by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier from the story by Herman Melville

Michael Berkeley introduces this masterly opera from Britten's maturity. It is a story of the conflict between love and duty set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars on board a British warship, HMS Indomitable.

This production was staged at the English National Opera last spring, and Tim Albery's radical production drew uniformly high praise from press and public.
Thomas Allen is Billy Budd, Philip Langridge is Captain Vere, and Richard Van Allan is Claggart

8.25 Michael Berkeley talks to Eric Crozier, Theodor Upmann, Thomas Allen and Tim Albery about the opera's origins as well as its various and sometimes controversial interpretations.

8.45* Act 2

(A simultaneous broadcast with Radio 3. Viewers with stereo Radio 3 may wish to turn off TV sound and position their speakers on either side of the screen, but a few feet away. Stereo headphones provide a suitable alternative.)
Feature: page 15