Programs · Episode

BRITTEN: Peter Grimes

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, September 28, 2024 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

The seeds for this emotionally powerful opera were sewn while Britten was in California, where an encounter with George Crabbe's poem The Borough left the composer nostalgic for home, in the English coastal town of Aldeburgh. The resulting opera may be bleak, but its message is profound. The recordings featured on AT THE OPERA offer two leading interpreters of the opera’s complex title role.  From 1978, tenor Jon Vickers is Grimes, with Colin Davis conducting. In a 1993 release, Anthony Rolfe Johnson sings the title role, with conductor Bernard Haitink. 

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Sir Colin Davis, conductor

Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

CAST:  Jon Vickers (Peter Grimes); Heather Harper (Ellen Orford); Jonathan Summers (Captain Balstrode); Elizabeth Bainbridge (Auntie); Patricia Payne (Mrs. Sedley); Forbes Robinson (Swallow); John Lanigan (Rector); Thomas Allen (Ned Keene)

Bernard Haitink, conductor

Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

CAST:  Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Peter Grimes); Felicity Lott (Ellen Orford); Thomas Allen (Captain Balstrode); Patricia Payne (Auntie); Sarah Walker (Mrs. Sedley); Stafford Dean (Swallow); Neil Jenkins (Rector); Simon Keenlyside (Ned Keene)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

The forbidding beauty of storms has long been a popular subject for musicians — turning up in everything from popular torch songs, to one of the 20th-century's finest operas. 

In the classic song "Stormy Weather," made famous by Lena Horne in a 1940s movie, the mood starts out gentle and melancholy; the opening verse describes dreary skies, and constant rain.  But the song quickly turns to something deeper than just clouds and drizzle, with the lyrics, "Life is bare, gloom and misery everywhere, stormy weather — just can't get my poor self together." 

That's something deeper than melancholy.  It conveys heartache and psychological pain – a weary life with no relief in sight – and when opera covers the same emotional ground, things can get even more serious.  Often deadly serious.

In the case of Britten's Peter Grimes, a story that began with a bout of personal nostalgia evolved into a grim and intensely beautiful score – the first full-blown musical drama by an opera composer who ranks among his century's finest.  

Britten was born in 1913 in Lowestoft, England – a coastal town in the county of Suffolk.  In recent years, it's become known as a tourist destination, on England's "Sunrise Coast."  But historically, it was a fishing town, where people earned a hardscrabble living from the sea.

Britten was in California, in the 1940's, when he read an early 19^th-century narrative poem called "Peter Grimes," by the Suffolk author George Crabbe.  Apparently, it made the composer homesick, and with the help of tenor Peter Pears, Britten prepared an opera scenario with the poem as inspiration.  But the composer's nostalgia hardly resulted in a sentimental story.  Instead, Britten's Peter Grimes is an ambiguous, foreboding drama, in which storms at sea are the backdrop for a tale of despondency, suicide and maybe even a double murder.

 The title character is one of the most complex to be found in any opera.  On this edition of At The Opera, we’ll hear recordings starring two of the role’s finest interpreters, and both featuring the orchestra and chorus of London’s Royal Opera House.  Sir Colin Davis leads a 1978 release featuring tenor Jon Vickers as Grimes, and Anthony Rolfe Johnson sings the title role with conductor Bernard Haitink, in a recording from 1993.

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