D. Stephen Heersink wrote:

>Britten, whether hetero- or homosexual, is a bore.  His lover Peter Pear's
>voice wasn't anything to crow about.

Well, de gustibus and all that, but I still get chills hearing Pears sing

      "Blow, bugle, blow,
   set the wild echoes flying,
       Blow, blow; answer, echoes,
   dying, dying, dying."

from Britten's *Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings*, creating just the
right aural imagery as he lets the second syllable of each "dying" fade
into its own oblivion, especially in the earlier recording w/ Dennis Brain
and the Boyd Neel String Orchestra.

Walter Meyer