My Own Heart’s Darling: A Recital in Song and Letters | Interview with Alan Lau, Leslie Tay and Pauline Lee | The Flying Inkpot
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears were one of the twentieth century’s great creative partnerships — composer and tenor, collaborators for nearly four decades and life partners for just as long. On 28 June 2026, tenors Alan Lau and Leslie Tay, soprano Akiko Otao, with pianist Pauline Lee, bring that bond to the Esplanade Recital Studio stage in My Own Heart’s Darling: A Recital in Song and Letters, a programme that traces the arc of their relationship through the music Britten wrote expressly for Pears and the letters the two exchanged across a lifetime.
With readings by actor Tan Shou Chen woven between the songs, it is set to be less a conventional song recital than a love story told in music and correspondence.
Derek Lim speaks to three of the performers – tenors Alan Lau and Leslie Tay and pianist Pauline Lee – ahead of the concert, which plays twice at 2pm and 4pm.
Tickets are available from https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/lite_brittenrecital2026, and you can use your SG Culture Pass dollars to purchase them.
The Flying Inkpot: Let’s start with the title — My Own Heart’s Darling is an unusual one. How did it come about?
Alan Lau: The title comes from the opening of one of the letters between Benjamin Britten and Pears. We picked it because it shows the casual intimacy between the two, and how they were like any other two people in love.
TFI: And yet they were anything but ordinary. Britten and Pears were collaborators for nearly four decades — composer and interpreter, but also life partners. What was their relationship like, and why does it still resonate today?
Alan: It was like any other romantic relationship, with its ups and downs. What their letters show us is that, despite the facts that we today see them as two absolute giants of music history, there’s very little in their correspondence that gives any hint of their outsize influence and standing in the world. Instead, we have an intimate picture of their sheer ordinariness – they talk about everyday topics, update each other on what’s happening in their professional lives, and gossip about other artists and musicians.
We also get a sense of how deeply they care about each other’s well-being, even when it’s clear that they’re bickering. The letters are full of pet names, endearments, and asking how the other is. It’s as far from deep philosophical musing as you can get.
TFI: That intimacy is exactly what the recital seems built around. It draws on the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the folksong arrangements, and My Beloved is Mine — how did you conceive the programme, and what connects these pieces?
Alan: Pieces from the song cycle Seven Sonnets form the overall structure of the recital – it brackets the opening and closing of the programme. It’s appropriate because Britten composed it right at the start of their relationship, in 1940, and it’s a self-admitted first “declaration of love” between them. And it was also the first full song cycle that Britten specifically wrote with Pears’ voice in mind.
It’s obvious that it remains a real touchstone in their lives – towards the end of Britten’s life, as he is succumbing to the heart ailment that eventually kills him, Pears refers to it in a beautiful letter (which is part of this recital) which sums up their entire relationship.
The folksong arrangements were always an important part of their lives, and reflect Britten’s lifelong interest in vernacular musical forms, while remaining very singable.
We simply had to do Canticle I – again written early in their relationship (1947) – it’s as ardent and emotive a piece of writing as any that Britten ever wrote for Pears.
Selections from the song cycle Winter Words have also been chosen for the parallels that they cast on certain aspects of their partnership.
We’ve selected pieces and letters that work together to tell the story of their lives – we’ve also chosen to perform only non-operatic repertoire here, because their small scale and intimate nature best capture the mood of what we’re trying to convey about their relationship.
TFI: You call the Sonnets a touchstone in their lives. In 1974, Pears himself singled them out as one of the greatest works Britten had given him — a remarkable thing for a performer to say about a composer. When you sing them, do you feel why he may have said that?
Alan: Sonnets is almost autobiographical in its scope, range and intensity – this set of songs and texts seem to encompass the entirety of human romantic emotion – as Michelangelo himself must have felt when he wrote them. They run the gamut from adoration and joy, to jealousy and despair. As a set, they cast almost as clear a window into the details of their relationship as their actual letters do.
Leslie Tay: The Seven Sonnets are incredibly challenging for the tenor voice. Personally I don’t think Peter Pears had the most conventionally beautiful vocal timbre, but the way Britten wrote for his voice showcases it wonderfully, revealing what a refined and intelligent singer Pears was.
TFI: Was there anything that surprised you in rehearsal – a piece that opened up differently, or proved more challenging than expected?
Alan: It’s been a great joy to get to know all these pieces in detail as we rehearse them. It’s a testament to Britten’s writing talent that there’s always something new to discover about these songs upon repeated airings.
For me personally, I was astonished at the depth of emotion contained within Canticle I: My Beloved is Mine, which I didn’t know well at all before. The text itself, a paraphrase of the biblical Song of Songs by the early 17th century poet Francis Quarles, is surprising in its mystical fervour and vivid imagery.
Britten runs with this even further using a kaleidoscopic rhapsody of musical forms and textures. It was really rewarding to become more familiar with this piece, as it’s so emblematic of the deep feelings between the two.
Leslie: Sonnet XXIV, the last of the cycle feels very bare because many parts are unaccompanied when the voice is singing, or is only very lightly supported in the piano accompaniment. It was the one I have been most concerned about but I am now trying to embrace how exposed it feels and use that to convey the vulnerability of two individuals who are in a soulmate relationship with one another.
TFI: When the vocal music of Britten is discussed, Peter Pears’s very distinctive tenor voice is often brought up, and we know that Britten often wrote specifically for him. As tenors yourselves, how does that feel — and how did it shape the way you approach the music?
