Steve Schwartz and Bert Bailey ask how Britten's sexuality and/or his
relationship with Pears could have influenced his oeuvre musically.

It's pretty obvious Britten's homosexuality has influenced his choice of
text.

Britten over and over again mirrors his own dilemma--the confrontation
between *private* needs and *public* duty; and the silencing of his other
self--in the psyches of his chosen operatic heroes: Donald Mitchell, (in
his liner-notes to the Erato Budd), discovers a stunning parallel between
Elizabeth's two selves in Gloriana: "Since from myself my other self I
turn;" and Vere's obstinate refusal to acknowledge his other self in Budd:
"No. Do not ask me.  I cannot."

Both characters have private reservations regarding the fate of their
men, (selves), yet under the watchful eye of community, allow their men,
(their "other self") to be killed.  The anti-hero Grimes kills, (silences),
himself rather than face community.  Aschenbach(sp) dies in silence without
ever confronting Tadzio.  Billy stutters.

I offer three musical examples:

Some homosexuals "kill" their desires, or other self, with silence and/or
immobilization.  As Vere closes the cabin door, how many of the same
unaccompanied chord does Britten give us? 32? How those repetitious triads
speak, yet how little is said--there is no progression, no mobilization.
Some are anguished, some frightening, some empathetic, some estatic....I'm
not suggesting that something sexual went on--Britten was smarter than to
psychologically provincialize his characters--but Britten's experience in
trying to reconcile public and the private and the resulting immobilization
it can cause could certainly have prompted such psychological tone
painting.

At the high point in Death in Venice, when Ashenbach summons the courage
to say, "I love you," Britten pulls the increasingly-estatic music out from
under him, as if the music shouldn't "bless" the event.  One could say that
Britten's awareness that his community wouldn't bless such a sentiment
could have influenced this dramatic musical gesture.  Or Britten is
bringing Ashenbach back to reality.

According to Mitchell, Pears "owned" the note E.  It is on repeated E's
that Grimes sings "Now the Great Bear and Pleides...  Are drawing up the
clouds of grief." And it is on repeated E's that Vere sees Billy for the
first time.  Immobilized poignancy once again suggested in the music.

John Smyth