Billy Budd

Alan Burrett - Lighting Designer

Billy Budd

Directed by Francesca Zambello

Set And Costumes : Alison Chitty

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1995)

Received Olivier Award for Best Opera Production

Opéra de Paris, Bastille (1996)

Received French Grand Prix des Critiques for Best Opera Production

Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington Opera,Seattle Opera

Billy Budd Paris 2010

Chitty's set is abstract, straightforward, streamlined. A ship is suggested - its bow and a mast - but little more. The endless water that surrounds it is represented by a series of asymmetrical panels, vertical and blue and so hard that one is reminded of how soft the seats are in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, home of Los Angeles Opera. Alan Burrett's lighting design is evocative, sometimes a little terrifying and sometimes hallucinatory. But how well it sets the atmosphere and sustains it.

Billy Budd Paris 2010