New video: A sardonic ode for Benjamin Britten’s birthday

New video: A sardonic ode for Benjamin Britten’s birthday

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norman lebrecht

November 19, 2013

Something to dispel the waft of sanctimony that will envelop the actual birthday, on Saint Cecilia’s Day, this Friday. It’s a remake of the Flanders & Swann radio upsend.

Not quite in the class of Dudley Moore, but who is?

 

Benjamin Britten at Blythburgh church

Comments

  • David Boxwell says:

    Less side-splittingly cruel than Dud performing “Little Miss Britten.”

  • Tim Benjamin says:

    That video is not particularly funny (imho anyway!) … not as funny as the Dudley Moore take-off, such as: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n7BCUVJkhU

    (which apparently Pears thought was funny but Britten got touchy about – I dread to think what he’d have made of that “Flanders and Swann”!)

  • V.Lind says:

    The truly frightening thing was that, back in the day, in a stage comedy show, people “got” the send-ups on Britten and Weill. Nowadays you would be hard-pressed to find people who had even heard of either, let alone who had nodding acquaintance with their styles. You can;t have satire without culture.

  • Barbara Chasson says:

    Absolutely brilliiant!! I met Britten and Pears in Mexico City in 1967 at the British Ambassador’s home for an evening of fun and music. BTW I am a professional violist, lived in the UK for 20 years and re-met with Pears in Aldeborough after Britten’s death. Thank you for this, Norman!

  • fandsfan says:

    Wonderful! Not so much a remake, as a revival of this largely forgotten masterpiece. I wonder how many today understand the full range of double entendres? Who now recognises the name of Joan Cross? But I hope everyone will enjoy the subtlety of Bundles for Britten and Piles for Piers. Anyway, BB evidently hated it.

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