E. M. FORSTER'S BILLY BUDD AND THE COLLABORATIVE WORK OF OPERA

On 9 January 1964, the 86-year-old E. M. Forster took a curtain call at the Covent Garden revival of Billy Budd alongside his colibrettist, Eric Crozier. The Times review of the event neglected to mention either of the librettists, prompting Forster to write: Dear Sir, I have read with interest and approval your article on An Opera of Good and Evil in this morning's Times , but wish you could have managed to squeeze in a reference to Eric Crozier and myself. We did the Libretto. We worked on it in Britten's house for several weeks. We might reasonably be credited with having helped to interpret his intentions and his conception of Melville's intentions. Yours faithfully, E. M. Forster