Every American composer seems to be writing opera these days. But despite some high-profile conservative efforts (“Gatsby,” “A View from The Bridge”) American opera hasn’t yet come into its own. Don’t despair though – “Prior to World War II, it was widely felt that British work was dead beyond hope of revival; the last opera by an English-born composer to enter the standard repertoire had been Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, composed in 1689.” Then in 1945, Benjamin Britten wrote “Peter Grimes” and a new era in British opera commenced. – Commentary