Customer Reviews

Britten: Billy Budd ~ Keenlyside · Langridge · John Tomlinson · LSO · Hickox

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This Chandos set is a great one and is of superlative quality. The Britten recording contains Michael Langdon's unforgettable Clag- gart. Simon Keenlyside gives a magnificent interpretation as Billy Budd, amazing in which he combined innocence, goodness and virility, never for a moment suggesting soppiness, with the final ballad sung most affectingly. Richard Hickox realizes all the opera's drama in excellent playing. Even so, the towering single performance of Philip Langridge as Captain Vere, singing in controlled emotion and sheer vocal magic. His enemy in the opera is sung with black malevolence by John Tomlinson, sometimes too melodramatic, but there are moments of introspection which chill the listener's blood. As for the supporting roles, they are sung by some of best male voices in British opera, led by Alan Opie, Matthew Best and Alan Ewing as the three officers, vividly and meaningfully sung and so I could go on. A great performance!

Britten - Billy Budd

Benjamin Britten consistently proved himself an operatic and dramatic genius. There are few canons in the history of opera that engage as highly on an emotional and intellectual level as Britten's operas, and certainly no other comparable canon in English. Britten consistently showed exquisite taste in choice of subject, setting of high quality poetic texts and psychological insight...that coupled with works that tackle timeless themes such as the clash of good and evil, and the individual against an uncomprehending society and you have some of the meatiest philosophical work of the 20th century.

Billy Budd did not meet with immediate success. The opera was dubbed The Buggar's Opera by the British Press...a swipe at the proclivities of the opera's co-creators, Britten, E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier. The all male cast also did not endear the work to the standard opera audience initially. In 1961, Britten revised the work, streamlining it into two lengthy acts with a Prologue and Postlude, and tightening some of the passages. In this form the work has steadily gained favor, until now it may rank with Peter Grimes as the composer's most popular opera.

The libretto, taken from Melville's late philosophical tale of Good and Evil aboard a British Man-o-war, is sharply drawn. The three main characters are all flesh and blood and yet represent distinct "types"...Billy Budd is fresh and honest goodness, so fresh and honest to survive in a fallen world. The Master at Arms, John Claggart, is a figure of pure evil, perhaps the best-drawn figure of evil in opera since Verdi and Boito's Iago. Billy Budd is pressed into service aboard the English ship during its wars with Napoleon. Budd is exuberant and embodies all the best qualities of youth and freshness. His attractive qualities bring him into direct conflict with Claggart, who in the opera is subliminally attracted to Billy, but so repressed that he seeks to destroy the sailor. Drawn into this clash of Good and Evil is Vere, the dreamy and heroic captain of the ship. When Claggart comes to Vere to accuse Billy of sedition, Vere knows instinctively that Billy is innocent, yet before he can do anything about it, Billy's temper gets the best of him and he strikes Claggart and kills him. Vere is then faced with the clear imperative to execute Billy for killing a superior officer, even though Vere knows that higher morality exonerates Billy.

Britten and Forster take the bones of this story and arrange it in separate and increasingly powerful scenes. The opening scene including the "recruitment" of men rounded up by press gangs, is dominated by shrill wind calls that illustrate the sheer brutality of life aboard a man-o-war. Underneath there are the beautiful and moving shanties of the sailors, expressing the bleakness of their toil and life. Claggart's entrance and music as he inducts the reluctant recruits is masterful. Claggart's music is brutal and powerful, and each time he enters in subsequent scenes the hair on the back of your neck raises. Other powerfully drawn scenes include Captain Vere's drinks in his cabin with the officers, which include some of the most beautiful lyrical writing in the opera, the below deck revels of the sailors, the confrontation between Billy and Claggart, and the stunning conclusion of the work.

What particularly makes this opera work is Britten's skill in differentiating all the male voices. It is rare that an opera of this length consists of only one voice gender. Perhaps the only other example I can think of is Puccini's Suor Angelica, and that is only a one-acter. Britten keeps things straight by writing highly individual music for all of his characters, even the periphery characters. Claggart's music is brutal and dark, and the voice is a basso profundo and as such immediately recognizable. Vere is a dreamy tenor, of the kind that Peter Pears played so well. Other periphery characters like the spy Squeak, or the Novice, have phrases that render them whole characters within a phrase or two. The music for Billy is perhaps the hardest to create, but Britten seems to catch both his good spirits and his temper so that the threads that make the tragedy are woven into Billy almost from the first time we meet him. Using these highly artificial musical procedures, Britten ends up creating some of the most naturalistic opera imaginable, and when all the disparate musical elements meet in the last scene, the effect is overwhelming.

