Portal:Opera/Selected biography/28

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was considered to rank with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century. Among his best-known works are the opera The Midsummer Marriage and the oratorio A Child of Our Time inspired by Kristallnacht (pictured), the Nazi government's violent pogrom against its Jewish population. Having briefly embraced communism in the 1930s, Tippett avoided identifying with any political party. A pacifist after 1940, he was imprisoned in 1943 for refusing to carry out war-related duties required by his military exemption. His initial difficulties in accepting his homosexuality led him in 1939 to Jungian psychoanalysis; the Jungian dichotomy of "shadow" and "light" remained a recurring factor in Tippett's music. He was a strong advocate of music education, and was active for much of his life as a radio broadcaster and writer on music.