Benjamin Britten biography reveals how censors cut composer's 'obscene' opera - Telegraph.co.uk

But in a departure from Shakespeare, the composer included a scene implying that the heroine was complicit in her sexual encounter with Tarquinius.

Britten's original arrangement saw the Male Chorus singing "He takes her hand/And places it upon his unsheathed sword", followed by the Female Chorus singing "Thus wounding her with an equal lust/A wound only his sword can heal".

Documents held at the British Library show that one of the Lord Chamberlain's officials, reviewing the opera, compared it to D.H. Lawrence's sexually-explicit novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, which had caused a scandal when first published in 1928.

The official wrote: "I most certainly think we should draw the line at the somewhat transparent effort by the Chorus on page 5 of Act II to wrap up an ugly fact in pretty language. It is little better than the obscenities in Lady Chatterley's Lover."

The licence to perform The Rape of Lucretia was only granted subject to the removal of the offending lines. For the opera's first performance, at Glyndebourne in July 1946, they were replaced with: "Tarquinius – 'Poised like a dart'/Lucretia – 'At the heart of woman'/Male Chorus – 'Man climbs towards his God'/ Female Chorus: 'Then falls to his lonely hell'."

Michael Kennedy, the Telegraph classical music critic and Britten biographer, said: "I am amazed he altered Lucretia to suit the censors. Had it been later in his career, I suspect he would have made a stand. To compare his original lines to Lady Chatterley is ludicrous."

The findings appear in a new biography of Britten by Paul Kildea, a conductor and Britten expert, which will be published next year to mark the composer's centenary. The book also reveals how in 1945, the Lord Chamberlain approved Britten's first opera Peter Grimes uncut, although not without a scathing judgment of the work.

Granting a licence to Peter Grimes, an official wrote: "It is all very wafty and nebulous and I don't pretend I can make sense of the plot from the verses, but there is no offence in them or in the production. Perhaps Benjamin Britten's music will carry it through."

Britten died in 1976 aged 63. His centenary will be marked throughout 2013 with a series of films, books, musical releases and performances of his best-known works around the world.