who was Benjamin Britten the man who composed many of his finest vocal works for his life partner of four decades, Peter Pears (1910 1986)?
A Time There Was is a superb documentary portrait, that shows us both Britten’s public persona (as conductor and public figure the first British composer ever made a lord) and reticent private side. Through a series of choice interviews, ranging from family members to musical luminaries, we see the major points of Britten’s life come to life. Palmer adroitly combines personal archival footage together with original photography to show us Britten’s world in succinct but revealing detail, from his childhood home to schools to his long “exile” on Long Island, New York, to the seascapes which inspired, and haunted, him throughout his life and music. (Britten has been acclaimed for his singular transformation of the sea into music; his Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Peter Grimes is one of the most often-performed, and sublime, orchestral works of the twentieth century.) There is also priceless footage from 1957 of Britten, Pears and friends in Bali, whose gamelan music became an i
