Britten-Pears Foundation

Featured work: Peter Grimes, op.33

OPERA IN THREE ACTS AND A PROLOGUE

Background to the opera

Bust of George Crabbe in Aldeburgh Parish Church.

Britten’s first full length, and possibly best known, opera originated in part from the composer’s reading of the article ‘George Crabbe: the Poet and the Man’ by E.M. Forster, which appeared in The Listener in May 1941. It was through Forster that Britten developed an interest in the work of Crabbe, a fellow East Anglian, a curate as well as a writer born in the Suffolk town of Aldeburgh on the east coast of England in 1754. Peter Pears purchased a volume of Crabbe’s poetry shortly after Britten read Forster’s article and, as he was later to inscribe in the flyleaf of the book, it was from his and Britten’s reading of the long poem ‘The Borough’ that “we started work on the plans for making an opera out of Peter Grimes”.

Britten and Pears were at the time resident in the United States and had of course come into contact with a number of American musicians and music lovers. They met Serge Koussevitzky, the Russian born American conductor who became a champion of the young composer’s work. The Koussevitzky Music Foundation was set up to support the encouragement of new music and it was through this that Britten was awarded a $1,000 commission to write an opera. Britten realised his debt of gratitude to the conductor and the opera is dedicated to the memory of Koussevitsky’s wife Natalie. It was Koussevitsky’s request that Britten’s manuscript of the full score of Peter Grimes remain in America and it can seen at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

The Old Mill, Snape

In 1942 Britten and Pears returned to England, but it was not until January 1944 that work was begun on the opera. Composition took place while Britten was living in the converted Mill in Snape, five miles from Aldeburgh. The scenario was selected from one section of George Crabbe’s poem about the lives of people on the Suffolk coast. For Crabbe, Peter Grimes was a sadistic figure whose rough ways earn little sympathy from the reader. The character is, however, depicted somewhat differently in Britten’s opera. The story was adapted by Montagu Slater, with the assistance of Britten, Pears, Ronald Duncan and Eric Crozier. The Grimes of Britten’s opera, although isolated and at times violent, is more to be pitied than despised. In the words of Peter Pears he is ‘neither a hero, nor a villain’.

Synopsis

From the La Monnaie production, 2003

The action takes place almost entirely in the Borough, a small fishing town on the East Coast of England around the year 1830. From the outset Peter Grimes is regarded as an outcast. Indeed, a mood of unease concerning this lone figure is set in the Prologue. He stands in the dock during a Coroner’s inquest, held in the Moot Hall, in the presence of some key figures: the widow Mrs. Sedley, the apothecary Ned Keene, the carrier Jim Hobson, the rector Horace Adams, and the widowed schoolmistress Ellen Orford. Nearly all the townsfolk suspect Grimes of ill-treating his young apprentice William Spode (the retired Captain Balstrode and Ellen are notable exceptions). Yet, at the conclusion of the Inquest the lawyer Swallow proclaims that the boy, whose life Grimes had previously saved during a storm, died in accidental circumstances.

Angus McBean photography © Harvard Theatre Collection. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The first of a series of orchestral interludes, this one depicting the breaking ‘Dawn’ over a quiet sea, follows the Prologue and introduces the first of three acts. A number of characters, the fisherman Bob Boles, Mrs. Sedley, Ned Keene and Mr. Adams interact with ‘Auntie’ (the local brothel keeper) and her ‘nieces’ (employees from The Boar Inn). Ned tells Peter that he has found him a new apprentice John whom Ellen offers to look after. The Chorus is scornful of Ellen’s trust in Peter and both she and Grimes suffer their derision. Peter scorns the Borough, realising that they cannot understand that he has a more gentle side and that he bears a secret wish to marry Ellen. The second Interlude occurs amid the crowd’s turmoil and, appropriately, depicts a violent ‘Storm’ from which the next scene shows the borough folk sheltering in The Boar. Peter arrives to collect his new apprentice, wondering if anyone ‘can turn skies back and begin again’. The crowd think that he is either drunk or mad and goad him, but he seizes John and goes out into the storm.

Act Two begins with the third Interlude, ‘Sunday Morning’ which features the chiming of church bells and the singing of birds. Ellen sits at her knitting in the company of young John while the townsfolk make their way to church. She considers a possible future happiness with Peter while listening to the singing of the congregation. Peter enters, ordering the boy to help him bring in a shoal of fish. He and Ellen quarrel over John’s right to rest and this leads Ellen to draw attention to his rough, uncompromising ways, echoing the views of the town. Peter is furious at the thought that the Borough has influenced Ellen. He begins to voice his despair of their ever being happy. He strikes her and drags John (who tries to run from him) away with the defiant cry: “So be it!—And God have mercy upon me!” The church service concludes and as everyone files onto the street there is a general consensus that Grimes is a murderous bully.

Interlude IV is a Passacaglia in which Britten skilfully depicts the divided nature of Grimes: violent and capricious as well as gentle and passionate. Grimes is driven by fate as well as his innate self-destruction to set himself apart from everyone else. This becomes even clearer during the ensuing scene in which Peter vents his anger at the townsfolk by ranting at his apprentice. Clearly, he is descending into madness. The scene ends as the boy falls to his death while helping to pitch fishing nets from the cliff door of Grimes’s hut.