Alan: No one can replicate Pears’ distinctive timbre or approach. At times it can feel very daunting, knowing that you’re singing music so closely tailored for someone else.
The only thing I can do is to mine the music for traces of what feels “true” for our time and place, and to relate it to the best of my ability. Our object is to bring the audience with us on an emotional journey through the music and letters, and we’ll certainly do our best to convey that.
Leslie: There is no way I am able to sing the music the way Pears sings, lol. As a singer in his late 40s, I have actually spent the last couple of years renavigating and recalibrating my singing technique as my voice has changed from what it used to be like before. My challenge in this recital is to sing this difficult music in a way that works best for my voice currently rather than attempting to do it the way Pears sang it.
TFI: Beyond those technical demands — what is Britten’s musical language actually like in these songs? Is it immediately accessible, or does it take time to get under the skin?
Alan: The amazing thing about Britten’s music is that, on the surface, it always sounds balanced and “whole” to the casual listener, despite the musical language being distinctively modern.
But dig beneath the surface, and there’s so much to uncover. Britten had a reputation for subtlety and deep meaning, and that’s probably why repeatedly singing his works can be so rewarding.
Britten’s obsession with folksongs and English medieval music also means that his music can be simultaneously old and new at the same time.
Pauline Lee: From the piano, I would say it’s deceptively approachable. The voice has something lyrical to hold onto quite immediately.
But the piano writing is doing something more layered underneath the singing. It plays many roles – sometimes creating harmonic ambiguity, unexpected turns, or even a kind of emotional commentary running alongside the voice rather than simply supporting it.
The more you listen, the more you hear.
Leslie Having sung Britten works in the past, getting into his musical language wasn’t too hard. The challenge for me these last few months has been reworking how to sing his music technically because my voice is different from what it was before in my younger days.
TFI: The recital weaves in readings from Britten and Pears’s personal letters. Did reading those letters change how you sing/play the songs?
Alan: The letters also form the basic framework for the overall narrative of their lives, from the moment they met to the day that Britten dies.
We selected the songs for the emotional weight they bring to a given stage of their relationship, and the letters help to make it feel much more true and personal.
The letters certainly bring to life the sentiments that passed between Britten and Pears.
Pauline: Very much so. Once I’ve read the letters, the music stopped feeling abstract. It had a face, a recipient, a person.
I found myself playing certain phrases with more care, more thought and much more imagination, understanding that these notes once meant something very specific to a very specific person.
Leslie: Yes, the mutual affection in the letters is clearly evident! I am challenging myself to find an intimacy and immediacy in the way I sing instead of just delivering the songs as technical challenges to be surmounted.
TFI: You mention finding immediacy in the letters, yet these were written 60 to 70 years ago. Does that distance make them feel more precious, or more remote?
Alan: I love the written word, and I think that it’s a shame that the art of letter-writing has largely died out in our daily lives.
Letters are much more intimate. Even in the most hastily dashed-off note, there’s a real sense of the author’s moods and sentiments.
The letters are what make their relationship seem to float off the page and come to life.
Leslie: I think it makes letter-writing feel more precious. In a time of instant messaging, I think we have grown more careless in the way we communicate. We don’t choose our words as carefully anymore in general. And that is such a pity!
TFI: Hearing these letters spoken aloud must feel like bringing some of that preciousness back. Tan Shou Chen, a well-known actor here in Singapore, reads them in the recital. What does his voice add?
Alan: We’re so thrilled and fortunate that Shou Chen agreed to come and do our little show! He has a beautiful, clear voice that’s perfect for this recitation, and he handles the readings with such sensitivity and compassion.
Pauline: A letter read aloud is a completely different thing from reading it on paper. Shou Chen brings real presence and stillness. When he speaks, you listen differently; the words land differently. There’s a warmth in the room before he even begins.
Leslie: Shou Chen is not only an actor but his reputation as an opera director has been growing in recent years. With his experience working in opera, we felt he would be the perfect person to be our narrator for this recital, as he brings both the skills of actor and stage director to his role in our concert.
TFI: For someone who’s never heard Britten before — give me one reason they absolutely have to be in that room on June 28.
Alan: If you want to hear, experience and live through one of the great queer love stories of modern times, come! Our intention is that you don’t have to be a regular classical music concertgoer to enjoy this recital. It’s just a beautiful love story, told in letters and music.
Pauline: You will hear what music sounds like when it is written for love. Not love as a theme, but love as the actual reason the notes exist.
Leslie: It’s a rare chance to hear beautiful music that is hardly ever done in Singapore!
Plus our recital is less than an hour long! Plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day!
TFI: What do you hope they will leave with?
Alan: I hope they’ll be touched by the emotions, and I hope they’ll discover that Britten is for everyone!
Pauline: I hope they leave thinking about someone they love. Great art and music has the ability to create that feeling – making what is supposedly private now feel universal, and suddenly something that happened sixty years ago in England feels entirely present and relatable.
Leslie: We want the audience to leave celebrating love and humanity! Love comes in all shapes and sizes and it can often inspire the greatest creations of mankind!
TFI: Bringing it back to the title: what is your own heart’s darling to you — who, or what, is it?
Alan: That’s private to me, but if you come to the recital, you may discover something about love for yourself!
Leslie: My own heart’s darling is my partner. When we met and talked for the first time, the connection I felt was so immediate and deep, like a soulmate connection level.
Besides him, I would say Music is the other “darling” that has always been a constant in my life. It is what helps me make sense of this world even when everything feels like it’s falling apart.
