# Round 2: Billy Budd. Keenlyside, Thomas S. Allen



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

To my ears there’s a slight roughness in Keenlysides’s timbre so by a small margin Sir Thomas it is!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The recording's engineering may have something to do with it, but of the four baritones we've heard so far only Thomas Allen makes nearly all of the words absolutely clear. This is no easy feat in poetic prose such as this, but I would expect no less of a singer and artist I've long admired as one of Britain's finest. I have from him a collection of English song which strikes me as the best I've ever heard. Keenlyside's enunciation is only marginally less distinct, and he has other virtues; from the very first word, "look," executed with a beautiful mesa di voce, he's musically and interpretively nuanced, and with a voice both masculine and youthful he summons up exactly the picture of fated innocence and beauty Melville and Britten have so eloquently painted in words and music. I can't imagine this being sung better, and with all respect to Allen, I find in Keenlyside an ideal embodiment of Billy.

For some reason I'm thinking just now of Dame Judi Dench's comments after seeing Callas as Tosca. Noting that Callas was not only a great actress but possessed an extraordinary voice, Dench, a great actress but without a great singer's voice, exclaimed, "It's grossly unfair!" Looking at photos of the improbably presentable Keenlyside as Billy with his singing in mind, I'm thinking the same thing.

("Improbably presentable" is either my attempt at British understatement or just a way of not looking like a starry-eyed adolescent groupie. Yeah, yeah... Don't pretend you don't feel it too.)


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

It is rare when I can understand English when sung, no matter who sings it or how much they enunciate well.
This one is a particularly difficult aria to wet my beak on because most of it is so quiet that it is hard to pin down a portion to listen to where they both sing out.

I finally found a spot where I was able to compare them and based my choice on the voice that most appealed to me.
That voice, even without hearing much of his singing, was Keenlyside.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

My impressions are much the same as Woodduck's. Both are wonderful and two of the greatest British baritones of the last fifty years. Both are, I think, preferable to the first two we heard, but I'm giving the palm to Keenlyside here. Whether it be Keenlyside, Hickox or the recording or all three, they conjure up exactly the right wistful atmosphere.

I never saw Keenlyside as Billy, but I did see him as Rigoletto and I can attest to his brilliant acting and powerful stage presence. When the other courtiers kicked out his crutches from under him, leaving him grovelling in the dirt while he pleaded with them to give him back his daughter, he had me in tears. It was one of the most moving examples of operatic acting I have ever witnessed.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> My impressions are much the same as Woodduck's. Both are wonderful and two of the greatest British baritones of the last fifty years. Both are, I think, preferable to the first two we heard, but I'm giving the palm to Keenlyside here. Whether it be Keenlyside, Hickox or the recording or all three, they conjure up exactly the right wistful atmosphere.
> 
> I never saw Keenlyside as Billy, but I did see him as Rigoletto and I can attest to his brilliant acting and powerfu stage presence. When the other courtiers kicked out his crutches from under him, leaving him grovelling in the dirt while he pleaded with them to give him back his daughter, he had me in tears. It was one of the most moving examples of operatic acting I have ever witnessed.


So he has the voice, the musicianship, the looks, the acting talent...

Is he married?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> So he has the voice, the musicianship, the looks, the acting talent...
> 
> Is he married?


He's married to the ballet dancer Zenaida Yanowsky. I can't believe he's actually in his 60s now, though he was singing Macbeth at Covent Garden earlier this season.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> He's married to the ballet dancer Zenaida Yanowsky. I can't believe he's actually in his 60s now, though he was singing Macbeth at Covent Garden earlier this season.


60s. My, my... The words of Schiller, in that gorgeous choral piece by Brahms, _Nänie_, come to mind: "Auch das schöne muss sterben." Long live Simon.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

*Tsaraslondon is to thank for this well received round. A bit out of my area of expertise.*


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Billy is a young man, and it's a young man's role. Allen was and is a great singer, but he sounds a little too mature and sophisticated compared to Keenlyside, who was younger (40) when he recorded this (Allen was around 60 - I suspect that he sounded a lot more suitable when he was younger and the role was in his active repertoire).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I think universally the reaction has been towards the second round over the first round in this aria so I am going to let the winner of that round stand as the winner of the contest unless there is a big protest.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I think universally the reaction has been towards the second round over the first round in this aria so I am going to let the winner of that round stand as the winner of the contest unless there is a big protest.


