Billy Budd at Glyndebourne

[Belgrove]

Michael Grandage's acclaimed 2010 production is revived for Glyndebourne's last show of this season. It is being shown in cinemas, although it is not a live relay. Not sure of the live or otherwise status of the Guardian stream. Mark Padmore is Vere, Jaques Imbrailo is Billy and Brindley Sherratt is Claggart. Andrew Davis conducts the LPO.

An extra for those attending Glyndebourne is 'Wakening Shadow'. This is a staged realisation of three of Britten's Canticles (Abraham & Isaac, Journey of the Magi and The Death of St. Narcissus) whose orchestration has been expanded and augmented by Luke Styles, and will be conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, an intriguing preamble to the main event. Greatly looking forward to seeing both of these. Anyone going?

[verismissimo]

No, but I am going to Jurowski's Peter Grimes at Symphony Hall in Birmingham on 26 September.

Are the Canticles his first Britten, I wonder?

[Bax-of-Delights]

Belgrove:
Mrs B-o-D and I were discussing this only last evening as we downed the champers on Glyndebourne's lawn and came to the conclusion that we would probably have a go for Billy Budd. I see that the cheapest seats left are £150 so a perusal of the B-o-D coffers is in order before making the final decision.
I saw BB at the ENO some years ago and marked it as one of the few Britten operas I would want to see again...

[Mary Chambers]

I saw the screening with the same Billy, but John Mark Ainsley as Vere. I only wish this production with Mark Padmore was in cinemas - I'd love to see what he makes of it, and there's no way I'm going to Glyndebourne. It's a marvellous production, without gimmicks, that lets the opera speak pretty much for itself. The set is superb.

[PhilipT]

I went to the first night, and it really was very, very good. Vere's incurable anguish at what he failed to do, and fear of what judgement might be awaiting him, really came across. The only downside, for me, was that I found myself a bit tongue-tied when I ran into Andrew Davis in the bar afterwards, and didn't really manage to say how good I thought it was.

[verismissimo]

... I found myself a bit tongue-tied when I ran into Andrew Davis in the bar afterwards, and didn't really manage to say how good I thought it was.

Know how that feels, PT. I remember being asked by Jurowski immediately after the Don Giovanni dress rehearsal whether I thought the stage/orchestra balance was ok.

Utterly speechless, though I did manage a grunt.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Michael Grandage's acclaimed 2010 production is revived for Glyndebourne's last show of this season. It is being shown in cinemas, although it is not a live relay. Not sure of the live or otherwise status of the Guardian stream. Mark Padmore is Vere, Jaques Imbrailo is Billy and Brindley Sherratt is Claggart. Andrew Davis conducts the LPO.

An extra for those attending Glyndebourne is 'Wakening Shadow'. This is a staged realisation of three of Britten's Canticles (Abraham & Isaac, Journey of the Magi and The Death of St. Narcissus) whose orchestration has been expanded and augmented by Luke Styles, and will be conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, an intriguing preamble to the main event. Greatly looking forward to seeing both of these. Anyone going?

I shall be reviewing both Billy Budd and Wakening Shadow this weekend. I only saw Budd at the cinema last time round, but was very excited by what I saw. Pleased to see Jacques Imbrailo returns to the title role.

[Nick Armstrong]

I shall be reviewing both Billy Budd and Wakening Shadow this weekend. I only saw Budd at the cinema last time round, but was very excited by what I saw. Pleased to see Jacques Imbrailo returns to the title role.

I went last time. I felt John Mark Ainsley was the weak link, so those seeing Mark Padmore this time are fortunate, I think.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I went to the first night, and it really was very, very good. Vere's incurable anguish at what he failed to do, and fear of what judgement might be awaiting him, really came across. The only downside, for me, was that I found myself a bit tongue-tied when I ran into Andrew Davis in the bar afterwards, and didn't really manage to say how good I thought it was.

I hadn't twigged that Andrew Davis was conducting this... in which case I'll be watching him two nights on the trot, following The Midsummer Marriage at the Proms on Friday.

[PhilipT]

I hadn't twigged that Andrew Davis was conducting this... in which case I'll be watching him two nights on the trot, following The Midsummer Marriage at the Proms on Friday.

Don't remind me. Knowing I was a Prommer (long story), he asked if I'd be going on Friday. I had to confess I won't be.

[Belgrove]

This production shows that operatic works set in a specific period need not have to be updated in order to show their relevancy to the audiences of today. Michael Grandage comments that depth of character obtains 'when excavating text for the theatre'. Indeed so, the focus is relentlessly on the text, aided with superb lighting and stagecraft to direct and retain the attention, and dramatic performances of highest musical quality.

Mark Padmore and Brindley Sherratt are newcomers to this revival the shape of Captain Vere and Claggart respectively.

