Glyndebourne's critically acclaimed production of
Billy Budd has won the Best Revival award in the
whatsonstage.com Opera Poll 2013. The win comes two days before the production makes its international debut in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Now in its third year, the
whatsonstage.com Opera Poll was decided by the public and attracted over 15,000 votes. Glyndebourne's General Director David Pickard said: "I am absolutely thrilled that
Billy Budd has won the Best Revival category in the What's On Stage opera poll. It is a particular pleasure that the awards come from members of the public, reflecting the electric atmosphere in the theatre at every performance of this great opera. I have no doubt that New York audiences will enjoy a similarly emotive experience when the production appears at BAM this month." Beloved by critics and audiences alike when it premièred in 2010, Glyndebourne's
Billy Budd was a sell-out success again when it was revived at the 2013 Glyndebourne Festival to mark the centenary of the birth of its composer Benjamin Britten. The all-male cast from that run remains largely unchanged for the upcoming BAM performances and is led by South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo in the title role with Mark Padmore and Brindley Sherratt performing as Captain Vere and Claggart. The London Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Benjamin Britten spent a considerable amount of time in New York in the late 1930s and early 1940s and this period helped shaped the musical outlook of one of the UK's most prolific and popular composers. Based on the novel by American author Herman Melville and adapted by librettists E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, Billy Budd is a story of injustice set in the tense and stifling atmosphere of a British ship in the Napoleonic wars.
Billy Budd appears at the Brooklyn Academy of Music between 7 and 13 February.