That's fine. It's hard to imagine anyone beating Keenlyside in this.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Woodduck said:


> The recording's engineering may have something to do with it, but of the four baritones we've heard so far only Thomas Allen makes nearly all of the words absolutely clear. This is no easy feat in poetic prose such as this, but I would expect no less of a singer and artist I've long admired as one of Britain's finest. I have from him a collection of English song which strikes me as the best I've ever heard. Keenlyside's enunciation is only marginally less distinct, and he has other virtues; from the very first word, "look," executed with a beautiful mesa di voce, he's musically and interpretively nuanced, and with a voice both masculine and youthful he summons up exactly the picture of fated innocence and beauty Melville and Britten have so eloquently painted in words and music. I can't imagine this being sung better, and with all respect to Allen, I find in Keenlyside an ideal embodiment of Billy.
> 
> For some reason I'm thinking just now of Dame Judi Dench's comments after seeing Callas as Tosca. Noting that Callas was not only a great actress but possessed an extraordinary voice, Dench, a great actress but without a great singer's voice, exclaimed, "It's grossly unfair!" Looking at photos of the improbably presentable Keenlyside as Billy with his singing in mind, I'm thinking the same thing.
> 
> ("Improbably presentable" is either my attempt at British understatement or just a way of not looking like a starry-eyed adolescent groupie. Yeah, yeah... Don't pretend you don't feel it too.)


You seriously don't mind the throaty straight tones from Keenlyside? I mean, seriously, what happened to technical standards? It isn't even classical singing! Allen at least sings like he knows it's an opera.

Anyway, Uppman is by far the best in this role.



http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Baritones/Uppman__Theodor/UppmanBritten.MP3


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

wkasimer said:


> Billy is a young man, and it's a young man's role. Allen was and is a great singer, but he sounds a little too mature and sophisticated compared to Keenlyside, who was younger (40) when he recorded this (Allen was around 60 - I suspect that he sounded a lot more suitable when he was younger and the role was in his active repertoire).


Does singing quality not matter in opera anymore? Is this why 25-year-old baritones can't even find work anymore, because they're "not believable fathers"? Are we going to stop casting non-Whites in 90% of standard-rep opera, too? How about being able to sing? Without imitating Kermit, or using breathiness, or straight tones left and right? Why does nobody sing like the actual singers the roles were written for? Why sing the same rep if the whole technique will change radically?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

PaulFranz said:


> You seriously don't mind the throaty straight tones from Keenlyside? I mean, seriously, what happened to technical standards? It isn't even classical singing! Allen at least sings like he knows it's an opera.
> 
> Anyway, Uppman is by far the best in this role.
> 
> ...


I don't feel much like going back into this and debating the fine points of vocal technique. Allen was an excellent singer for whom I have high regard, and offhand I'd say he was probably a better singer than Keenlyside, based on what little I've heard from the latter. All I need to say about this selection is that Keenlyside evoked Billy for me in a way that Allen didn't. Sometimes technique takes a back seat to artistic imagination. It did so for me here.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I’ve often found it disconcerting that *Billy Budd *is cast as a baritone instead of a tenor whose voice type suggests youthfulness whereas baritones often sound more mature. My mind’s image of Billy is Terence Stamp who played him in the 1962 movie and neither Allen’s or Keenlyside’s voice match that image. Nor did Richard Lewis or James King, whom I saw in San Francisco, evoke the beauteous youth. Nathan Gunn did, shirtless, but the voice-character was also more mature, though he crooned part of the aria. Nevertheless, Billy is a baritone and I must not re-cast at this late date! So I also opt for the lightest-sounding voice, as did my learned posters.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Just in case you needed to see Gunn…


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> I’ve often found it disconcerting that *Billy Budd *is cast as a baritone instead of a tenor whose voice type suggests youthfulness whereas baritones often sound more mature. My mind’s image of Billy is Terence Stamp who played him in the 1962 movie and neither Allen’s or Keenlyside’s voice match that image. Nor did Richard Lewis or James King whom I saw in San Francisco evoke the beauteous youth. Nathan Gunn did, shirtless, but the voice-character was also more mature, though he crooned part of the aria. Nevertheless, Billy is a baritone and I must not re-cast at this late date! So I also opt for the lightest-sounding voice, as did my learned posters.


I agree with you, it would lend itself better to a more youthful sounding ( tenor) voice.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I agree with you, it would lend itself better to a more youthful sounding ( tenor) voice.


But then Britten had obviously decided to make Vere the Pears role, which meant that it was better to make Billy a baritone. I can't say it's ever bothered me, but I do prefer a young, lighter sounding voice in the role.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> But then Britten had obviously decided to make Vere the Pears role, which meant that it was better to make Billy a baritone. I can't say it's ever bothered me, but I do prefer a young, lighter sounding voice in the role.


I figured that was the reason for the odd decision, but it is intriguing to think of *Billy Budd *with two tenors!


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I agree with you, it would lend itself better to a more youthful sounding ( tenor) voice.


There's no reason why a baritone can't sound youthful. The creator of the role, Theodore Uppman, had a pretty bright and youthful sound - the other roles that featured prominently in his repertoire, particularly during his first decade at the Met, were Pelleas, Papageno, Eisenstein, Masetto, Harlekin in Ariadne, and Guglielmo. The heaviest roles in his Met career were probably Sharpless and Kothner, neither of which he sang very often, and only toward the end of his career.

I think that a lyric baritone strikes the right balance between youth and masculinity, both of which are essential for the role.


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