The discography of this work now runs to four versions, each a more-than-worthy representation of the piece. The latest derives from the first performances of the opera in Brussels last June, much praised in the pages of Opera. Where the musical side of things is concerned, this recording confirms the high quality of the event, not least on account of Pappano’s conducting. I am tempted to say that the score has never sounded, paradoxically, so beautiful and yet so eerie. As in his readings of Puccini, Pappano shows an uncanny gift for empathizing with a composer’s thought processes and he does so here to arresting effect, thus rivalling Britten himself in his interpretation with the cast of the premiere. Everything in this fascinating piece is laid before us as though Pappano had been familiar with the work for years, as is the case, of course, with Bedford on the Collins set. As Pappano has players at his command from the Monnaie orchestra who equal those on the earlier sets, this is obviously a version to challenge their hegemony.
Nor are his singers, by and large, any less impressive than most of their forerunners and, in the context of a live occasion, they are sometimes just that much more involved. Certainly Susan Chilcott makes the Governess even more emotionally pent-up than the other sopranos in the role, superb as each of them is, and she sings the role with big, bold tone – very effective. Anthony Rolfe Johnson also makes a very dramatic Quint, frightening in his wheedling, menacing, very present manner even when his singing as such sounds a shade strained under pressure. By his side the Miss Jessel is not such a fully rounded character and her top notes are squally. Anne Evans, no less, is a forthright, no-nonsense Mrs Grose, her large voice very telling in ensembles. The Belgian boy taking Miles sings perfect English and sounds a properly scheming, then frightened lad. The American Flora is less satisfactory, a mature soprano trying too hard to sound childlike.
Recording in the opera house always has its drawbacks. In this case the voices off-stage, such as Quint at his first appearances, sound too far away and stage noises are occasionally intrusive, but the balance all-round between voices and instruments is excellent. Among modern performances the Collins set, so well cast apart from its Miles, must still be first choice, Britten and his pioneering team, even in mono, remain an experience apart, and whenever I go back to the Davis version, the most truthfully recorded of all four sets, I find so much to admire. As I have said before, it is a masterpiece that draws the very best from all its interpreters. That is true again here, in a reading that has a theatrical tension all its own – but the inadequate booklet isn’t worthy of the project, particularly when the set is offered at full price.'