Britten's bedroom
Across the landing from Pears's study is Britten's bedroom. The bed was moved from the north wall (as shown here) to the west wall when Britten was in his final illness, so that he could see the view in the garden; it was then moved back by Pears after Britten’s death. This was not the original bed used by Britten and Pears in this room: the original (now in another bedroom) was so wide that the nursing staff couldn’t raise Britten up when he was ill, so they moved this narrower bed into his room.
Other upstairs rooms have, over the years, acquired names relating to their close association with friends and colleagues of Britten and Pears. They include:
Britten and Basil Coleman with the score of Gloriana, 1953
'Basil’s room’
Although originally Pears's bedroom, this has come to be named after Basil Coleman, the English director of opera, stage and television who worked extensively with the English Opera Goup from 1949 through the 1950s. He collaborated with Britten on the first stagings of The Little Sweep, Billy Budd, Gloriana and The Turn of the Screw. After a decade in Canada, he then returned to be involved in the 1966 BBC production of Billy Budd. In the 1980s he worked with Pears and Steuart Bedford on productions of Britten operas with students from the Britten-Pears School.
‘Peg Hesse’s Room’
Peg Hesse
Prince Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine, and his British-born wife Margaret (known as Peg) were introduced to Britten and Pears by the Harewoods. Britten spent the Christmas of 1953 with the Hesses at Schloss Wolfsgarten near Frankfurt, and Britten and Pears went on to share a number of holidays with the couple, including part of a trip to the Far East in 1956 that was to have a profound influence on the direction of Britten’s creativity. Peg Hesse was responsible for setting up the Hesse Students Fund in 1959, a scheme by which bursaries were provided for students to attend the Aldeburgh Festival in return for practical help. Britten continued to visit Wolfsgarten until late in his life, working on Death in Venice there in 1972 and resting there while ill in 1974.