33. Tyco the Vegan

This week’s film is somewhat different in that it features a work that doesn’t exist, other than in a very preliminary state. In the Britten-Pears Foundation Archive there are a number of ‘unachieved projects’: works that Britten began, often in collaboration, but which didn’t reach completion. In the case of Tyco the Vegan, a planned opera for children, there is evidence of Britten’s initial engagement, and a single item of draft libretto; but that was as far as it went. The film explores the context of this embryonic project, and its somewhat surprising subject matter.