TenorPeter Pears and composer Britten, who lived together in Suffolk, performed at Gresham's in Holt, Norfolk, in 1964, after the headmaster at the time, Logie Bruce-Lockhart, persuaded Britten to return.
Britten never pretended to be heterosexual he lived with a male partner, the tenorPeter Pears and while homosexuality was no less common then than it is today, antigay attitudes were far more widespread in artistic circles.