Sir Andrew Davis conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the cast and chorus of Glyndebourne Festival’s production of Britten’s Billy Budd. Adapted by E. M. Forster and Eri Crozier from Herman Melville’s unfinished novella, Britten’s 1951 opera on the persecution and destruction of pure-hearted sailor Billy by a predatory master-at-arms is a tragedy of ‘sexual discharge gone evil’ in the Napoleonic Wars.
This semi staged production stars:
Jacques Imbrailo baritone (Billy Budd)
Mark Padmore tenor (Captain Vere)
Brindley Sherratt bass (John Claggart)
Stephen Gadd baritone (Mr Redburn)
David Soar bass (Mr Flint)
Darren Jeffery bass-baritone (Lieutenant Radcliffe)
Alasdair Elliott tenor (Red Whiskers)
John Moore baritone (Donald)
Jeremy White bass (Dansker)
Peter Gijsbertsen tenor (The Novice)
Colin Judson tenor (Squeak)
Richard Mosley-Evans bass (Bosun)
(Note: at 5.15pm in the Royal College of Music there is a Proms Plus Literary event. Writers Philip Hoare and Kate Mosse talk to Rana Mitter about the themes of good and evil, justice and the law in Melville’s novella 'Billy Budd'.)