Snape Maltings Fire (1969)

Abstract BRITTEN: Well, it looks pretty devastating-but it’s difficult at this moment to say exactly what is sound. It looks as if the walls-the brick-these marvellous brick walls, you know, which have contributed so much to the-the beauty of the sound-it looks as if they are going to be all right.1BBC: What were your feelings when you saw the devastation?BRITTEN: I’m not a poet. I can’t describe those feelings. It was-of course it’s been a terrible shock and I’m afraid it’s going to be dreadful for so many of our audience-audiences that have come, you know, to hear and see things in the Maltings this next two or three weeks-that they can’t go to any concerts or operas at the Maltings, especially as so many of them have contributed towards the cost of the rebuilding of the Maltings.BBC: Well how much is it going to cost to rebuild?BRITTEN: I don’t know yet. It’s-I should think it can’t be far off its original cost, which was, you know, in the neighbourhood of £570,000--but that’s the-engineers, Arups, are coming down this afternoon to see it, and I’m going to go back now and to walk all over it again with them so we can have some idea of the assessing of the damage.BBC: You lost your piano in this blaze. This must have been an extremely bitter blow.BRITTEN: Oh it was a bitter blow, but there are so many things gone-I mean it looks as if one of those precious double basses is gone,2 a harpsichord has gone, the costumes for some of the operas, scenery-all the rostrums which Stephen Reiss has carefully designed and planned over the years, and this lovely seating, of course, which was one of the prides of Snape-that has gone too.