Budd and Gloriana Reconsidered

If it has done nothing else, the revival of Britten's two ‘underground’ operas, Gloriana in a concert performance last November, and Billy Budd more recently at Covent Garden, has more than vindicated that small group of enthusiasts who stood out against popular opinion when the operas were first produced some ten years ago, and have since then resolutely insisted on the importance of both works. Many of us, I think, who had not seen or heard either Gloriana or Billy Budd until now, have been much too willing to accept without question the general, and as we can now see, misleading critical assessment that greeted their first appearance. But there can be no longer any doubt as to the distinctive position that these two compositions occupy within the canon of Britten's stage works, and certainly Billy Budd at least must be counted among the finest of his achievements.