Fleeing internal politics at
Sadler's Wells Opera at the end of 1945, Britten and singers
Joan Cross,
Anne Wood, and
Peter Pears joined with designer Piper and producer Crozier to found the English Opera Group. The new company's goal was to première Britten's operas, and to present other, mostly British, small-scale operas. The company's first project was to première Britten's
chamber opera Albert Herring and give further performances of his opera
The Rape of Lucretia during a tour of British and
continental European venues. It also commissioned and premièred a new piece by
Lennox Berkeley, a setting of the
Stabat Mater. Despite heavy subsidies, however, the costs of touring could not be recouped, so Britten and the group's other directors decided that it should be based at a home venue. This was the prime reason for the inauguration of the
Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. The first opera commissioned by the group,
Brian Easdale's
The Sleeping Children, was premièred in 1951. It gave the North American première of Britten's
The Turn of the Screw at Canada's
Stratford Festival in 1957. Aside from other new works by Britten, the group commissioned and produced eleven other new operas by British composers. It also gave the British première of
Francis Poulenc's opera
Les mamelles de Tirésias in 1958. The group also performed older operas, such as
Acis and Galatea, ''
The Beggar's Opera, Idomeneo, Iolanta, La rondine and Trial by Jury'', and works by
Henry Purcell and
Gustav Holst. The
Royal Opera, London took over management of the group in 1961. In 1971
Steuart Bedford was appointed musical director, and
Colin Graham became director of productions. ==English Music Theatre Company==