.^[16] 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[link]

Operas[link]

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,^[17] and only Puccini and Richard Strauss come ahead of him if the list is extended to all operas composed after 1900.^[18]

Other genres[link]

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[link]

The Scallop by Maggi Hambling is a sculpture dedicated to Benjamin Britten on the beach at Aldeburgh. The edge of the shell is pierced with the words "I hear those voices that will not be drowned" from Peter Grimes.

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.^{[19][not in citation given]} 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.^[20] 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.^[21]

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[link]

• 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[link]

• 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[link]

Ballet portal

• Britten's Children
• List of compositions by Benjamin Britten

References[link]

Sources[link]

• 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[link]

• 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[link]

• 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[link]

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

Worklists and performances[link]

• 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[link]

• 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).

Memorial plaque in memory of Ofra Haza at her childhood home in 39 Boaz Street, Tel Aviv

Ofra Haza (Hebrew: עפרה חזה, Arabic: عفرة حزة; born Bat-Sheva Ofrah Hazah 19 November 1957 –– 23 February 2000) was an Israeli singer of Yemenite Jewish origin, an actress and international recording artist.

Her voice has been described as mezzo-soprano,^[1] of near-flawless tonal quality, capable of lending itself to a variety of musical styles with apparent ease.^{[citation needed]}

Inspired by a love of her Yemenite Jewish culture, the appeal of her musical art quickly spread to a wider Middle Eastern audience, somehow bridging the divide between Israel and the Arab countries. As her career progressed, Haza was able to switch between traditional and more commercial singing styles without jeopardizing her credibility. Her music fused elements of Eastern and Western instrumentation, orchestration and dance-beat. She became successful in Europe and the Americas; during her singing career, she earned many platinum and gold discs.

Early life[link]

Haza was born the youngest of nine children, to a Yemenite Jewish family, in the poor Tel Aviv neighborhood of Hatikvah. Her first home was at 39 Boaz Street.

At the age of 12, Haza joined a local theater troupe, and manager Bezalel Aloni spotted her singing talent. He staged many of his productions around Haza, and later became her manager and mentor. At the age of 19, she was Israel's first pop star and retrospectively, music journalists described her as "The Madonna of the East".

By the time she had completed her military service in 1979, Haza had matured as a singer and was ready to launch a solo career.

Career[link]

Her first album, entitled Al Ahavot Shelanu (Our Love), was released in 1980 and yielded a string of popular radio hits, including Hageshem (The Rain), Shir Ahava La'chayal (Love Song For The Soldier), Kmo Tzipor (Like A Bird) and what ultimately became her signature song in Israel, Shir Ha'frecha (The Bimbo Song). The latter was written for the film Schlager (1979) in which Haza played a leading role. At first, radio stations across the country refused to play the song due to its lyrics, which at the time were unaccepted, but it quickly climbed the charts and reached No. 1, where it stayed for five consecutive weeks. Later in the year, the album reached gold status.

A second album soon followed, Bo Nedaber (Let's Talk), eventually going gold, which included the hugely popular hits Tfila (Prayer) and Simanim Shel Ohavim (Lovers Signs).

Her third album, Pituyim (Temptations) came out in 1982 and enjoyed equal success, reaching gold status as well, with such hits as Gabriel and Kol Yom Matchila Shana (A New Year Starts Everyday). With this album, more well-known writers agreed to write her songs, including Tzvika Pick and Nurit Hirsh.

In 1983, Haza's career jumped to a new level of success and popularity. At the Eurovision Song Contest, she came in a close second to the Luxembourg entry with the song "Chai" (Alive). Her popularity in Israel reached enormous heights. Her first platinum album, "Chai", released in 1983, became her biggest-selling album to date, and the title track was voted the No. 1 song of the year. Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor notes in The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History that Haza's performance of this song was highly symbolic as it contains the lyric "Israel Is Alive". As the contest was held in Munich, Germany, the scene of the 1972 Olympic's massacre, there was considerable patriotism involved with the Israeli entry.^[2] Additional hits from the album included Amen Lamilim (Amen For Words) and Sof Hakayitz (End Of Summer). Haza was voted "Female Vocalist Of The Year" four years in a row, from 1980 through 1983. Later that year, Haza released Shirey Moledet which consisted of her renditions of well-known Israeli folk songs, eventually going platinum as well. Public response was so overwhelming, she went on to release two more volumes (in 1985 and 1987).

