Billy Budd

by Benjamin Britten, libretto by E.M.Forster and Eric Crozier after Melville

seen at Covent Garden on 29 April 2019

Deborah Warner's production, designed by Michael Levine, seen also in Rome and Madrid, has its first showing at the Royal Opera, with Ivor Bolton conducting Toby Spence as Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, Jacques Imbrailo as Abe Seaman Billy Budd and Brindley Sherratt as Master-at-Arms John Claggart. This production uses Britten's revised two-act version, rather than the original four-act of the score. At three hours fifty minutes it is still lengthy by modern standards, but there is little that could be further cut.

In a Prologue the elderly Captain Vere looks back on a crisis that took place under his command in 1797, when nerves were jittery after mutinies at Spithead and at the Nore. The two acts of the opera relate the story. An eager young sailor, Billy Budd, is press-ganged onto the HMS Indomitable, where he is generally well-liked, though he arouses the ire of the martinet Master-at-Arms who becomes determined to destroy him. Billy's naivety protects him from a clandestine attempt to suborn him to mutiny, but unfortunately he is reduced to stammering incoherently under stress and so is unable to defend himself when accused before the Captain by Claggart. Instead he lashes out and kills Claggart with a blow to the temple. The Captain feels he has no choice but to let a court martial find Billy guilty of striking a superior officer, for which the penalty is death, and so the popular sailor is hanged from the yard-arm. In an Epilogue, the Captain tries to reconcile the paradox that he was unable to save a basically good and innocent man; he can only take comfort from the idea that Billy nonetheless blessed him.

The conflict of innocence with wickedness, and the corruption of desire hinted at in Claggart's tortured determination to destroy 'beauty, handsomeness and goodness', obviously appealed to Britten, and also to E.M.Forster who was keen to write the libretto of a 'grand opera'. The catastrophe can only happen in a confined and insecure environment - that of a ship of the line becalmed when trying to engage with the French enemy, frustration feeding into a febrile atmosphere in which the suspicion of treason can all too easily be fomented. Personal relations and affections are constrained by the discipline and order required to run a ship, and in the end finer feelings are thwarted by the Rules of War under which the ship must be governed.

The opera shows both the drudgery and tedium of the sailors' lot, and its often tender camaraderie, in scenes for the chorus of sailors which act as the background for the main story. Billy is rapidly accepted as a good mate to have aboard, and the older seaman Dansker (Clive Bayley) in particular tries to educate him in the perils which lie behind the strict customs of a naval vessel - perils emanating from the disliked and vindictive Claggart. Billy mistakes the nature of Claggart's attentions, so that his literal dumbfoundedness at the accusations Claggart makes has the peculiar force of innocence utterly amazed. In the meantime, the Captain, all too aware of Claggart's evil nature, and determined to thwart it, finds himself trapped by protocol. But Britten portrays Claggart himself more subtly than might be expected; his great monologue is not pure villainy, but rather a tormented cry of despair in confronting a goodness that he cannot understand or aspire to.

The performances of the soloists were excellent, both Toby Spence and Brindley Sherratt displaying the full emotional range required of their characters - indeed the moral dilemma of the Captain was particularly prominent, not only because his ruminations form the Prologue and Epilogue, but also because of the strength of Toby Spence's portrayal. Jacques Imbrailo's Billy necessarily was less open to us, as he represents a goodness which is neither articulate nor particularly full of character. His physical presence was always somewhat shambling, a sort of awkwardness matching the fatal and crippling stammer.

The setting was nt realistic; rather the idea of a ship was invoked by the use of ropes and pulleys, with much work being done by the chorus and actors to raise and lower various platforms and create interesting silhouettes of rope against the backcloth. This was effective in many ways, especially as the many vertical ropes looked very much like prison bars, reminding us of the press-gang and of the inescapability of the situation. However, on the vast Covent Garden stage, the sense of claustrophobia was almost entirely missing, and the absence of clearly defined decks meant that the chorus - very numerous - was almost always spread out flatly on the stage, which verged on being dull. Also, though the costumes were deliberately not of the eighteenth century, it was I think an error to allow the a measure of informality in the interactions of the officers with the Captain. Even Billy sat (uninvited) in the Captain's presence, which should not have been possible.

It was an intriguing production, very well sung and played, but lacking the final twist of tension which makes Billy's demise so dramatic.