Claggart is a relatively small role which nevertheless dominates the work through being its motor. He could easily become a pantomime villain in less subtle hands. Sherratt's rendition of Claggart's Iago-like credo, where he reveals his plans for Billy's destruction, terrifies through his very stillness. Solitary, but primed for action with his truncheon in a vice-like grip, he slowly surveys us, the audience; we could be his next victim! But he is also filled with a terrible gnawing self-loathing, barely implicit in the text, and all delivered in a firm rich tone of velvety chocolate.

Jaques Imbrailo reprises Billy, and is the embodiment of guilelessness, innocence, goodness and energy. His rendition of 'Billy in the Darbies' certainly brought a lump to my throat - such apparent simplicity of delivery conceals great musical technique and commanding stage presence. And shows how good Britten was in setting text to music.

But Vere is the most interesting role insofar as he is a compromised and flawed man, and one who knows it. Mark Padmore is magnificent. We believe that he is indeed '... a man of action...', who can command a ship through the firmness, strength and clarity of his voice alone. But ultimately Vere fails, and in the soliloquies Padmore exhibits vocal acting of precision, subtlety and nuance. An important performance in the history of the role.

The Glyndebourne chorus provide spine tingling thrills which sound magnificent in the glorious acoustic of the theatre. Andrew Davis conducted at a ferocious lick in parts, which created some slippage in ensemble, but generated appropriate excitement. The staging of the encounter with the French ship was thrilling, with the Red Ensign whipping in the breeze.

The set is the interior of The Indomitable, the decks and galleries of which continue onto the stage from the curve of the balconies of the theatre itself. Although fixed, the set presents great flexibility through lighting and the movement on and through it. A wonderful evocation of the claustrophobic and dreadful environment on a Napoleonic man-o-war.

If you are unable to see it in the theatre, then do catch the Prom performance on 27th August. It really is something worth experiencing.

I'm still collecting my thoughts on what Wakening Shadow was all about, and will post presently.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Many thanks, Belgrove, for this review.

We are making our final Glyndebourne trip today and I am fully expecting BB to be the best of the four productions (Ariadne, Figaro, Hippolyite, )we have seen.
Will report back tomorrow but will not be able to add much to your excellent review.

[Belgrove]

I hope you enjoy the show B-o-D.

Vladimir Jurowski in tandem with Glyndebourne has done much to promote new musical talent during his tenure there as Music Director. One hopes that Robin Ticciati will be as active, even though he may eligible for the youth promotion schemes himself!

The latest project in this programme of work and sponsorship is Wakening Shadow, which celebrates the Britten centenary through turning into a chamber opera three of his Canticles, the orchestration and additional music being by Luke Styles. Like Britten's chamber operatic works, this is substantial fare and is concerned with the origin and increasingly complex expressions of belief through the ages.

Britten's overtly religious Canticles 2, 4 and 5 are used, these being interlaced with poems by Brodsky, Byron and Shelley which act as bridges between the increasingly sophisticated takes on Man's relationship with God. The large ensemble orchestra, conducted by Jurowski with his characteristic precision, comprises strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, harp and piano, and the orchestrations of the Britten sections could easily have been by him, such was the fidelity and idiom of the instrumentation. The additional material commences with hushed open strings and breathy woodwinds, out of which tonality becomes established. It recalled the start of Das Rheingold as the cast progress from the wonder and worship of fire to something embodying humanity in the divine, thence into Abraham and Isaac. Styles' scoring becomes more seamless with that of the Canticles as the work progresses, until one cannot really differentiate between the two. That counts as a success as far as I'm concerned.

The staging was in the round, with an encompassing set of trees formed from ropes that both reach out and entwine the performers, surrounding a hearth-altar-crib placed centrally. Simple but effective lighting moved the narrative on to different places and epochs. The cast was excellent but a special mention for Owen Willets, the counter tenor who played Isaac.

It's a dense and worthwhile work I think, certainly not easy to assimilate on a single hearing. It is, as the Magi may say, a 'satisfactory' and lasting tribute to Britten.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Certainly one of the best productions of anything at Glyndebourne, in my experience, since Pelleas et Melisande. I can't add anything to Belgrove's eloquent review except to endorse it 100% but also to emphasise the opening paragraph:
This production shows that operatic works set in a specific period need not have to be updated in order to show their relevancy to the audiences of today. Michael Grandage comments that depth of character obtains 'when excavating text for the theatre'. Indeed so, the focus is relentlessly on the text, aided with superb lighting and stagecraft to direct and retain the attention, and dramatic performances of highest musical quality.

In the light of the highly disappointing and rather nonsensical Ariadne and the kitsch Hippolyite with the fridge and manufactured dark ending I am delighted that Glyndebourne can still find quality in staging, design and production by staying true to the original.

[Mary Chambers]

Certainly one of the best productions of anything at Glyndebourne, in my experience, since Pelleas et Melisande. I can't add anything to Belgrove's eloquent review except to endorse it 100% but also to emphasise the opening paragraph:
This production shows that operatic works set in a specific period need not have to be updated in order to show their relevancy to the audiences of today. .

How I agree. I haven't seen this production this time round, but I did see the cinema version with some different cast members, and that was very impressive. Would love to see Mark Padmore's Vere.