Britten-Pears Foundation

 
From the original production, 1951

From the original production, 1951

Billy Budd

Billy Budd was written during 1950-51 and first performed in December 1951 as part of that year’s ‘Festival of Britain’ celebrations. In 1960, Britten revised the work, contracting the original four acts into two, in which form it is now generally performed (though the original version is now again available for performance). The work is based on Herman Melville’s posthumous novel Billy Budd, Foretopman which Britten and his librettists (E.M.Forster and Eric Crozier) transformed into an opera of great musico-dramatic power and psychological subtlety. Although Billy is the opera’s eponymous hero, the real focus of the work is the moral dilemma facing Captain Vere who, confronted with an agonising decision between saving Billy and his sense of duty as the ship’s Captain is at the centre of the drama (a theme further explored by Britten in Gloriana).

Photo: Victor Parker, © The Britten-Pears Library

From the Metropolitan Opera production, New York, 1979

Billy Budd employs the largest orchestra of any Britten opera, capable of unleashing an elemental power when the moment demands it, but in general, the orchestration favours the more sharply etched, transparent textures developed in the chamber operas.

Watch

The Britten - Pears Foundation has produced an introduction to Britten's Billy Budd. To watch the video, click on the image below, or on the text link. A new window will open and video should play automatically. If you cannot see the video, you may need to download the free Adobe Shockwave Player.

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Listen

Audio clips from Britten''s own Decca recording with Peter Pears, Bryan Drake, Henry Bush, Eric Garrett, Norman Lumsden, the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra.

  1. Billy Budd, king of the birds’
  2. Act I. ‘Officers and men of the Indomitable’

Purchase this recording at Amazon or find other Britten recordings at Decca Artists

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