Ed Zubrow writes:

>With the youth bound and the old man Abraham lifting his knife, an angel
>calls out to him from heaven, telling him to spare the youth and sacrifce
>a ram caught in a nearby thicket instead.  Presumably God is willing.  But
>He is unable.

I have never interpreted this passage (which, by the way, is breathtakingly
moving) as Britten ascribing to God the unwillingness or inability to
forego the sacrifice.  It is clearly (to me at least) Abraham's (i.e.,
mankind's) choice.

len.