Chicago. (North America).(Billy Budd)

Nineteen years after the world premiere of Billy Budd, Lyric Opera of Chicago mounted the first professional American stage production of Benjamin Britten's opera in 1970, with Theodor Uppman in the title role he created. It's taken three decades and a new, British music director for the company's second staging, but the results were worth the wait. Lyric's powerful new production of Billy Budd offered a flawless cast, atmospheric production and sterling musical direction creating the kind of riveting night in the theater that mavens will talk about for the rest of their lives.

It's easy to understand Britten's attraction to Herman Melville's novella. The composer's favored themes -- the corruption of innocence and the persecution of an outsider by a closed, uncaring society -- here find not one protagonist but two. The good-hearted Billy Budd, whose sole flaw is a stammer that leads to his ultimate tragedy, is the most obvious victim, but the Indomitables leader, Captain Vere, is another. An educated man, Vere is deeply torn between his personal feelings and his duty to a larger social milieu he knows to be morally wrong -- in this case, the British navy in the mutinous year of 1797.

As with all Britten operas, the focus here is not on individual arias or vocal set pieces but on sharply drawn conflict between flawed, complex characters set within a barren social realm. Yet Lyric's new production (seen Nov. 23) packs such a brilliant theatrical and emotional wallop that the absence of memorable melodies seems largely irrelevant.

Designer Charles Edwards's set for the Indomitable was a finely wrought blend of naturalistic touches within an abstract style. The long, shaky, plank-like ship's bridge served as an apt metaphor for the morally leaden officers, who are raised and lowered above the deck where the scruffy seamen dwell, nicely underlining the English class structure that pervades even the British navy. Towering rigging and cross-masts evoked the frigate's upper reaches and the nautical environment with fine scenic flair.

Making his Lyric debut, Nathan Gunn scored a triumph in the title role. It's hard to believe that this was the American baritone's first outing as the innocent "beauty" Billy, so completely did he inhabit the character of the pure-hearted, stuttering merchant seaman, pressed into service aboard the Indomitable. The young Illinois-born singer rose to this challenging role with remarkable ease and confidence, his vocalism consistently refined yet always dramatically aware. Gunn tackled the long, challenging final monologue, "Look through the port," with sterling artistry; singing with lovely mezza voce shading, he rendered heart-breakingly Billy's simple words, "I'll stay strong, and that's all, and that's ...