Benjamin Britten and the floating republic
The premiere of Billy Budd at the Teatro Colón is a special occasion to appreciate the universal value of a work of art. That is, its capacity to free itself from both the time and space in which events occur and the circumstances surrounding its creation. Inspired by Herman Melville's 1891 novel Billy Budd, Sailor , the opera by British author Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Edward Morgan Forster, premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1951.
Britten, one of the most prominent composers of vocal music of all time, was also an accomplished pianist. He restored Britain to a prominent place as a source of great composers, after Henry Purcell in the 17th century. His contribution to music was remarkable, as he created an absolutely innovative tonal language within a relatively conservative framework. In this sense, he is characterized by a singular genius, as he did not adhere to the fashions of the moment or advanced contemporary aesthetics, such as integral serialism, aleatoric music, or experimental electronic music.
Along with his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, Britten was a committed pacifist. In 1939, he escaped the war and settled in the United States. Three years later, his "longing for England" prompted him to return home, and he appeared before a tribunal as a conscientious objector. During his journey, Britten wrote his famous Ceremony of Carols , for high-voice choir and harp. In 1962, he composed War Requiem , a major work for the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral, severely damaged by the German Blitz in 1940. His fervent anti-war sentiment is expressed in this work of reconciliation, a rebuttal to the brutal violence of war. Its purpose is not to pay tribute to fallen British soldiers, but to make a public declaration of pacifism. Its final movement, "Let Us Sleep Now," is a conversation between two World War I soldiers written by the poet Wilfred Owen in 1918. His 1968 recording of Schubert's Die Winterreise cycle with Peter Pears is legendary. Months before his death in 1976, Benjamin Britten became a member of the British House of Lords.
Melville's novel and Britten's opera present two contrasting political visions, reflected in the names of the ships. The Rights of Man , the merchant ship Billy is forced to abandon in order to be recruited, takes its name from the famous pamphlet by Thomas Paine, a defender of the French revolution and the rights of man. The Indomitable, on the other hand, is a warship, regulated by the code of war and martial law. In Britten's and Forster's versions, the ships are, respectively, the "floating republic" at war with the "floating monarchy." In 1797, when these events take place, France and Great Britain are not only vying for maritime supremacy. At stake is also the stability of the old monarchical order, threatened by the spread of the French innovation: the Declaration of Universal Rights, pioneered by the First Republic.
Like any work of art, Billy Budd has no moralizing ambition, but rather displays timeless human uncertainties regarding an impossible decision, trapped in conflicting loyalties. The tragic conflict is Oedipus, Agamemnon, and Medea, as it is King Lear, Hamlet, and Ophelia. Their common denominator is that, whatever the decision, a price must be paid, and the consequences can be devastating. In this case, the tragic hero is Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, who begins and closes the opera by evoking the painful events aboard the Indomitable. His splendor on stage contrasts with the miserable life of the sailors: “ our craft is a li e,” Melville would say in White Jacket, for beneath the lustrous woods and “the gleam of the deck” we keep the wounded and sick: “The vast mass of our fabric, with all its stores of secrets.” Behind the ship, as a backdrop, visual projections of the moving sea and sky create the illusion of navigation. The fog that mars the battle and hinders Captain Vere's judgment progressively darkens the scene as the plot reaches its climax in the second act.
A seasoned sailor, well-versed in the darkness of the human heart, Vere is a just man respected by the crew. He knows of Billy's innocence but abides by his oaths and the rigor of the code of war. He chooses to preserve order on board and sacrifices the kind-hearted sailor. Billy Budd is the "Angel of God," the private vigilante who is to be hanged from the battleship's mainmast. Claggart, the master-at-arms whose wickedness is "camouflaged by a retinue of virtue," is buried with honors at sea. In the epilogue, the tormented captain acknowledges that Billy, the scapegoat, has redeemed him. His last words, "Long live Captain Vere!" are echoed in unison by the enraged crew. They calm tempers and avert the threat of mutiny. The Angel of God has freed him from the dreaded public consequences of his decision.
The ship as a metaphor for the political body is a recurring theme in the common imagination. The Rights of Man is "the floating republic," where the law reigns over arbitrary decisions and where the protection of rights admits no exceptions. Freedom of expression, the right to due process, and equality before the law were suspended for Billy on the Indomitable. The name embodies the political actions justified under the pretext of a state of emergency and the preservation of order. The fearsome threat, however, is that they will perpetuate themselves over time, normalizing what was originally presented as an exception.
The value of Billy Budd as a work of art transcends both the naval battles of the 18th century and the world war that so dismayed Britten. It is not only a political allegory about the painful limitations of human institutions. It is also an exhortation to jealously guard the republican institutional framework that establishes constitutional guarantees for the protection of rights, including freedom of expression and of the press .
By Elisa Goyenechea and Martín Benvenuto
lanacion