Bait Ham (Warm House) was released in 1984 and included such hits as Yad Beyad (Hand In Hand), Itcha Halayla (With You Tonight) and the title track. The album quickly went gold. In December that year, Haza released what was to become the turning-point of her career, a collection of Yemenite songs, simply titled Yemenite Songs. Despite lukewarm radio airplay, the album went on to become a best-seller, quickly reaching platinum status. This LP was reissued in the United States by Shanachie Records under the title Fifty Gates of Wisdom.

The album Adama (Earth) followed in 1985 and saw the top writers in the country contribute to the album: Sasha Argov, Naomi Shemer, Ya'akov Orland and Ehud Manor, among others. The album produced the enormously popular hits, Adama, Goral Echad (One Destiny) and Mishehu Holech Tamid Iti (Someone Always Walks With Me), and reached gold status. Later that year, Ofra released "Shirey Moledet B", a continuation of her renditions of well known Israeli folk songs. The album went gold.

In 1986, Haza tried to update her sound and gathered with acclaimed producer Izhar Ashdot to create Yamim Nishbarim (Broken Days). The album had an edgy rock sound and the lyrics were deep and personal and written by Haza herself. The album went gold and produced the hits Kol Haklafim (Open Your Cards), Bo Ve-Nagen Oti (Come and Play Me) and Hake'ev Haze (This Pain).

When asked about her musical roots in an interview on KCRW-FM radio (1993, Santa Monica), Haza spoke of her Yemenite Jewish parents, a childhood filled with music and singing and a passion for traditional Yemenite songs, picked up from her mother. Questioned about the theatre troupe, she spoke of poverty and the total neglect of successive governments for the Hatikvah neighborhood; and how, by way of protest, the community had rallied to create something positive and dramatic, which would make others sit up and take notice of the forgotten neighbourhood.

International artist[link]

Her major international breakthrough came in the wake of the album Shirei Teiman (Yemenite songs), which she recorded in 1984. The album consisted of songs that Haza had heard in childhood, using arrangements that combined authentic Middle Eastern percussion with classical instruments.^[3] Further recognition came with the single "Im Nin'Alu", taken from the album Shaday (1988), which won the New Music Award for Best International Album of the Year.^[4] The song topped the Eurochart for two weeks in June that year and was on heavy rotation on MTV channels across the continent. In the annals of classical hip-hop this song would be extensively re-released, re-mixed and sampled, for example on Coldcut's remix of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full,". The single made only a brief appearance in the UK top 40 singles chart, but became a dance floor favorite across Europe and the USA, topping the German charts for nine weeks. Subsequent singles were also given the dance-beat / MTV-style video treatment, most notably, Galbi, Daw Da Hiya and Mata Hari, but none quite matched the runaway success of her first hit. Im Nin'alu would go on to be featured on an in-game radio playlist of the video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, released in 2005 and featured on Panjabi MC's album "Indian Timing" in 2009.

Haza also received critical acclaim for the albums Fifty Gates of Wisdom (1988), Desert Wind (1989), Kirya (1992), Ofra Haza (1997) and for her collection of children's songs, L'Yeladim (1982).

In 1992, Kirya (co-produced by Don Was) received a Grammy nomination.^[4]

In 1994, Haza released her first Hebrew album in seven years, Kol Haneshama (The Whole Soul). Though not an initial chart success, the album produced one of her biggest hits to date, Le'orech Hayam (Along The Sea). The song did not have any substantial chart success upon its release to radio but became an anthem after Haza performed it on the assembly in memorial to deceased Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a week after he was assassinated. Radio stations around the country started playing it and people took notice. Its lyrics became even more symbolic following Haza's own death in 2000.

Collaborations and performances[link]

A memorial to Ofra Haza in Ha'tikva neighborhood garden, Tel Aviv

Her collaborative work with internationally established acts included the single "Temple of Love (Touched by the Hand of Ofra Haza)", recorded with The Sisters of Mercy in 1992. Thomas Dolby co-produced Yemenite Songs and Desert Wind, where he was also a guest musician. Haza guested on Dolby's album Astronauts And Heretics (1992), singing on the track "That's Why People Fall In Love". She recorded "My Love Is for Real" with Paula Abdul in 1995 and on Sarah Brightman's album Harem, Haza's vocals were included on "Mysterious Days", thanks to an idea by Brightman's partner Frank Peterson (ex-Enigma), who produced both Harem (2003) and the album Ofra Haza (1997).

