Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Billy Budd (1951 version)
Neil Shicoff (tenor) – Captain Vere
Bo Skovhus (baritone) – Billy
Eric Halfvarson (bass) – Claggart
John Nuzzo (tenor) – Novice
Alfred Šramek (bass) – Dansker
Robert Bork (baritone) – Mr Redburn
Wolfgang Bankl (baritone) – Mr Flint
Chorus and Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper/Donald Runnicles
rec. live, 12 February 2001, Staatsoper, Vienna, Austria
Orfeo C230133 [163]
Lots of Orfeo’s live opera recordings are interesting for historical reasons, but wouldn’t necessarily be your library choice. This is one of those, capturing a particular point in the opera’s performance history – albeit not a particularly significant one – but with idiosyncrasies that mean you might not necessarily want to return to it unless you’re a particular fan of the featured artists.
This 2001 Austrian Radio recording captures the work’s first run of performances at the Vienna Staatsoper, though it’s not the work’s Vienna premiere: that was given by a group called New Opera Vienna, who didn’t have their own theatre, in 1996. In some ways, however, it is, because the Staatsoper chose to give the work in its original 1951 version, whereas it’s far more often performed these days in its 1961 revision.
As explained in Orfeo’s typically excellent booklet note, packed with details about the historical circumstances of the performance, the Staatsoper had recently scored a success with Neil Shicoff in Peter Grimes, and wanted to showcase him in another Britten role. Shicoff is also the reason for the choice of version. The major difference between the 1951 and 1961 versions, aside from the fact that the 1951 has four shorter acts instead of two longer ones, is the appearance of a stirring scene for Vere at the end of Act 1, which shows him as a man of action. Peter Pears, the original Vere, didn’t think his voice could manage it, and so he persuaded Britten to cut it from the revised version, which focuses much more on Vere as a cerebral thinker, an introvert who reads Plutarch. Shicoff thought he could manage the scene, and so they went for the 1951 version.
Unfortunately, however, Shicoff’s performance isn’t a great success in this recording. Taken as a whole he is rather dry of voice and the performance as a whole sounds eccentric and uncommitted. He is somewhat plodding in the opening monologue, and he makes heavy weather of the address from the quarterdeck at the end of Act 1, which is ironic considering it’s the reason why the Staatsoper chose this version. He also sounds under pressure elsewhere, his high notes sounding very effortful at the climax of the accusation scene, and it doesn’t help that anyone used to an English tenor (like Peter Pears or Ian Bostridge) in this repertoire might find his articulation to be jarring.
Nor are the other two central performances particularly distinguished. As Billy, Bo Skovhus has all the infectious enthusiasm and energy needed for Act 1, but his soliloquy in the darbies is too heroic, like he’s just about to go into battle rather than bidding a fond farewell to life. Eric Halfvarson is appropriately black-voiced as Claggart, and much of his diction is admirably clear. However, his Act 2 monologue never feels like a character teetering on the edge of the abyss, more like an episode of fairly middling uncertainty, despite its baleful conclusion. Overall both of these pale next to Simon Keenlyside and John Tomlinson on Richard Hickox’s Chandos recording, more of which below.
The minor roles are all taken well enough if not particularly remarkably, the finest of them being John Nuzzo’s novice. The orchestra play as well as you’d expect them, too. This clearly is not their idiom, but they do their best with it and bring a touch of Central European class to it. The saxophone, in particular, sounds very poignant during the flogging scene. The conductor, Donald Runnicles, is excellent too. This version gives him fewer transitions to negotiate, but what ones there are he does very convincingly, and he understands well the tightness of the drama. The battle scene is exciting, and the sequence of chords that stand for Vere’s telling Billy of his fate sound as powerful and mysterious as ever, each one pregnant with meaning that we can seemingly never fathom.
The sound of the Austrian radio recording is clean, if a little boxy, with a rather quiet level. However, all of the problems of a live performance are there in abundance. In the ensemble scenes, for example, it is difficult to make out the words, with several characters clearly spread out over the Staatsoper stage, and the onstage drums in the battle scene play havoc with the recording balance. The offstage effects, in particular, such as the men’s singing of the shanty in Act 2, are nowhere near as convincing as you get in the studio recordings.
So all told this version is probably for Billy Budd completists only. Excluding videos, this is, as far as I can see, the sixth available audio recording of the opera, and this takes it to three of the 1951 version (alongside Nagano’s with the Hallé and Britten’s own performance of the premiere, easily accessible via streaming services), and three of the 1961 version (Britten’s studio performance, Harding’s, and Hickox’s, all with the LSO). If you really need to hear the 1951 version then Nagano’s is the one to go for: it’s better recorded, better sung and more idiomatically played, though nothing will replace Britten’s own thoughts about the 1951 premiere, even if that one is recorded in mono. There are greater riches all round in the performances of the 1961 version, however. It’s tauter and more exciting, and all three of the 1961 versions are better than any of the 1951 versions. For me the library version has to be Hickox’s. It has the best all round cast, led by an outstanding central trio, and all of the minor roles are individually characterised and lived. That’s the one for the desert island, so long as there is no mutiny as you sail there.
Simon Thompson
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