Introduction: Britten and Pears's ‘personal and consistent’ Correspondence

Summary

‘your letters have been life & breath to me […] My man – my beloved man.’

Britten to Pears, December 1942 (Letter 27)

Maintaining contact through their letters was of vital importance to Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears throughout their 39-year relationship. Towards the end of his life, on 17 November 1974 (Letter 349), Britten wrote a letter from Aldeburgh to Pears who had recently made his Metropolitan Opera House debut in Death in Venice:

I've just listened to a re-broadcast [on the radio] of Winter Words (something like Sept. –72) and honestly you are the greatest artist that ever was – every nuance, subtle & never over-done – those great words, so sad & wise, painted for one, that heavenly sound you make, full but always coloured for words & music. What have I done to deserve such an artist and man to write for? I had to switch off before the folk songs because I couldn't [bear] anything after – “how long, how long”. How long? – only till Dec. 20th – I think I can just bear it But I love you,

I love you,

I love you —— B.

Britten's appeal ‘how long, how long’ echoes the concluding cry in ‘Before Life and After’, from the song cycle of Thomas Hardy poems Winter Words, a work that he and Pears first performed together in October 1953 and which had become an established part of their recital programme. The phrase conveys a longing for the return of a mythical past, an ancient world that came before the corrupt one, an impression that Pears described as Hardy's ‘most personal and consistent view of the universe’. Removed from this context, it offered Britten a more intimate meaning and he employed Hardy's words to put across his more immediate longing – 20 December was the final New York performance of Death in Venice after which Pears would return home.

Britten's valedictory question was a familiar way for him to end a letter to Pears. A plea for his partner's swift return had become a frequent closing sentiment in his correspondence during their periods of absence from one another. What was different in this case, though, was Britten's awareness of the grave state of his health.