At the close of the Second World War, Britten visited Bergen-Belsen while on tour in Germany with Yehudi Menuhin, giving concerts for concentration camp survivors. Britten was so shocked by what he saw at Belsen that, both immediately and for many years afterwards, he would not speak of it. But, on his return home, he composed Lucretia, a harrowing, intense, and beautiful meditation on the motivation (personal and political) behind forced aggression and undeserved suffering.

In a lyrical production at the Royal College of Music, this opera chills, bewilders and charms.

Click here to read my full review on Bachtrack.

Lucretia, by Andrea Casali, c.1750