OperaVision will start streaming the Norske Opera and Ballett’s production of Britten’s “Billy Buddy” on Feb. 8, 2019. The production will be directed by Annilese Miskimmon with conductor Mark Wigglesworth in the pit to lead the Norwegian National Opera. The cast will feature Peter Hoare as Vere, Jacques Imbrailo as the title character, John Relyea as John Claggart, Aleksander Nohr {…}
Iowa Public Television’s broadcast of “Des Moines Metro Opera Presents Billy Budd” has won the 2018 Upper Midwest Emmy in the Arts/Entertainment Program division. The 2018 Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Gala and awards ceremony was held on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018, with the team of creators Judy Blank, Andrea Coyle, Chad Aubrey, Jim Leasure, David Feingold, Kevin Rivers, Neal Kyer, Rick {…}
The Central City Opera has announced its 2019 season, which will feature four operas. Among the four works are two well-known masterpieces and two lesser-known oeuvres. As of this writing, the company has not announced the full dates of the performances of the works. Traditionally, the company reveals more details in the fall with tickets going on sale in the {…}
The central drama in “Billy Budd” unambiguously rotates around the relationships between Seaman Billy Budd, Captain Vere, and the Master-at-Arms, John Claggart. However, the exact nature of the relationships and the psychological motivations upon which they are founded are shrouded in a white mist, opening up the possibility for directors to pursue a variety of valid interpretations. Many recent productions {…}
Herman Melville, E.M. Forster, Eric Crozier and Benjamin Britten all believed that “Billy Budd” was set at sea. Czech theatre director Daniel Špinar thinks otherwise. His new four-act production of Britten’s psychologically fascinating, demonstrably homoerotic and deeply disturbing drama for the National Theatre in Prague had as much to do with HMS Indomitable as “Madama Butterfly” moved to Mozambique. In the {…}
First premiering at the Royal Opera House on December 1st, 1951, Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd” is based on a novel of the same name by Herman Melville, author of the famed sea-faring story “Moby Dick.” The libretto was by E.M. Forster in collaboration with Eric Crozier. As Britten composed the score for “Billy Budd,” a one-act opera based on the {…}
If you surveyed the most recent 1,000 opera reviews, “testosterone” would not be one of the top hits. Unless you were Googling the Des Moines Metro Opera’s new production of “Billy Budd,” which promises to be the hit of its 45th season. Energized by the transformative performance of Zachary James as the “villain” John Claggart, this story is about much {…}
Imagine doing a rehearsal in one city until 10 p.m. and then having to fly to another city, to do another rehearsal for another opera, just 12 hours later. Well, that is what John Chest faces right now, as the baritone takes on Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd” in Berlin and John Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby” at the same time. The {…}
The Des Moines Metro Opera has been awarded a generous gift from the Lauridsen Family Foundation. According to a press release, the gift is for a whopping $1 million in support of the Company’s Words & Music at the Carnegie Capital Campaign. The campaign has been set up to support the “restoration and expansion of DMMO’s headquarters—the historic Carnegie Library {…}