This opera was created in a homosexual milieu. E. M. Forster, the librettist of Billy Budd, was a repressed homosexual. Britten, the composer, and Peter Pears, the leading singer, were long-time lovers. Britten was also in love with the handsome young David Hemmings, who played Billy Budd, and with the attractive young Ronan Magill, who took the role of Tadzio in Britten’s opera Death in.