Britten's Billy Budd

I'm listening this afternoon to the broadcast on WQXR (http://www.wqxr.com) of the Houston Grand Opera's production of Britten's Billy Budd, my very first hearing of this work. My listening today was just to get a feel for the work (I have a recording of the opera and also of Britten's Turn of the Screw in my library, but have not yet gotten around to even breaking the shrink-wrap on either), and the more I listen, the more I realize that Britten is one of the greatest composers of opera of all time. I mean, I intended to give the opera only a cursory listen this afternoon to, as I've said, just get a feel for it, but I've found that impossible. It keeps compelling my full attention even against my settled intent, and any opera that can do that is an opera that must be counted among the very first rank of the operatic canon.

I look forward now to sitting down with this opera to give it the serious, full-attention listen it so clearly requires and deserves.