Billy Budd

Benjamin Britten
E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier based on the story by Hermann Melville

A seagoing yarn as a drama of the soul: sadism, treachery and frustration aboard the man-o'-war "Indomitable". A symbol for all (male) societies in which inadequate strength of character collides with verbal impotence. With psychoanalytic precision, stage director Peter Mussbach and the future General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera, Kent Nagano, reveal the lower depths of the protagonists' souls. This work by Benjamin Britten is profoundly shattering: the sea and the soul are perilous, indomitable, "untamable" zones: anyone who tarries there risks being doomed.

In English with German surtitles

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Cast

Conductor Kent Nagano
Production Peter Mussbach
Set Erich Wonder
Costumes Andrea Schmidt-Futterer
Choreography Staff Beate Vollack
Lighting Alexander Koppelmann
Chorus Andrés Máspero

Edward Fairfax Vere John Daszak
Billy Budd Russell Braun
John Claggart Peter Rose
Mr Redburn Robert Bork
Mr Flint Lynton Black
Lieutenant Ratcliffe Christian Rieger
Red Whiskers Ulrich Reß
Donald / Sailor Timothy Sharp
Dansker Christoph Stephinger
The Novice Kevin Conners
Squeak Anthony Mee
Bosun Rüdiger Trebes
First Mate Marc Pujol
Second Mate / Voice Andreas Kohn
Maintop Kenneth Roberson
Arthur Jones Andreas Kohn
The Novice's Friend Christian Miedl

The Bavarian State Orchestra
The Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera

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