Last Day for Pittsburgh Opera’s ‘Curlew River’ at Calvary Episcopal Church (Sun., 2/1/26)

CURLEW RIVER (modern opera) by Benjamin Britten, with libretto by William Plomer. Pittsburgh Opera. Through February 1. 

The late, great Benjamin Britten was a strangely eclectic composer. His eerie 1964 opera Curlew River, unusual when it premiered, still comes across as a spine-tingling experience. Britten didn’t even call it an opera, referring to it as a “music drama” or a “church parable”—one of three pieces he composed for performance in churches. But whereas the other two were drawn from Bible stories, Curlew River was adapted from an ancient Japanese Noh play. The story concerns a woman whose son had been stolen by a slave trader. Gone mad in a search to find the boy, the woman boards a ferry across a river, where she learns that her son had died on the opposite bank—and his grave has become a shrine with miraculous healing powers. Working with librettist William Plomer, Britten transformed the tale to a pageant in the style of medieval England. The performers are garbed as monks. They enter chanting a thunderous Latin hymn. Then they shed their monastic cloaks to act out and sing the drama, accompanied by a haunting musical score. Pittsburgh Opera performs Curlew River in the majestic setting of Calvary Episcopal Church. 4 p.m. 315 Shady Ave., Shadyside. (M.V.)

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