Britten: Billy Budd
Royal Opera, 23rd April 2019
It was time Billy came home. The Flying Dutchman puts in to shore every seven years, but the HMS Indomitable hasn’t dropped anchor at Covent Garden in nearly two decades. The Royal Opera presented the 1951 premiere of Britten’s Billy Budd, and its two-act revision, but it’s been 19 years since the able seaman last scaled the rigging in Francesca Zambello’s 1995 staging. Deborah Warner’s new production has already travelled many nautical miles, enjoying successful runs at Madrid’s Teatro Real and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, each house – incredibly – performing Budd for the first time.
Jacques Imbrailo (Billy Budd), Alasdair Elliott (Squeak) and the ROH Chorus
© ROH | Catherine Ashmore
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