The opera Paul Bunyan (1941) is an early work by Benjamin Britten that met with little success and was consequently set aside by the composer until, 35 years later, he was persuaded to review and revise it and offer it to the public a second time. In the interval Britten had become one of the major opera composers of the century and W. H. Auden, his librettist and one of the greatest English poets, had written successful librettos for other composers. If for no other reason, then, Paul Bunyan had great value for the retrospective glimpse it provided into its creators' early careers. When the work was revived critics and scholars found, as they had hoped, numerous early indicators of ideas and techniques that were to bear fruit in Britten's later works. Most importantly, however, the opera itself was found to be both more substantial than expected and thoroughly enjoyable in its own right. A review of the circumstances of its composition and early reception will be followed by an analysis of the thematic material, structure, and style of Paul Bunyan.
Benjamin Britten (1913-76) was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk near Aldeburgh where he later settled and established an important music festival. Britten began writing music at the age of eight and began studying with his mentor, composer Frank Bridge, in 1926. He studied at the Royal College of Music in 1930-33 and won several prizes for composition. In 1935 "he determined to make his living as a composer" and began his professional career with assignments for the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit, where he met Auden. While fulfilling numerous more-or-less commercial commissions of this type Britten acquired a contract with the publishers Boosey and Hawkes in 1936. He was also commissioned to write a long piece for an important festival and asked Auden, with whom he had been collaborating at the GPO, to devise a libretto for a symphonic cycle. This was Our Hunting Fathers op....