Opera Reviews
28 March 2024
Untitled Document

A stark portrayal of Billy Budd



by Colin Anderson
Britten: Billy Budd
English National Opera
18 June 2012

Photo: Henrietta ButlerWith David Alden directing and Edward Gardner conducting, the 'dream team' that made Peter Grimes such a success for ENO were hoping for more Britten glory.

There is certainly much to admire with this new production of Billy Budd. We are some way from the HMS Indomitable of Herman Melville's imagining, maybe Britten and his librettists too, and certainly from Glyndebourne's faithful and compelling production from 2010. As conceived by Alden and his team, we could be on board a warship (chasing the French), and we can imagine we are. It could equally be a prison, the officers in black frockcoats, quite German and Russian in naval terms and much later than 1797. Maybe the fact that this is a co-production with the Deutsche Opera Berlin and the Bolshoi Theatre played a part in Alden's thinking.

There's no doubting the dark, threatening claustrophobia of this production, coming into its own in Act II as Claggart finally sets up William Budd with false charges and his subsequent court martial causes Captain Vere such problems. He could pardon Budd, but doesn't.

Kim Begley is an outstanding Vere: humane, honourable yet ultimately weak; Begley has the role nailed both as singer and as actor. Benedict Nelson is an enthusiastic and athletic Billy Budd, eager to please and progress, dazzled by 'Starry Vere'. Nelson is very moving in Budd's soliloquy following being sentenced to death for striking and killing Claggart, played by Matthew Rose. Rose's voice could perpetrate greater evil, and whether his slow robotic steps conjure a black-hearted monster is debateable. He seems unthinking and therefore not capable of ensnaring Billy. Gwynne Howell is a very sympathetic Dansker, Billy's friend.

Overall the cast is excellent, and the choral singing stupendous. Edward Gardner finds depth and power in the score, superbly played, with an uncompromising vision to match what Alden and his team have created. At first things are perplexing, then ideas fall more into place. All the time the production has one thinking - and musing afterward, too - a good sign. If the sea is rarely suggested, clearly Alden is presenting a bigger picture, that of tyranny and of oppression. Such a stark portrayal eventually works well and lifts the performance to unexpected realms.

Text © Colin Anderson
Photo © Henrietta Butler
Support us by buying from amazon.com!