Posted by Robert Thompson on May 13, 2007 at 17:42:26 from 80.177.174.120 user robert.
In Reply to: Re: Swallows and Amazons - The Musical posted by andyb on May 13, 2007 at 10:38:14:
My mind boggles, however at a Britten S&A Opera, would we see Capt Flint as a Peter Grimes figure?
Actually Britten initially envisaged "S&A the opera" not as the "Peter Grimes" type of grand opera which, to be honest, is not everyone's cup of tea, but more the light "operetta" style which he successfully used for the 1949 Aldeburgh Festival in The Little Sweep.
Britten had wanted to set S&A as a piece that could involve the children of Aldeburgh and the surrounding area and would therefore need only a few adults in the cast - Captain Flint, Mother, Mrs. Jackson, etc. Between his first thoughts and the final result, however, he read and was much taken with Kingsley's The Water Babies - hence The Little Sweep, a very funny operetta involving hiding the sweep boy Sam from the dastardly Clem and Bob and fooling the gullible housekeeper Miss Baggott in order that Sam may escape his hard life for ever.
The operetta also has the unusual and highly amusing device of asking the audience to join in (having taught them the tunes first)!
Another interesting fact - the role of Sam the sweep boy was first played by the actor/singer Michael Crawford.