Peter Pears

彼得·皮尔斯（Peter Pears，1910～1986），英国男高音歌唱家。出生于英国的法恩姆斯，早年就读于Lancing学院，继之在牛津大学Keble学院学习音乐，同时在hertford学院担纲管风琴演奏，后来又在皇家音乐学院学习了两个学期，1936年成为英国广播公司的歌手，以演唱贝奇、舒曼和舒伯特的歌集闻名。长期同英国作曲家兼钢琴家本杰明·布里顿协作（后者是他的同性恋朋友），布里顿为他创作了许多声乐作品和歌剧角色，如歌剧《彼得·格里姆斯》、《小夜曲》和合唱曲《战争追思曲》等。1939年在和德国的战争爆发前夕，为了避免服兵役，他和布里顿去了美国，后来被英国登记为良性拒付兵役者。1942年在伦敦首次演出歌剧。1946年协助布里顿建立英国歌剧院，促成了1948年爱丁堡音乐节的实现。1977年受封爵士。
 
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE (22 June 1910 – 3 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years.
 
Pears's musical career started slowly. He was at first unsure whether to concentrate on playing or singing, and despite the efforts of some of his friends, it was not until he met Britten in 1937 that he threw himself wholeheartedly into singing. Once he and Britten were established as a partnership, the composer wrote many concert and operatic works with Pears's voice in mind, and the singer created roles in more than ten operas by his partner. In the concert hall, Pears and Britten were celebrated recitalists, known in particular for their performances of Lieder by Schubert and Schumann. Together they recorded most of the works written for Pears by Britten, as well as a wide range of music by other composers. Working with other musicians, Pears sang an extensive repertoire of music from four centuries, from the Tudor period to the most modern times.
 
With Britten, Pears was a co-founder of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1947 and the Britten-Pears School of music in 1972. After Britten died in 1976, Pears remained an active participant in the festival and the school, where he was director of singing. His own voice had a distinctive timbre, not to all tastes, but such was his musical skill that he could use the voice to good effect in many styles of music.