Tonight:
5°c
Barry Millington's rating
A high-calibre affair
By
Barry Millington
10 Dec 2007
Like most of his operas, Britten's Billy Budd is essentially about the corruption of innocence by evil. It is also about the attempts of the human spirit to rise above oppression, about patriotic insularity and more besides. But never before in my experience has the focus been so unwaveringly on the Iago-like machinations of Claggart, the Master-at-Arms, who destroys the handsome Billy because he cannot bear to live in the same world as him.
Gidon Saks chilled one to the marrow with the malevolence of his stage persona, combined with a cavernous tone that irradiated evil - a tremendous performance. Inevitably it eclipsed those of others, notably Nathan Gunn, an appealing Budd but lacking the visionary gleam, and Ian Bostridge, who suggested some of Captain Vere's anguish but with insufficient weight and authority.
A high-calibre line-up, led by Neal Davies and Jonathan Lemalu, together with the LSO in stunning form, was conducted by Daniel Harding. His masterly handling of the score was equally convincing in militaristic vein and in the contemplation of infinity.
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