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Brutalist gray, her ship slowly bending, HMS Indomitable approaches Michael GrandageProduction of Britten’s Billy Budd. Half-bones, half cage, the train is constantly claustrophobic, its hard sides softened only by ropes, hammocks and Paul Constable‘s clever, painterly lighting. It’s no wonder that the male cast of actors – dressed here in spotless Napoleonic uniforms and work clothes – have a strong voice: flamboyant, violent, ugly. Because of the curved area, which stands in the middle of the stage Christopher OramThe sets are visible as through a fish-eye lens or one of the police telescopes. In this war-torn world, everyone must be investigated.
It has started on Glyndeborne in 2010The Grandage production is now in the hands of a revival director Ian Rutherford. Lines are sharply drawn between the goodness of the piece’s “angel” Billy Budd and the cruelty of its villain, John Claggart, whose “sex was evil” (EM Forster’s words) leads to Budd’s death. Budd swings across the stage, lithe like a gymnast, unique in his body. Claggart yells and screams. The “nameless” love of the first play in 1951 has found other ways to communicate; in one scene, Claggart torments a terrified Novice with a chalkboard that is at one point, an awkward hug.
Made by baritone Thomas Mole (Budd) is a bass-baritone Sam Carl (Claggart), these important roles were attractive. Mole’s voice was turned on as Carl enjoyed the descent into the mud and the terrifying power above. Mole’s double rush at his place with the Captain was a painful portrait of a passionate youth. Carl’s flash of good looks only added to the complexity of the plot.
Yet neither was so beautiful or so well-known as to distinguish it for long from the male voice of the profession. The smooth sound of the music and the sometimes high-pitched sound of his voice softens the men’s sad mood. There were many good performances among the other roles mentioned. Clive BayleyDansker was kind and compassionate Laurence Kilsby‘s Novice skin crawl. William Thomas, Dingle Yandell and Daniel Okulitch they competed as stiff, stentorian types. Powered by Nicholas Carterand London Philharmonic Orchestra roll over and take action, as persuasively or as brutally as it pleases.
But the success of this opera rests – like the fate of the characters – on the character of its Captain Vere. A special guide for the confused, inflexible, Allan Clayton he may not have looked like the obvious Vere. But here he stood taller and calmer than ever, uttering a vivid, sparkling bonhomie, painted in the darkness of the theater – first as the voice of reason, then of conscience. Her final act (alone on stage, wig discarded) was quietly devastating: a close-up of human vulnerability.
