“All hands on deck!”
Concert performance: Sunday 6.30pm, 16 June 2024, St John’s Waterloo, London SE1 8T
New Palace Opera continues its journey through the works of Benjamin Britten with a rare outing for Billy Budd.
The novelist EM Forster had a long fascination with Melville’s original novella, Billy Budd, his tale of a tragic incident on an 18th century warship; working with the Britten’s long-time collaborator, the librettist Eric Crozier, Forster crafted the libretto for the Britten’s opera, which opened in Covent Garden in 1951. Originally in four acts, Britten revised it as a two-act opera that is usually performed these days, as it is in our concert.
Set onboard the warship HMS Indomitable, it’s one of the few men-only operas in the repertoire. The story features the fateful relationship between the revered Captain Vere, his Master-at-Arms, John Claggart, and Billy Budd, the darling of the crew who, provoked by Claggart, accidentally kills him.
In our concert the title role of Billy Budd is to be sung by the rising opera star Arthur Bruce, described recently in Opera magazine as possessing a “burnished timbre and charismatic stage presence”.
The cast includes:
Arthur Bruce: Billy Budd, foretopman
Jonathan Finney: Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, Captain of HMS Indomitable
Gerrit Paul Groen: John Claggart, Master-at-Arms
TBA: Mr Redburn, First Lieutenant
Conall O’Neill: Mr Flint, Sailing Master
Ben Knight: Lieutenant Ratcliffe
TBA: Red Whiskers, an impressed man
Michael Temporal-Darell: Donald, a sailor
Gerard Delrez: Dansker, an old seaman
Bo Wang: Novice
Robert Felstead: Squeak, a ship’s corporal
Teyfik Kamal: Bosun
William Semple: First Mate
Joshua Lane: Second Mate
Robin Whitehouse: Maintop
Stephen Whitford: Novice’s friend and Arthur Jones, an impressed man
Spencer Turner, Jamie Whitley and Ava Williams: Midshipmen and Cabin boy (children)
Officers, sailors, powder monkeys, drummers and marines: Adam Brown, Richard Jackson, Sam Leggett, Ciarán O’Meara, Alex Riddell (Sailor and Gunner’s Mate), Gary Rushton
Michael Thorne conducts the New Palace Opera Orchestra.
Performed with the permission of Boosey & Hawkes.