The First Aldeburgh Festival Programme Book, 5th-13th June 1948.

Historic programme in very good condition for age, slightly bent top right corner of cover. First 5 pages show light crease in top right corner.

The Festival was founded in 1948 by the composer Benjamin Britten, the singer Peter Pearsand the librettist/producer Eric Crozier.

Their work with the English Opera Group (which they had founded with designer John Piperin 1947) frequently took them away from home, and it was while they were on tour in Switzerland with Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia in August of that year, that Peter Pears said "Why not make our own Festival? A modest Festival with a few concerts given by friends? Why not have an Aldeburgh Festival?"

TheEnglish Opera Group would provide a core programme of opera productions, but the vision was soon widened to include readings of poetry, literature, drama, lectures and exhibitions of art.

The first festival was held from 5th to 13th June 1948 and used the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, a few doors away from Britten's house in Crabbe Street, as its main venue, with performances in other venues such as Aldeburgh's fifteenth-century Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

It featured a performance of Albert Herring by the English Opera Group; Britten's newly written Saint Nicolas; and performances by Clifford Curzon and the Zorian String Quartet.