Eric Crozier
Eric Crozier OBE was a British theatrical director, opera librettist and producer, long associated with Benjamin Britten.
Early life and career
Crozier was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and at the British Institute in Paris, working as a translator and giving English lessons. In Paris he joined Jacques Copeau's La Compagnie des Quinze, known for championing experimental drama. Returning to England, he became one of the first drama producers for BBC Television, a position that his friendship with the actor Stephen Haggard helped him to obtain. Productions during that time included Turn Round and Telecrime. Crozier joined the Old Vic theatre, working with Tyrone Guthrie, then moved during the war to the Sadlers Wells Opera Company where he directed Smetana's The Bartered Bride in 1943 with Peter Pears in the lead role.Association with Britten
The association with Benjamin Britten began when Crozier directed his first opera, Peter Grimes, which had its world premiere at Sadler's Wells on 7 June 1945. Although this was both a critical and a commercial success there were many difficulties over its staging, including objections both to the music and to Britten's pacifism. Crozier fiercely defended the opera, and after the premiere he resigned from the company due to the lukewarm support he had received from the management.Instead, Crozier founded the English Opera Group in 1947, and co-founded the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. He directed his second wife, Nancy Evans, in the role of Lucretia in the 1946 premiere of Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne, and later succeeded Peter Pears as director of the Aldeburgh Festival. His first opera libretto for Britten was Albert Herring. He wrote the librettos for the cantata Saint Nicolas, the children's opera Let's Make an Opera, and Billy Budd at Covent Garden in 1951.
Crozier and Britten eventually fell out permanently, and in Imogen Holst's 1966 biography of Britten he is not mentioned at all. This, claims Jim Coyle, "not only calls into question Holst's objectivity; it serves to illustrate Britten's implacable lack of forgiveness on occasions". Something very similar happened to another Britten librettist, Ronald Duncan.