Paul Bunyan, a choral operetta in a prologue and two acts, was first performed by the Columbia Theater Associates of Columbia University of New York. Its premiere took place in Brander Matthews Hall on May 5, 1941. The libretto to the opera was written by the eminent English poet W.H. Auden and the score by Benjamin Britten, who was one of England's most distinguished composers. It was their first collaboration and Britten's first large-scale theatrical work. Britten withdrew the score after its premiere, and did not rework it for production until 1975. It was revived on a BBC broadcast on February 1, 1976, and the new version given a stage performance at the Aldeburgh Festival by the English Music Theatre later that year.

When Britten and Auden first conceived of the idea of writing about Paul Bunyan, the mythical American hero of the frontier, they immediately came against the problem of his size. They decided to replace his physical presence with an unseen voice and let the minor characters tell the tale. They thought of Bunyan as a projection of the collective consciousness of early Americans, who had to carve out a livable world in a northern wilderness filled with natural hazards, forests, and unpredictable weather. The real story, therefore, is that of the pioneers, who forged out of the American wilderness a settlement, and Paul Bunyan the mythical personification of their struggle. The tale begins with the birth of Paul Bunyan, and ends after machines have been invented and nature has been tamed.

The exploits of Paul Bunyan could not be enacted in anything less than an amphitheater, so Auden and Britten replaced action with narrative, composing ballads which recount his adventures, to be sung between acts. The two elected Johnny Inkslinger, Bunyan's bookkeeper, the protagonist of the story, and balanced the all male cast of the lumber camp with soprano cats and a dog, and other creatures. As the name of the genre suggests, much of the music is given to the chorus, which are made up of trees, wild geese, lumberjacks, farmers, and frontier women. The fantastic quality of the narrative is created by the creatures, whose cast includes the moon, a squirrel, a beetle, the wind, and a heron. There are also four "defeated" characters who break out into a blues chorus. The score reflects the lighthearted tale, and is playful and ingenious.

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