There are currently three widely available recordings of this opera, the original London recording, with Britten conducting and Pears as Vere, a recording with Thomas Hampson and Kent Nagano conducting, and this Chandos recording. You can't go wrong with any of them. The London recording has the advantage of Pears amazing and amazingly weird voice in a role that was written for him...and John Shirley Quirk's powerful Claggart. But to me the Chandos edges it out by a little, with Langridge's very powerful Vere. In this recording you realize that neither Billy nor Claggart is the main character of this drama, Vere is. Langridge sings the role with restraint and yet with true pathos, so that by the end, you are openly weeping for the man caught in an insoluble moral dilemma. And John Tomlinson's Claggart is even more terrifying than Shirley-Quirk. The Nagano disc has the edge on its Billy though. Thomas Hampson owns the role, though on this release Simon Keelyside does a fine job with the title character. Hickox and Nagano are both in excellent control of the material, and edge out Britten, who's rendition must be considered a benchmark in terms of tempi, but who's skills as a conductor were not always of the highest quality. On balance, I think I'd opt for this disc, were I to only own one version of the opera.

I have seen Phil Langridge do Capt. Vere a couple of times, with two different Budds, each time I was amazed at how audible the audience crying is. The man is simply amazing as Vere. This is the creme of the crop of English opera singers; Dwayne Croft and James Morris might be better vocally but these people are better actors. Great Great opera.

Yesterday, November 2, was the fifty-fifth anniversary of Benjamin Britten's completion of Billy Budd, and I have been thinking a lot about the opera lately (partly because I read the Melville original to my family as we were driving places this summer and that led me back to the opera). Of the three performances in stereo (conducted by Hickox, Nagano, and Britten), this is the weakest. With probably the best recorded sound of the three---the spaciousness is superb---it suffers in two main areas: First, the tempos are too slow. This means, not that there is a perfect tempo that can be indicated by a metronome marking, but that in any given performance the tempo must convince one of its "rightness"---see my comments about the Nagano performance below. Pop musicians speak about a "groove," and it applies to classical music too. Particularly unfortunate in this regard is the big set piece that opens act 2 ("This is our moment"), which seems to drag and lose steam somewhere in the middle; it's supposed to represent the frustration of the crew's desire to see action, but the music has therefore never to flag until it is left hanging, unfulfilled, at the moment of maximum excitement.

The other weakness is, I regret to say, the singing, particularly of Philip Langridge. He sounds vocally tired on this recording and I suspect that he gamely agreed for some set of practical reasons (scheduling, expense) to go ahead and do it, despite knowing that he was not in his best voice. I saw him do Vere at the Met [7/31/08 actually I saw Pears at the Met], and he was wonderful---and I was even more wowed by his Aaron in Moses und Aron at the City Opera. Simon Keenlyside is a good Billy, but I simply like the others more. John Tomlinson, though, has a suavity of tone that makes him my favorite Claggart.

Vocally, the other two recordings are much preferable. Anthony Rolfe Johnson, the Vere in the Nagano recording, captures some of the spooky vocal quality of Peter Pears in his performance, though it must be said, without the consummate attention to detail. Compare Pears' and Johnson's readings of the last lines of the opera: Pears carries his voice down (portamento) from the last note of "centuries ago" to the first note of "when I, Edward Fairfax Vere, commanded the Indomitable"; Johnson just sings one line, then the next. Thomas Hampson's Billy is also very beautifully sung; he is probably my favorite of the three, but (1) I think it is an almost impossible role to bring off dramatically---though I haven't heard Uppman---and (2) I think the quality of the Vere is more important to the overall impression.

The problem with this recording (the Nagano) is in the tempos, as has been remarked by at least one reviewer. Surprisingly, they are the most in accord with the score---even more so than the composer's performance. In this case, however, everything seems rushed. The only way I can explain it is to say that while the tempos follow the letter of the score, the music doesn't "breathe." I tend to doubt that Nagano's tempos are the result of a desire to get the opera on to two CDs, as another reviewer cynically suggested, but his rendering of the thirty-four chords of the "interview" scene are almost comically fast, though, alas, gorgeously played.

