Mainly Opera and Ballet
This revival of Glyndebourne’s excellent production of Britten’s Billy Budd was well worth a second view after some dozen years. It gives a brilliant evocation of the intensity of life and action in 1797 on a British battleship, some years after mutinies at Spithead and on HMS Nore — see my review in The Article.
This production by the late Jonathan Miller is a classic, and congratulations to the ENO for putting it on with a splendid cast. Recent threats by the Arts Council notwithstanding, the ENO does a fine job of bringing people in to witness one of the great art forms, which is exactly what they should be …
This welcome revival of Jonathan Miller’s production featured a cast headed by the powerful and lyrical singing of Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace as Mimi. She will surely take on heavier roles as her career develops, but her beloved Rodolfo (David Junghoon Kim) was not as consistent — see my review in The Article.
