WARSHIP’S UNJUST JUSTICE
The unlikeliest hit opera: an immense all-male cast of 75; setting aboard a warship at sea, without touching land or engaging in battle; no dance, no festivities; and a severe tragedy with the ingratiating title character executed because of insane wartime regulations. This is “Billy Budd” (1951), a searing bigger-than-life British drama (after Herman Melville’s virtually forgotten posthumous novella) which opened at the S.F. Opera Sept. 7. The neoclassical musical power of composer Benjamin Britten carries over past the voices…