Billy Budd at Peter Jay Sharp Building

As part of a worldwide celebration of the composer’s 100th birthday, Benjamin Britten’s sweeping, seafaring masterpiece comes to BAM in a spectacular production from Glyndebourne Festival Opera, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage (former artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse). From lilting a capella sea shanties to bombastic choral juggernauts, Britten’s magnificent score roars to life under the direction of esteemed conductor Sir Mark Elder and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, while Glyndebourne’s all-male cast fills designer Christopher Oram’s cavernous ship with truly unforgettable sound. Based on Herman Melville’s classic novella, with a powerful libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, Billy Budd transforms a British man o’ war into a crucible for human faith and error, where truth is fugitive and justice never absolute.