Glyndebourne at BAM: Billy Budd

By David Allen, 10 February 2014

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Reviewed at BAM: Howard Gilman Opera House, New York City on 7 February 2014

Britten, Billy Budd

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Sir Mark Elder, Conductor

Mark Padmore, Captain Vere

Michael Grandage, Director

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Jacques Imbrailo, Billy Budd

The Glyndebourne Chorus

Brindley Sherratt, John Claggart

Duncan Rock, Baritone

Peter Gijsbertsen, Novice

Daniel Norman, Red Whiskers

Colin Judson, Squeak

Richard Mosley-Evans, Bosun

John Moore, Donald

Darren Jeffery, Lieutenant Ratcliffe

Jeremy White, Dansker

David Soar, Mr Flint

Stephen Gadd, Mr Redburn

Glyndebourne revives Michieletto’s Kátya Kabanová

Mark Valencia, 3rd August

Damiano Michieletto’s production of Janáček’s opera breaks a key tenet of high-concept opera: where it should reveal, it obfuscates.

***11

All the world’s a jest: Falstaff returns to Glyndebourne

Mark Pullinger, 23rd July

Richard Jones' 2009 production returns to Glyndebourne after a long absence, but the 1940s comedy scrubs up fresh.

***11

A strong new Figaro opens at Glyndebourne

Dominic Lowe, 29th June

Mariame Clément is a popular director at Glyndebourne, and her new production of Figaro shows her trademark approach to hardhitting comedy.

****1

Glyndebourne's Saul still packs a punch 10 years on

Nick Boston, 8th June

Returning from the original run, Christopher Purves and Iestyn Davies were joined by a strong cast and chorus for a revival of Barrie Kosky's striking production.

*****

Unhurried suspense in a very English Parsifal

Peter Quantrill, 17th May

Compelling singers carry the day in the Glyndebourne Festival Opera's first staging of Wagner’s swansong.

****1

Glyndebourne’s season opens with Rossini’s Barber of Seville

David Karlin, 16th May

Annabel Arden’s production provides joyous comedy, with vocal and orchestral performances of the very finest.

*****

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David Allen

David is a PhD student at Columbia University, where he studies international history. A lapsed pianist and organist, he writes on concerts on both sides of the Atlantic, and blogs at Unpredictable Inevitability.

Glyndebourne's Billy Budd in New York