“…In this version, departing from the Japanese original yet in keeping with the intrusion of the supernatural common to Noh plays (Murray 60), the twelve-year old boy, having now become some local saint after his premature death, finally appears spirit-like to his mother and grants her the peace she has been seeking as a sign of God's grace. Plomer had known Britten for many years and the parable idea must have been no surprise as many of Britten's operas, from the Brecht-influenced Paul Bunyan of 1941 to his recent Midsummer Night's Dream of 1960, set out to deliver a message, in a more or less explicit fashion (Couderc 2004). Thus the Male and Female Chorus of the 1946 Rape of Lucretia harness a Christian interpretation to the age-old Roman story.…”