To go off on a tangent, the Nagano recording is the only one of the original four-act version. The main difference is in the big "Starry Vere" scene of act 1, which is much cut back (and in which Vere doesn't actually appear) in the two-act version. This recording does make a case for the four-act version because Billy's last line ("Starry Vere, God bless you!") has a better context with the scene intact. I do have a gripe, however: Britten composed the ending of each act so that the music seems to pick up where it left off in the next---inspired by Berg's Wozzeck (Britten had wanted to study with Berg and once listed him as among his top ten favorite composers). So why didn't the recording company put a decent break between the acts? The link that he composed between acts 3 and 4 seems particularly redundant without some intervening silence.

The Britten performance with Pears is still the best overall, in my opinion, despite some scrappy brass playing and some distortion in the recording. One tiny example perhaps gives a hint of why. Of course, Britten observes his own tempos accurately, but when Vere sings "What have I done?" near the end, Britten lets lose with a whack! on the bass drum---maybe just on the spur of the moment---while the score calls for the drum to be played softly [7/31/08 I mistook the second bass drum hit for the first in the score, so this is not accurate, but the point is still valid]. It's musically absolutely right, and noteworthy as an instance of a composer justifiably disregarding his own marking. A terrific musician first, Britten was not a slave to the score, even his own.

This was the first opera by Benjamin Britten that I purchased and I have been in love with his music ever since. The sound is wonderful and the balance between voices and orchestra is spectacular. This singing is absolutely top drawer. Langridge is the closest thing to Peter Pears that our generation has and thank goodness he has an affinity for Britten! His Vere is powerful and sublimely heart-felt. He copes manfully with the strange tessitura and range, bringing great emotion and pathos to the role. John Tomlinson is a smooth-voiced Claggart, more Iago than Mephisto, twisting each phrase and note toward its most vile connotation. His monologue about Billy is simply dripping with hate and jealousy; and--could it be?--attraction toward Billy and hatred of himself for having those urges? A breathtaking reading. Simon Keenlyside is simply the most virile and sensually-voiced Billy on record. He cannot match Hamspson's sweetness and innocence of tone, however Keenlyside's is a Billy we can believe men would follow as a leader and who could kill a man with one punch. His "and farewell to ye" at the end of the opera is less an acceptance of death, but an affirmation of life and his faith in something greater than he; it is one of my most favorite operatic moments. Hickox helms a tight ship and the ensemble singing is haunting and powerfull. Warmly recommeded!

Billy Budd has inspired more fierce devotoin than any other Britten opera, so I can't disagree with the points made by other reviewers, but I have to say that Billy has been very lucky on records. The 1951 premiere, in listenable mono, is a blazing performance, particularly from the lead, Theodor Uppman, Peter Pears as Captain Vere, and the composer on the podium. For a stereo version, Britten's later Decca recording is everything one oculd ask for in terms of detail and sensitivity, although Pears's voice has aged in the role of Vere, and Peter Glossop as Billy is too weighty and thick vocally to sound innocent. for me, Kent Nagano's live performance with Thomas Hampson in the title role rockets out of the gate with outstanding recorded sound and great impact from the chorus and orchestra; the added thrill of a live event really comes through.

Compared to those three, this recording under the late Richard Hickox lacks just a little in emotional depth. Chandos's sound is excellent, and Hickox himself builds the great final climax of Billy's execution to shattering effect. Keenlyside's voice offers an almost perfect image in sound of the "handsome sailor," but he doesn't quite convey the pathos of spiritual innocence, which is what Billy's parable stands for. Philip Langridge (who like Hickox died before his time) also falls just short of giving us Vere's full guilt and anguish. Every vocal soloist, in fact, is fine, but so are the ones in the three sets mentioned above. I think the special thing about the singing here is the diction, which is very clear, a hard thing to achieve in English, particularly with so many low voices--E. M. Forster's libretto can be appreciated for the fine work that it is. But I didn't ocme away deeply moved by this set, as I was by Rolfe-Johnson's Vere on the Nagano set and Uppman's Billy on the origianl radio transcript. All in all, this is a very goood reading, however.