For the Kirya album, Iggy Pop, a friend of Don Was, performed the narration on "Daw Da Hiya" and Haza joined him and a host of other stars for the video and single release "Give Peace A Chance" in 1991. She also sang on the soundtracks of Colors (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), Wild Orchid (1990), Queen Margot (1994) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In The Prince of Egypt, she voiced the small role of Yocheved, as well as singing "Deliver Us". When Hans Zimmer, who was working with Haza on the music for The Prince of Egypt, introduced her to the artists, they thought that she was so beautiful that they drew Yocheved, whom Haza voiced, to look like the singer. For The Prince of Egypt's soundtracks, Haza sang the song "Deliver Us" in 19 languages (including Czech — "Tak vyveď nás", Dutch — "Verlos ons, Heer", English — "Deliver Us", Finnish — "Johdata", French (Canadian and European) — "Délivre nous", German — "Erlöse uns", Greek — "Eleftheri", Hebrew — "Hoshia Na", Hungarian — "Szabadíts", Italian — "Ascoltaci", Norwegian — "Befri Oss", Polish — "Uwolnij Nas", Portuguese (Brazilian and Portugal) — "Liberte Nos", Spanish (Latin and Castilian) — "Libéranos", Swedish — "Befria Oss"; Turkish – "Mýsýr Prensi"; about half of these were sung phonetically). On the soundtrack of The Governess (1998), Haza is the featured singer on seven of the twelve tracks and worked closely with film music composer Edward Shearmur. In 1999, she performed (together with late Pakistani artist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) the track "Forgiveness", on the contemporary symphony album The Prayer Cycle by Jonathan Elias. As a featured background vocalist, Haza's voice has been recorded, re-mixed or sampled for Black Dog's "Babylon" single, Eric B and Rakim's "Paid In Full (Coldcut Remix)" and for the M/A/R/R/S hit "Pump Up The Volume". The single "Love Song" has been re-mixed by DJs many times, its powerful vocal performance and comparatively sparse musical arrangement making it the perfect vehicle for a dance-rhythm accompaniment.

Covers of songs by other artists included the Carole King / James Taylor classic "You've Got a Friend", Madonna's "Open Your Heart", Gary Moore's "Separate Ways", and Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir".

There were many distinguished live performances and Haza spoke with fond memories of her visits to Japan and Turkey. Notable too, was her performance at the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, where she appeared alongside Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor. "Paint Box" was written specially for the event. Her 1990 live recording, Ofra Haza At Montreux Jazz Festival was released in 1998.

Haza shared duets and concert performances with Glykeria, Yehudit Ravitz, Paul Anka, Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Iggy Pop, Hoite, Buddha Bar, Ishtar, Gidi Gov, Whitney Houston, Tzvika Pick, Khaled, Prachim Yerushalaim, The Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Stefan Waggershausen, Eric B and Rakim, Gila Miniha, Hans Zimmer, Hagashash Hachiver, Yaffa Yarkoni, Shoshana Damari and posthumously with Sarah Brightman.

At the fall of 1999, Haza recorded new material for a new album that she worked on with Ron Aviv, a music producer from Petah Tikva. At the time, she also worked with the Finnish violinist Linda Brava, who released a previously unreleased track called Tarab on her MySpace page on 14 May 2010. On the track, Haza sings in English, Arabic and Hebrew, while Brava plays the electric violin. The track might be the last recording of Haza, before she died.^[5]

Marriage[link]

On 15 July 1997, Haza married businessman Doron Ashkenazi. They had no children together. Ashkenazi died of a suspected drug overdose after Haza's death, on 7 April 2001,^[6] leaving a daughter from his previous marriage and a 14-year-old adopted son Shai Ashkenazi.^[7]

Death[link]

Ofra Haza's grave in Yarkon Cemetery

Ofra Haza died on 23 February 2000 at the age of 42, of AIDS-related pneumonia. While the fact of her HIV infection is now generally acknowledged, the decision by the major Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz to report about it shortly after her death caused controversy in Israel.^[8]

After Haza's death was announced, Israeli radio stations played non-stop retrospectives of her music and then Prime Minister Ehud Barak praised her work as a cultural emissary, commenting that she also represented the Israeli success story — "Ofra emerged from the Hatikvah slums to reach the peak of Israeli culture. She has left a mark on us all".

