Britten: Billy Budd Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Britten: Billy Budd Blu-ray Movie Review

Fathoming the depths of the Eternal.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 26, 2011

When you’re an artist named Benjamin Britten and you hail from Britain, chances are good that whatever your particular artistic pursuit turns out to be, you’ll be hailed as a national voice. That certainly was the case with Britten, one of the iconic triumvirate of later 20th century post-Elgar English composers (Vaughan Williams and Tippett being the other two), whose output remains staggering and whose contribution to the art of opera especially is unfathomable. As incredible as it may seem, Britten holds the distinction of being the 20th century opera composer with the most operas performed worldwide, certainly a testament to his prodigious output. As is mentioned in one of the featurettes accompanying Billy Budd on this new Blu-ray, Britten often dealt with the corruption (some would even go so far as to say the perversion) of innocence in his operas (probably most notably in Peter Grimes), and while the innocent Billy remains pure and unsullied to his watery grave, the decrepitude, both moral and physical, surrounding him in the late 18th century naval world culled from Herman Melville’s legendary short novella is palpable and almost unbearable at times. If this is how the British Empire triumphed over foreign powers, one has to wonder about the vagaries of “might makes right,” as there is inarguably something very, very wrong about life on board the Indomitable, despite the best attempts of a moral and intellectual Captain. That in essence is the underlying conflict of Billy Budd, a piece which posits good against evil in the guise of two major characters, with perhaps the major character (Captain Vere) acting as the impotent if well-meaning arbiter between the two. There’s never been any mistaking Melville’s intent in offering Billy Budd as a Christ figure, but in Britten’s opera, this Christ is literally too good to be true, a character of gentle simplicity and complete lack of self awareness that may prevent Billy from realizing his ability to offer salvation to others (unlike the real Christ), which strangely only ups the poignancy of the opera.

Glyndebourne is a rather small opera house, at least as far as international opera houses go, but it seems ideally suited to the claustrophobic world of Billy Budd. The house is strangely nautical on its own terms, with a rounded architecture redolent of the keel of a ship, and lots of deeply burnished wood tones appointing its hallowed halls as well as the main audience area itself. In this gorgeously staged and designed production, the smallish Glyndebourne space only helps to augment the stifling world in which Billy and the other grunts on the Indomitable live and work. A basic unit set, ingeniously designed by Christopher Oram, presents us with a clear delineation of the hierarchies at play in 18th century British naval life. Billy is nowhere near the top of these strata.

Britten had long wanted to collaborate with E.M. Forster (yes, that E.M. Forster, the one who experienced a latter day fame of sorts due to innumerable film adaptations of his works by everyone from David Lean to Merchant-Ivory). Sometime around the World War II era, when Britten and his life partner, the tenor Peter Pears, had successfully lobbied to be considered conscientious objectors, Britten and Forster started bandying about ideas, but it wasn’t until 1948 that the possibility of adapting Billy Budd came up. Forster, a newcomer to the world of opera libretti, enlisted the aid of longtime Britten collaborator Eric Crozier, and by 1951 the piece was finished and was ready to make its debut. (Somewhat interestingly, in the interim between conception and completion the Italian composer Giorgio Federico Ghedini premiered his one-act opera of Billy Budd in 1949).

While the opera may be titled Billy Budd, the indisputable center of the piece is Captain Vere (John Mark Ainsley, here essaying the role created by Pears in the original). Vere is an unusually thoughtful and philosophical man, obviously an aristocrat and one who is about the polar opposite of, say, Captain Bligh of H.M.S. Bounty infamy. That doesn’t mean that things are all roses and petits fours aboard Vere’s Indomitable, mostly due to Claggart (Philip Ens), the seething and repellently malevolent Master-at-Arms who takes an immediate dislike to Billy (Jacques Imbrailo) and who vows to destroy him, simply due to the fact that Billy represents a goodness and purity that Claggart simply can’t abide.