P.S. 2010 - A new contender, starring Nathan gunn and conducted by Daniel Harding, now makes our choices even harder. The outstanding factor in that set is Hardin'gs magnetic conducting, which raises the stakes considerably.

britten is widely considered one of the greatest 20th century opera composers (certainly, among the greatest in the english language), and "billy budd" is perhaps the masterwork of his middle career -- six years after "peter grimes", a decade before "midsummer night's dream", and two decades before "death in venice". britten was keen to experiment with different vocal and instrumental combinations across his many vocal and operatic compositions, and "billy budd" is remarkable in two respects: it is scored for an all male cast and chorus, and the solo parts are assigned to six baritones (including the part of billy budd), seven basses (including the villainous claggert), but a single principal tenor (the part of captain vere) -- with four "trebles" (boys) and two minor tenor parts for incidental color. this gives vere's role the quality of a golden thread weaving through the darker and more tumultuous tonalities of his crew. and the tumult emerges both from the conflicts among the crew and from their mission to pursue french warships during the french revolutionary period. the opera provides many unique and savory moments of drama -- the clamorous and clangorous pursuit of an enemy ship in act II, the tense exchanges at budd's trial, the mysterious three dozen orchestral chords that communicate the offstage conversation where budd learns of and is reconciled to the trial verdict, and vere's closing soliloquy. hickox's interpretation is beautifully shaped, the recording is detailed and clear, and the performance by all the cast and by the london symphony orchestra and chorus is absolutely flawless.

two versions of the opera exist: this recording of the three act (2 cd's) version is a closed set (studio) recording of a highly acclaimed stage production. for the longer four act (2 or 3 cd's) version, the live concert recordings conducted by kent nagano or daniel harding are highly recommended.

Nuanced and beautiful. It was the perfect recording to listen to, libretto in hand, before catching the opera live at the Santa Fe Opera in summer 2008.

Hickox, the great commander of British music, conducts a fine performance of this stunning opera. I cannot fault it. Highly recommended.

Yes, yes I know, Britten's Budd is a "great opera," and Britten a "great" opera composer, everyone seems to agree on that. But me. Sorry, but I have serious reservations about this opera. And also the approach to opera generally that it represents, an approach that in my opinion has had a truly doleful influence on so many other gifted composers, especially Brits and Americans, with the result that 20th century opera in English is STILL in such a dreadful fix, even when carried over into the 21st century. The problem has something to do, I think, with a dogma that began, perhaps, with Pelleas, though Debussy may have picked it up from Mussorgsky, who, in his "Wedding," tried to prove something about the "natural" inflections of the speaking voice. The Wedding was a noble failure. Pelleas, is, of course, Pelleas, a masterpiece that overcame the limitations of its premise through the sheer inventiveness -- and sensitivity -- of its creator. Sadly, Britten is neither inventive nor subtle in HIS attempt to "do justice" to the "natural" flow of speech. Or maybe it was simply laziness. Whatever. The vocal lines of Billy Budd are consistently vacuous and boring, more recitative than melody, more intonation than recitative. In far too many cases what we hear musically is a string of repeated notes, barely inflected. Does this make for better, more "realistic" drama? Perhaps, in the hands of great actors, it might. But opera, is after all, about singing -- and singers.

When Britten loosens up a bit to give us a "rousing" sea chantey, the effect, for me, is stilted, overblown, artificial, embarrassing. I wonder whether he actually ever heard real sailors singing real chanteys? It sounds to me as though this bit must have been written soley because his producer or director was begging him to put SOME sort of melody into the thing, for crying out loud, PLEASE.

The most disastrous aspect of the opera actually has more to do with the dramatization than anything else -- because Britten and his collaborators have totally undercut the whole point of Melville's tale. What primarily characterizes Billy is not only his goodness and innocence, but his touching and fatally incurable inarticulateness. He can barely form a sentence. So, when Britten FINALLY opens up to provide us with some sort of extended vocal melody, in Billy's monologue, he is, at the same time, undercutting the fundamental premise of the story he's telling. And making nonsense of Melville's superb characterization.

The one redeeming aspect of this work, for me, is the orchestra, which is, from the beginning to the end, a marvel of invention, not to mention technical mastery. It is here that the true drama of Billy Budd unfolds, and brilliantly. There is no question that Britten was a truly great composer. His orchestral writing in this opera, as in so many other works, clearly demonstrates that. But a great OPERA composer? I don't think so.