The disclosure that Haza had likely died as a result of AIDS added another layer to the public mourning. The fact that a star with a reputation for clean living could be stricken caused shock among fans, debate about the media's potential invasion of her privacy, and speculation about how she had become infected. Immediately after her death, the media placed blame on her husband for giving her the disease.^[9] As reported indirectly some years later, her husband, who died in 2001, had said that she became infected as a result of a blood transfusion in a hospital following a miscarriage.^[10]

She is buried in the Artists section of Yarkon Cemetery in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.

Legacy[link]

Bezalel Aloni, Haza's manager and producer of 28 years, published a book Michtavim L'Ofra (Letters to Ofra) in 2007. The book is partly Aloni's autobiography and partly a biography of Haza, and includes letters written by Aloni.^[11]

In 2005, she was voted the 32nd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[12]

On 22 March 2007, on the seventh anniversary of her death, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality and the Tel Aviv Development Fund renamed part of the public park in the Hatikva Quarter Gan Ofra (Ofra's Park) in her honor. The park is placed at the end of Bo'az street where Haza's childhood home was. The park features a children's playground, symbolizing her love for children and the old quarter where she grew up and always came back to.

Tributes[link]

• Touched By The Hand of Ofra Haza Fanzine (2008–09) was a tribute fanzine.
• Sharim Ofra (Singing Ofra) 2002 – A tribute concert to commemorate the life of Ofra Haza where Israeli singers sang Haza's songs.

Documentaries[link]

• Life & Death of Ofra Haza 2002 – Aired on the Israeli channel 2, 29 January 2002. This documentary in Hebrew focuses on Haza's entire life and career until her sad death.
• Sodot (Secrets) 2005 – Aired on Israeli channel YES, this documentary in Hebrew and partly English is about Haza's life and attempts to answer questions surrounding her death.
• Dokoceleb Ofra Haza 2007 – Aired on the Israeli entertainment station HOT, 22 February 2007. This documentary in Hebrew focuses on Haza's career, achievements and marriage.
• Lost Treasure of Ofra Haza 2010 – Aired on the Israeli channel 10, 22 February 2010. This documentary in Hebrew and partly English focuses on Haza's inheritance.

Albums with Shechunat Hatikvah Workshop Theatre[link]

• 1974 — Ahava Rishona (First Love)
• 1976 — Vehutz Mizeh Hakol Beseder (Aside From That All Is Ok)
• 1977 — Atik Noshan (Ancient Old)

Solo albums[link]

Soundtracks[link]

See also[link]

• Mizrahi Music
• List of mezzo-sopranos in non-classical music

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ofra Haza

• Ofra Haza Official Website (Hebrew)
• Ofra Haza at Internet Movie Database
• Ofra Haza memorial page at Find a Grave

v t e Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest   Participation 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 to 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012   Artists 1970s Ilanit Kaveret Shlomo Artzi Chocolat, Menta, Mastik Ilanit Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta Gali Atari & Milk and Honey 1980s 1980 Hakol Over Habibi Avi Toledano Ofra Haza 1984 Izhar Cohen Moti Giladi & Sarai Tzuriel Datner & Kushnir Yardena Arazi Gili & Galit 1990s Rita Duo Datz Dafna Dekel Sarah'le Sharon & The Shiru Group 1994 Liora Galit Bell 1997 Dana International Eden 2000s PingPong Tal Sondak Sarit Hadad Lior Narkis David D'Or Shiri Maimon Eddie Butler Teapacks Bo'az Ma'uda Noa & Mira Awad 2010s Harel Skaat Dana International Izabo   Songs 1970s "Ey Sham" "Natati La Khayay" "At Va'Ani" "Emor Shalom" "Ahava Hi Shir Lishnayim" "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" "Hallelujah" 1980s 1980 "Halayla" "Hora" "Khay" 1984 "Olé, Olé" "Yavo Yom" "Shir Habatlanim" "Ben Adam" "Derekh Hamelekh" 1990s "Shara Barkhovot" "Kan" "Ze Rak Sport" "Shiru" 1994 "Amen" "Shalom Olam" 1997 "Diva" "Yom Huledet (Happy Birthday)" 2000s "Sameach" "En Davar" "Nadlik Beyakhad Ner (Light A Candle)" "Milim La'Ahava" "Leha'amin" "HaSheket SheNish'ar" "Together We Are One" "Push the Button" "The Fire In Your Eyes" "There Must Be Another Way" 2010s "Milim" "Ding Dong" "Time" (Note: Entries scored out are when Israel did not compete)