Part of the dialectic of the opera is not just between good and evil, but due to the fact evil in the form of Claggart knows it’s bad, while good in the form of Budd is spectacularly unaware, blithely going about its business and trying gamely to cheer everyone up. That incredible naïvete has often been seen as a potentially fatal flaw in the opera, but here, under the very able direction of Michael Grandage, Imbrailo is able to offer a certain degree of innocence with an athleticism and even bravado that makes Budd the true tragic hero he needs to be. Ainsley is a minor miracle as Vere, certainly offering one of the most nuanced acting jobs in recent operatic memory and delivering Britten’s challenging and aching tenor lines with considerable emotion and energy. Ens’ Claggart is suitably shaded (in the literal—black—sense of the word) and the showdown scene between Claggart, Billy and Vere in Act II is a showcase for Ens’ beautifully understated and even slightly elegant maleficence.

In an all male opera seething with testosterone it’s rather odd, if not at all problematic, that Billy Budd turns out to be such a tender piece, despite the brutality depicted, something from which this particular production doesn’t shirk in the slightest. That’s in fact perhaps the opera’s greatest achievement, the almost simultaneous portrayal of incredible depravity and savagery contrasting with inherent good and at least the attempt at morality. As Vere laments, every time he’s experienced good, it’s been flawed (as evidenced by Billy’s debilitating stammer), and yet it’s that very experience, flawed or not, which Vere repeatedly seeks and which ultimately is the source of his remorse and regret. Vere sings movingly about the inability to achieve any meaningful answers to life’s Big Questions, but Billy Budd proves grace can at least partially ameliorate the aching wounds asking those questions may evince.

Britten: Billy Budd Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Billy Budd is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Opus Arte with a brilliant AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is one of the sharpest looking live performance Blu-rays so far this year, filled with incredible fine detail to the point where you can literally count the pores on some actors' skin (for better or worse). The resplendent production design of Christopher Oram is wonderfully presented here, and even some of the potentially problematic stage effects like the introduction of mist wafting through the proscenium creates no resolving problems. Colors are somewhat muted for the bulk of the opera, save for the brief flourish of bright red military outfits in one scene, but even within the confines of the largely drab palette, gradations of hue and light are elegantly displayed. There is some very minor crush in a couple of dim scenes, notably upstage, but that is about the only niggling complaint anyone should have in an otherwise stellar video presentation.

Britten: Billy Budd Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Billy Budd is presented with two lossless audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and the typical LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Aside from one or two very minor balance issues, both of these tracks are exceptionally fine and wonderfully detailed. In an all-male cast, especially one where the bulk of the voicings are in the bass and baritone range, one has to be very, very careful not to muddy the waters as it were (and not to pun horribly, considering Billy Budd's maritime setting). The DTS track especially offers sterling clarity with absolutely no murkiness at all in the lower registers, really rather remarkable. Sir Mark Elder conducts the London Philharmonic in a resplendently nuanced performance, and the orchestra sounds magnificent, perfectly placed throughout the surrounds, offering a gorgeous reproduction of Glyndebourne's vaunted hall ambience. The soloists are exceptional, but really major kudos have to be given to Glyndebourne's equally vaunted chorus, which is incredibly fulsome on the DTS track. Dynamic range is exceptional here, with the chorus' sudden crescendi mid-phrase thrilling to hear. Occasionally soloists on the upper deck of Oram's imposing unit set get just slightly buried in the mix, probably due to microphone placement, but otherwise this is a practically perfect aural feast.

Britten: Billy Budd Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introducing Billy Budd (1080i; 10:49) is a nice little featurette offering Grundage, Elder and various cast members talking about the production. Some early rehearsal footage is shown, which is interesting.
• Designs on Billy Budd (1080i; 9:03) is a great piece on Christopher Oram's fantastic production design, including a cool time lapse element showing the set being built.
• Cast Gallery (1080i; 00:47)

Britten: Billy Budd Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is evidently the first Billy Budd on Blu-ray, at least that I've been able to determine with a cursory internet search, and it's wonderful news that this is such a fine production that one would be hard pressed to find a better account of Britten's masterpiece even if there were other hi-def versions out there. The three principal cast members are exceptional, the orchestra and chorus are magnificent, and Oram's unit set is simply amazing. The saving graces of Billy Budd are fully on display here and this disc is easily Highly recommended.