Opera Review: The Road to Melville

Glyndebourne's Billy Budd sails to BAM.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Captain Vere (Mark Padmore, left) confronts Billy (Jacques Imbralio) and Claggart (Brindley Sherratt)
in Act II of Billy Budd. Photo by Richard Hubert Smith © 2013 The Glyndebourne Festival.

Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera Billy Budd is one of the composer's most powerful, and challenging creations. Based on the novella by Herman Melville and set to a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, a performance requires a top-flight orchestra, crack choral singing and a compelling set of leads to bring Herman Melville's novella of life in the British Royal Navy in 1799 to vivid life. Finally, the naval action must look and feel convincing, or the production will simply sink.

Opera Review: Injustice For All

The Metropolitan Opera (briefly) revives Billy Budd.

Ship rocked: Nathan Gunn (center) in the Met's
revival of Billy Budd. Photo by Ken Howard
 © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

by Paul Pelkonen

On Friday night, the Metropolitan Opera unveiled the final revival of this season: John Dexter's classic 1978 production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. This revival also marked the return of James Morris to a signature role: the evil John Claggart.

Set aboard a British warship in 1797, Billy Budd (based on a novella by Herman Melville) is the story of a young sailor (Nathan Gunn) press-ganged into service aboard the H.M.S. Indomitable during the "French wars." The idealistic young sailor becomes popular among the crew but is targeted for destruction by Claggart, the ship's scheming master-at-arms.

Mr. Gunn embodied energy and fresh, doomed innocence in the title role. He stirred the audience with his entrance "Farewell, O Rights-O-Man," (a paean to his former ship) and brought raw energy to the crew's shenanigans below decks. He was at his most moving in the Act II scene in the ship's brig, where Billy confronts his coming execution and comes to peace with his fate.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Billy Budd

Benjamin Britten's powerful tale of injustice on the high seas.

by Paul Pelkonen

San Francisco days: Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd.
Image © 2007 San Francisco Opera.

Billy Budd is one of Benjamin Britten's most effective operas, the tale of an innocent seaman gang-pressed aboard the H.M.S. Indomitable during the Napoleonic Wars. Once there, Billy runs afoul of John Claggart, the ship's master-at-arms. Claggart, a malevolent, Iago-like figure decides to frame Billy for mutiny. Although the shipboard rebellion never happens, Billy still swings at the end of a rope.

Injustice, repressed homosexual lust and the horrors of war are central themes of Billy Budd. The taut libretto, by E.M. Forster, is based on the short novel of the same title by Herman Melville, ranked among that author's work second only to Moby Dick. The Met mounts a realistic shipboard production, with good opportunities for the company's exceptional male chorus as the crew of the Indomitable.


The cast of this revival features baritone Nathan Gunn in the title role. Bass-baritone James Morris takes on the key role of John "Jemmy Legs" Claggart. This is the Met's first revival of the 1978 production to appear in 15 years.