DESCRIPTION:
An excerpt from Act I of Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera Billy Budd, to a libretto by E.M. Forster based on Melville's novella.

In order to break the spirits of a group of newly press-ganged sailors, the master-at-arms has ordered a young novice flogged for a trivial infraction.

Robert Tear (tenor) is the novice, and Benjamin Luxon (baritone) is his friend. The composer conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Ambrosian Opera Chorus.

The photograph is of Simon Keenlyside as Billy in a 2002 production of the opera at the Vienna Staatsoper.