What is Aldeburgh Festival?
{{no sources|date=October 2019}} The '''Aldeburgh Festival''' is an [[England|English]] [[arts festival]] where [[classical music]] [[concert]]s take place during the summer. [[Aldeburgh]] is in [[Suffolk]] in the south-east of [[England]]. It is where the composer [[Benjamin Britten]] lived with his friend the [[tenor]] [[Peter Pears]]. A lot of Britten’s music is played at the festival, but music by many other composers can be heard as well. Most of the concerts take place in the [[Snape Maltings|Maltings]], a [[concert hall]] in the [[village]] of Snape, not far away from Aldeburgh. == History of the Aldeburgh Festival == The Festival was started in [[1948]] by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and the [[librettist]] [[Eric Crozier]]. They started the festival so that the [[English Opera Group]] would have a place to perform their operas, but soon the festival became bigger. There were [[poetry]] readings, [[drama]] performances, [[lecture]]s and [[art]] exhibitions. The first festival was mostly held in Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, a few doors away from Britten's house in Crabbe Street. His [[opera]] ''[[Albert Herring]]'' was performed, as well as his ''[[St Nicolas Cantata]]''. Over the years the festival grew. Some of the performances took place in the church, or in churches or other halls in nearby villages and small towns such as [[Orford]] and [[Framlingham]]. However, the festival needed a large [[concert hall]]. In the [[1960s]] the old [[malthouse]] (where [[barley]] used to be made) in Snape was changed into a concert hall. It was opened by the [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen]] on [[2 June]] [[1967]], at the start of the twentieth Aldeburgh Festival. Two years later, on the first night of the [[1969]] Festival, the concert hall was destroyed by [[fire]]. Only the main walls remained. For that year the Festival was moved to other local places, but by the next year the hall had been rebuilt and once again it was opened by the Queen, this time at the start of the [[1970]] Festival. == T