woulfe: Glad you liked it! Your homoerotic intrepretation #3 is as good as any, but I didn’t extract that one either, at least not from the book. I think for Melville, Claggart is just a device to bring random evil into Billy’s life. He devotes a chapter to sketching Claggart’s psychology — something we know we have a coinvenient label for, i.e., psychopath.

There is supposed to be a homoerotic interpretation of the whole thing, but being an innocent in these matters, I could never quite figure out what it was. Does Claggart destroy Billy because he’s jealous of the captain’s affection for him?

I think Britten’s Claggart can be understood as the archetypal repressed homosexual, who, hating his own desire for Billy, seeks to destroy him. It’s thirty years since I read Billy Budd, so I can’t comment if that might have been Melville’s intention.

It would be easy and tempting, I guess, to overplay all the maleness on stage, but apart from the obligatory revealing of Tahu Rhodes’ pecs, the production stayed well clear of gratuitous homoeroticism.

Judgement, and its meaning and consequences, are what I think underpin Billy Budd, and Peter Grimes (an outsider is judged as bad and driven to suicide by a fishing village lynch mob) and much of Britten’s work. Hardly surprising.

For me the essence is that Billy (goodness) forgives, not pardons or patronises, but forgives in the truest sense, he understands (even if we or Vere don’t). He sees only goodness. This is the Christian and crucifixion analogy, as much as the sacrifice of innocence. Worth noting are Vere’s final words: “But he (Billy) saved me, and blessed me, and the love that passeth understanding has come to me”.

The homoerotic element, certainly ambiguous, as in much of Britten, gives a possible explanation in this production for Claggart’s nature. Namely, that he so despises himself for his (repressed) sexuality, hating his attraction to Billy (the sniffing of Billy’s kerchief), projecting his hate, to be destroyed at all costs. How many gay bashings are by young males uncertain about their own sexuality or masculinity?

James, Armfield is producing a new Peter Grimes next year.

I’ve posted on this elsewhere, referencing a worthwhile musical analysis, and an
ABC video interview with Teddy Tahu Rhodes explaining the work is a disarmingly simple way, plus some production footage.

Patrick: Thanks for that. I’ve never heard of the film. I’ll take your caution on board, but it would be interesting to see how the music is used.