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Billy Budd
Photos by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
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Composer |
Benjamin Britten |
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Librettist |
EM Forster and Eric Crozier after Herman Melville’s unfinished story. |
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Venue and Dates |
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 20, 22, 25, 28 September, 3, 7, 12 October 2000 |
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Conductor |
Richard Hickox |
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Director |
Christian Räth (a revival of Francesca Zambello's production)
Photo by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
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Performers |
Billy Budd : Simon Keenlyside Edward Fairfax Vere : Kim Begley Claggart : Eric Halfvarson Mr. Redburn : Alan Opie Mr. Flint : Stephen Richardson Mr. Ratcliffe : Graeme Broadbent Dansker : Conal Coad Red Whiskers : Francis Egerton Donald : Adrian Clarke Novice : Timothy Robinson Squeak : Richard Coxon Maintop : Peter Auty Bosun : Keel Watson First Mate : Christopher Keyte Second Mate : Bryan Secombe Novice’s Friend : Quentin HayesH Arthur Jones : Jonathan Coad Cabin Boy : Alex Knox Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House |
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Production |
Alison Chitty (sets) |
Photos by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
What the critics say
Tom Service for the Guardian, Friday September 22, 2000
Covent Garden's opera for the hard-of-hearing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,,702691,00.html
“The rounded tone of Keenlyside's voice and his natural athleticism show Billy's extroversion and simple-minded goodness; he is both vulnerable and strong-willed. During the first act, Keenlyside turns Billy into a holy fool - a well-loved member of the crew, incapable of believing that anyone could bear him malice.”
Photo by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
Edward Seckerson for the Independent, 22nd september 2000
Atmosphere and drama - in the orchestra at least
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article262194.ece
"...Crew-wise, Simon Keenlyside's eponymous hero/victim shone, not least through his puppy-like physicality. His refusal to overplay any of the emotional subtext stood in marked contrast to Eric Halfvarson's bullet-headed Claggart who was simply too much the demon king for my liking...."
Photo by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
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The Times, 23rd September 2000 (Rodney Milne)
"...Simon Keenlyside's wholesome Budd is among the most beautifully sung any of us will have heard..."
Photo by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
The Telegraph, 25th September 2000 (Rupert Christiansen)
"The Royal Opera has revived Francesca Zambello's bland but efficient production of Britten's Billy Budd, reverting to the revised two-act version (which should have been made clear in the programme). For Simon Keenlyside's tremendous portrayal of Billy alone, it is well worth catching: dazzling in its physical energy, sung with both virility and tenderness, it's a star turn...."
Photo by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
By Anna Picard for The Independent, 1st October 2000 http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article171362.ece
Tuesday night will be the last chance to catch Covent Garden's revival of Francesca Zambello's coolly oppressive production of Billy Budd. Whatever you may have heard about the English surtitles (and how I wish that the Coliseum would adopt them too), you don't have to read them. And no matter how impeccable the diction of a cast, it can be difficult to hear every word if you're not comfortably and expensively seated in the stalls.
I still think Britten's tendency to tweeness is antipathetic to the appalling cruelty of Melville's story and my problems with the opera were not helped by Richard Hickox's boxy conducting. But the central performances of Eric Halfvarson (Claggart), Kim Begley (Vere) and Simon Keenlyside (Billy) are tremendously assured. The supporting cast boasts the wonderful Alan Opie and Timothy Robinson, a terrific performance from Francis Egerton as Whiskers, and Keel Watson, who makes a belated Covent Garden debut in the tiny role of the bosun. The chorus sing magnificently and Alison Chitty's designs in the sea/sky pallete of blues and greens and turquoise and indigo are a model of communicating size and space and fear and constraint through the sheerest of gestures.
The Royal Opera House has had such a pasting for its revival-heavy autumn schedule, but short of casting Robbie Williams as Billy, surely reviving Billy Budd (and the inadvertently comical Tosca with box-office draws like Alagna) is doing exactly what they've repeatedly been asked to do; to give the public what they want. Just a thought.
Photo by Clive Barda/ArenaPal
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Opening up a no-go aria.
Rupert Christiansen for the Telegraph, 4 August 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2001/08/04/bmope04.xml
“Paul Reeve, director of opera education at the Royal Opera House, told me that a recent schools' audience for Britten's Billy Budd went "bananas", and one can well believe that anything set aboard a man-of-war, clearly articulated in English and starring the dashing Simon Keenlyside, would have a terrific impact. But a lot depends on the choice of opera, and on there being a plausible cast and production.”
