“Billy in the Darbies … and on Page, Stage, and Screen: Adaptations of Melville's Billy Budd”

Abstract

s MLA 2011 | Los Angeles, California “Billy in the Darbies . . . and on Page, Stage, and Screen: Adaptations of Melville’s Billy Budd” Co-Chair: Joseph Fruscione Georgetown University, George Washington University O rganized and moderated by Joseph Fruscione (Melville Society) and Jeff Dailey (Lyrica Society), this collaborative panel brought together five scholar/teachers to discuss adaptations of Billy Budd through short, focused papers that sparked a lively discussion. This was the Melville Society’s first collaborative panel, one we hope will set the tone for future work with other author societies and organizations. In recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s opera, this roundtable examined musical, cinematic, and aural adaptations of Billy Budd. Two panelists discussed the Britten opera, two the Claire Denis film Beau Travail, and one a radio version presented by Focus on the Family. The panelists moved beyond “fidelity criticism” to examine creative responses to Melville’s novella. Britten’s “Haunting Melodies”: The Music of Billy Budd as the Universal Language of Human Emotion Marcia Green San Francisco State University Benjamin Britten’s musical-literary theme—the indictment of human folly as revealed in the tragedy and wastage of war and in the corruption of human innocence—is achieved through his extraordinarily wide orchestral harmonic range. Utilizing a structure that is taut and tense and themes that are often similar in melodic outline, Britten stresses the obsessive nature of the piece. His opera is rich in variety and polytonality. He uses musical keys as literary leitmotifs, such as B-flat major in the Prologue and c © 2011 The Melville Society and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 120 L E V I A T H A N A J O U R N A L O F M E L V I L L E S T U D I E S