Search - Benjamin Britten, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Peter Pears :: Billy Budd

A unique chance to hear the very first cast of Billy Budd

Mermaid | Northern Europe | 08/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The technical flaws of this unique recording are outweighed indeed by the magic and beauty of this performance by the original cast, conducted by Britten himself. The technical flaws (reputed to be due to the fact that the source of this CD is a amateur-recording of a 1951 performance of this beautiful opera) make for instance Claggart's voice sound at one - happily non-crucial - point rather wavy, rather like tapes sometimes sound after having listenend to them too much. Still, moments like these are very rare and in a way add to the nostalgia of this recording of 1951 being now finally available. The music and the singing this CD offers have a magical flavour. Claggart, Vere and Billy are sung with emotional profundity and make this CD well worth the purchase for every Britten fan (and every E. M. Forster fan of course; together with Eric Crozier he wrote the libretto, which Britten called the best libretto he had ever heard)."

A great historical moment, if you don't mind the pirate soni

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pirated recordings, usually taken from radio sources or portable tape recorders sneaked into the theater, have risen to semi-respectability in recent years. This is one of the most treasurable, a great performance caught in listenable mono sound. Uppman remains the ideal Billy Budd, not only for his mesmerizing good looks (crucial to Melville's concpetoin of angelic innocence) but also for his unique ability to make Billy sound innocent. Pears is the ideal Vere, here caught in much better voice than on the later studio rcording. This used to be the only version of the original, unrevised score that you cuold buy, but that lacuna has been filled by the live Nagano performance on Erato, which is excellent. In terms of sound this Billy Budd ranks dead last and always will, but in terms of drama and musicality, it ranks near the top."