Opera review: Billy Budd | Cosi fan tutte

Published on Tuesday 25 May 2010 19:29

BILLY BUDD ***** COSI FAN TUTTE ***** GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL OPERA

WE'VE seen a variety of Billy Budds over the past 20 years, but none can hold a candle to Michael Grandage's production at Glyndebourne. If you want a definitive realisation of what Britten did with Melville's novella, this is it. Christopher Oram's set is a masterpiece – the massive interior of an 18th-century man o' war, permeated by pain, fear, and claustrophobia. Bringing his famed theatrical skills to opera, Grandage directs with such assurance that every gesture becomes eloquent; conductor Mark Elder draws magnificent playing from the London Philharmonic, and extraordinary performances from the male-voice chorus, whether in rollicking horseplay or incipient growling mutiny.

Jacques Imbrailo gives the performance of his life in the title role, an angelic outsider whose luminous honesty wrings the heart. John Mark Ainsley's incarnation of the tormented Captain Vere is inspired, as is Philip Ens's portrayal of Claggart as an infernal being wracked by hatred, envy and lust. Ben Johnson's anguished Novice is a haunting creation, broken by punishment and transformed into the drama's Judas.

The pre-battle scene has an excited fizz; the execution is not seen but horribly hinted at, as is the extreme brutality of the flogging. Grandage gives us truths as penetrating as those which Primo Levi extracted from the concentration camps; he shows us slavery in action.

Likewise, no praise is too high for the revival of Nicholas Hytner's clear-eyed and cruel Cosi fan tutte. Allan Clayton and Robin Gleadow are unimprovable as the young "Albanians", as are Sally Matthews and Barbara Senator as the sisters; Anna Maria Panzarella's Despina is more knowing than we are accustomed to, while Pietro Spagnoli's Don Alfonso has lovely timing.