Interlude V ‘Moonlight’ begins the opera’s third act. The people of the Borough gather to discuss the apprentice’s disappearance and the mood of hatred towards Grimes gains momentum. Despite Grimes’s previous anger Captain Balstrode and Ellen resolve to offer Grimes what help they can. The Chorus proclaim: “Him who despises us, we’ll destroy.” Interlude VI precedes Scene two, a bare stage on which Peter emerges through fog now having completely lost his mind. The contemplation of his desolate state is punctuated by the repeated cries of his name by the Chorus. Ellen and Balstrode enter to hear Peter’s tortured plea: “What harbour shelters peace away from tidal waves, away from storms!” Unable to see any future for him, Balstrode tells Peter to sail out until he loses sight of land and then sink his boat. The opera ends with the Chorus on the shore, resuming their normal occupations, unaffected by Grimes’s suicide.

First performance

Peter Grimes was the first opera to be performed at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre near the end of the Second World War. It was produced by Eric Crozier, who later collaborated with Britten as librettist on Albert Herring, St. Nicolas, Let’s Make an Opera. and Billy Budd. The premiere took place on the 7th of June 1945. The set and costume designs were by Kenneth Green. Grimes was sung by Peter Pears, Ellen Orford by Joan Cross and Captain Balstrode by Roderick Jones. The rest of the cast were:

Auntie - Edith Coates
Niece I - Blanche Turner
Niece II - Minnia Bower
Mrs Sedley - Valetta Iacopi
Swallow - Owen Brannigan
Ned Keene - Edmund Donlevy
Bob Boles - Morgan Jones
The Rector - Tom Culbert
Hobson - Frank Vaughan
Dr. Crabbe - Sasa Machov
(renamed ‘Dr. Thorp’ in the first production)
Grimes’s Apprentice - Leonard Thompson

Stage design by Kenneth Green

The chorus and orchestra of the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company were conducted by Reginald Goodall. On 17 July 1945 the BBC relayed a performance from Sadler’s Wells, the first complete broadcast of the opera. Photographer Angus McBean created a brilliant visual record of the original production capturing the dark moods of the characters. Although there was some reservation from critics and audience alike as to the appropriateness of producing what appeared to be so pessimistic a work at the advent of peace time, the opera could not fail to impress and it soon gained an enthusiastic following. Britten’s first full-scale opera is now generally considered to be one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth- century repertoire. Within three years of its premiere Peter Grimes was translated into seven languages and had been produced in sixteen opera houses in Europe and North America. It became the stimulus for the writing of opera in the English language.

The first American production of Peter Grimes was largely a student production and it occurred in August 1946 at, appropriately, Serge Koussevitzky’s Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. The conductor was one of Koussevitzky’s pupils, Leonard Bernstein.

In the Spring of 1945 shortly after the completion of the opera Britten arranged four of the Sea Interludes into an orchestral suite (Op. 33a). In the Summer of that year he revised the Passacaglia, Op. 33b: this concludes with a passage played by celesta and solo viola (that occurs slightly later in the opera). The Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes constitute a major orchestral work in its own right and is frequently performed as a concert piece.

Some further reading

The bibliography for Peter Grimes is extensive, and full details can be found by searching the Britten bibliography.

Paul Banks (ed.), The Making of Peter Grimes: Essays. Woodbridge: The Britten Estate Limited/The Boydell Press, 2000 (Aldeburgh Studies in Music: 6)
Philip Brett (ed.), Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes. Cambridge, 1983 (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)
Eric Crozier (ed.), Peter Grimes. London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1946. (Sadler’s Wells Opera Guides, No. 3)
English National Opera, Peter Grimes/ Gloriana (ENO Opera Guide 24)
E. M. Forster, ‘George Crabbe: The Poet and the Man’, The Listener, 24 May, 1941 (reprinted in Banks and Brett).
Patricia Howard, The Operas of Benjamin Britten: An Introduction London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1969).

Recordings

Britten conducted a recording of Peter Grimes for Decca in December 1958, ROH recorded at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall. Peter Pears reprised the role created for him, and Ellen Orford was sung by Claire Watson, Decca 414 755-2 (released 1985).

Listen to samples of this recording at Amazon.co.uk

This recording is also available in a digitally re-mastered version on Decca Legends, 467682-2 (issued in 2001).

Jon Vickers, Heather Harper, Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Philips 46287, (recorded 1978). A more recent live performance conducted by Colin Davis is also available on the LSO Live label, LSO0054 (released July 2004). It features Janice Watson and Anthony Michaels-Moore.

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Felicity Lott, Thomas Allen, Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink. EMI CDS754832-2 (recorded 1993)

Philip Langridge, Janice Watson, London Symphony Chorus, City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox. Chandos CHAN 9447/8 (recorded 1996).

Listen to samples of this recording at Amazon.co.uk

Video and DVD

1981 Covent Garden Productions with Jon Vickers (Peter Grimes) and Heather Harper (Ellen Orford), Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, producer, Elijah Moshinsky, director, John Vernon. Catalogue no. 0630169132.

1994 English National Opera production with Philip Langridge (Peter Grimes), Janice Cairns (Ellen Orford) and Alan Opie (Captain Bulstrode) English National Opera, conducted by David Atherton. stage production, Tim Albery, producer, Jan Younghusband, directed for video by Barrie Gavin. This version has also been released as a DVD (catalogue no. 100382)