Proms 2013 Prom 60: Britten – Billy Budd

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.

Jacques Imbrailo sings the title-role, with Brindley Sherratt as the sinister Claggart and Mark Padmore as the rule-bound Pontius Pilate figure, Captain ‘Starry’ Vere.

There will be one interval

Download a short Opera Guide podcast about Billy Budd.

More Opera Guide podcasts.

Watch and listen to more music by Britten at the Proms.