Britten Thematic Catalogue

Beta Version

BTC1040 BILLY BUDD

An opera in four acts, op. 50
Period of composition: January 1950 - 2 November 1951
Revised: September 1960; reduced to two acts
First performance: 1 Dec 1951 >>
Type of performance: Staged performance
Location: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London
Performance details:

Peter Pears Captain Vere, Theodor Uppman Billy Budd, Frederick Dalbert John Claggart, Hervey Alan Mr Redburn, Geraint Evans Mr Flint, Michael Langdon Lieutenant Ratcliffe, Anthony Marlowe Red Whiskers, Bryan Drake Donald, Inia Te Wiata Dansker, William McAlpine Novice, David Tree Squeak, Ronald Lewis Bosun, Rhydderch Davids First Mate, Hubert Littlewood Second Mate, Emlyn Jones Cabin Boy, Covent Garden Opera Chorus, Covent Garden orchestra

Basil Coleman prod, John Piper design, Douglas Robinson chorus master, Benjamin Britten cond

Genre: Stage work
Text: E.M. Forster (1897-1970) and Eric Crozier (1914-1994), adapted from the story of Herman Melville (1819-1891) (German translation by Alfred H. Unger)
Performing forces:

Cast and orchestra

Principals: Captain Vere ten, Billy Budd bar, John Claggart bass, Mr Redburn bar, Mr Flint bass-bar, Lieutenant Ratcliffe bass, Red Whiskers ten, Donald bar, Dansker bass, Novice ten, Squeak ten, Bosun bar, First Mate bar, Second Mate bar, Maintop ten, Novices Friend bar, Arthur Jones bar, 4 Midshipmen boys voices, Cabin Boy spkr

Chorus: Officers, Sailors, Powder Monkeys, Drummers, Marines

Orchestra: 4fl (II, III, IV=picc), 2 ob, ca, 2 cl in Bb (II=Eb and bass cl), bass cl (=III cl), alto sax, 2 bn, dbn - 4 hn, 4 tpt in C (III in D), 3 trbn, tuba - timp, 6 perc (xyl, glock, trgl, wb, tamb, sd, td, bd, whip, cymbl, susp cymb, small gong) - harp - str - 4 drums played by drummers on stage

Duration: 152'

Four act version: 152'; Act 1 35' / Act II 45' / Act III 46' / Act IV 26'

Two act version: 158'; Act 1 82' / Act II 76'

Commissioned:

The Arts Council of Great Britain, for the Festival of Britain, 1951

Dedication: To George and Marion, December 1951

George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood (b. 1923), English operatic administrator and writer, and Marion (Harewood) Thorpe, née Stein (b. 1926), originally a concert pianist and daughter of Erwin Stein. Married Lord Harewood in 1949 (marriage dissolved 1967).

Notes

This catalogue entry shows the details for the four-act version which preceded the more well-known two-act version (see 'Related works'). The differences are largely structural, although the four-act version does contain a whole scene (Captain Veres 'muster' scene) which is absent from the revision (given here as the second incipit in Act I, scene 1).

The incipits are from the 1967 Decca recording of the two-act version, with Britten conducting and Peter Pears as Captain Vere. The 'muster' scene is taken from a recently-digitized recording of the first performance in December 1951, again with Pears as Captain Vere (eventually, the complete recording of this performance will be used for the incipits).

At present, there are only a representative sample of manuscript sources available.

All content copyright (C) Britten-Pears Foundation 2012 unless stated. Please note all BTC numbers are provisional at this stage.