With its dress code and extended picnic interval, Glyndebourne isn't to everyone’s taste, so the company’s annual Proms visit makes an attractive alternative. In the Albert Hall some theatricality inevitably goes missing, but cast, orchestra and conductor come fresh and on-song from Glyndebourne.
Adapted for the Proms, Ian Rutherford’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd had lost its sets, but some props and all the costumes survived. As seen here (it may have felt different at Glyndebourne), the staging was conventional but made good use of the spaces around and below the concert platform. The action unfolds on a British warship during the Napoleonic Wars. The libretto is over-filled with secondary characters, yet there was a convincing feeling of men co-existing in cramped quarters. The story presents the Britten-esque confrontation between good (Billy Budd, recently press-ganged into service) and evil (Master-at-Arms Claggart). The ship’s captain, Vere, looks on, knowing what’s right but nevertheless allowing Budd to be hanged — the build-up to the execution was chilling.
Although Brindley Sherratt lacked some of the snarl in the voice that Claggart requires, he strutted the stage like a bullying schoolmaster, and if Jacques Imbrailo’s Budd was pallid, his final monologue at last brought the character to life. Vere is the wobbling pivot on which the action turns, and Mark Padmore, singing with passion and clarity, was magnificent. With Andrew Davis conducting the Glyndebourne Chorus and London Philharmonic Orchestra with authority, the cumulative effect stunned the audience into silence before the applause finally erupted.
Catch up on iPlayer. Proms until Sept 7 (0845 401 5040, bbc.co.uk/proms)
