Red

Live performance Oct. 29, 2011. Fabio Luisi conducting Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Stage director Michael Grandage.

Captain Vere, an old man, is haunted by a moment in his life when he was tested and found wanting. Based on Herman Melville's novella of naval life in the late 18th Century, Benjamin Britten's 'Billy Budd' is a gripping reflection on good and evil, innocence and corruption.

Perhaps no opera is as closely and affectionately associated with a single opera house as Le Nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Michael Grandage's staging is no less than the seventh in the festival's history, and sets the opera in the sleazy Sixties. Directed by Robin Ticciati, the production was lauded for its "ideal pacing" and youthful cast (which includes "no weak link" and "looks gorgeous"—The Sunday Times), and continues Glyndebourne's rewarding explorations of Mozart and Da Ponte's "day of madness".