Peter Grimes
Performance information
Voorstellings-informatie
In a nutshell
About Benjamin Britten, the world premiere of Peter Grimes and the question of guilt.
Photo: Benjamin Britten
In a nutshell
Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was a British composer, conductor and pianist. He is seen as one of the most important composers of the twentieth century and a key figure in the revival of English opera. Britten’s music is both accessible and innovative in style, combining tradition with modernity. In addition to operas – notably Peter Grimes and Billy Budd – he wrote orchestral works, chamber music and vocal compositions. His life partner was the tenor Peter Pears, with whom he also enjoyed a fruitful and intense professional relationship. Peter Grimes too was a joint effort, with the title role written for and first performed by Pears.
A successful premiere
Peter Grimes had its premiere in London in June 1945, in the final days of the Second World War. The opera marked the definitive breakthrough of Benjamin Britten, then aged 31, as a composer. The story is based on the poem The Borough (1810), in which the author George Crabbe in turn drew inspiration from his own life in the seaside town of Aldeburgh. It is no coincidence that Britten and his partner Peter Pears subsequently decided to settle there; both are buried there too. They started the Aldeburgh Festival, which is still held every year.
The Sea
The tough lives of the people living on the English coast is a major source of inspiration in Britten’s oeuvre. This plays a major role in Peter Grimes too, not least in the various ‘Sea Interludes’ – lyrical instrumental passages delimiting the scenes. The music intersperses the calm swell of the sea with the turmoil of a storm. The Interludes are inextricably linked with the narrative arc of the opera; despite this, they are regularly performed on their own as concert pieces.
Question of guilt
The opera starts with an inquest to determine whether Peter Grimes is guilty of the death of his apprentice. Although he is acquitted, the accusation continues to haunt him and propels him to his tragic fate. In director Barbora Horáková’s interpretation, the question of guilt is at the heart of the opera. It is about how wrongful accusations can still lead to punishment, and also about how our own sense of guilt can drive us insane. She directs tenor Issachah Savage in the challenging role of Peter Grimes. Lorenzo Viotti is in charge of the music for the opera.
The story
When Grimes returns from sea voyage, the villagers collectively turn their backs on him. Only Captain Balstrode and the pharmacist Ned Keene are prepared to help him ...
Photo: Peter Pears as Peter Grimes (1946), © Alex Bender/Getty Images
Timeline
Benjamin Britten and the history of Peter Grimes.
Photo: The Red House, Aldeburgh Home of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, © Britten Pears Foundation, Roger Cornfoot
Timeline
1754
The English author George Crabbe, whose poem inspired Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, is born in Aldeburgh as the son of a tax official with a love of poetry.
Publication of The Borough, a long poem that gives a realistic portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants of Aldeburgh. The poem would later serve as the basis for the libretto of Britten’s Peter Grimes.
1913
On 22 November, Benjamin Britten is born in Lowestoft, a town in Suffolk on the east coast of England, not far from Aldeburgh.
1919
At the age of six, Britten starts piano lessons and composes his first pieces.
1930
In September, Britten starts studies at the Royal College of Music in London. He wins several prizes for his music in the 1930s. Britten composes chamber music such as Three Divertimenti for a string quartet and Phantasy Quartet for oboe and strings.
1935
Britten composes music for documentaries produced by the GPO Film Unit. This is when Britten gets to know the authors W.H. Auden and Montagu Slater, who both write scripts for the documentaries. Montagu Slater, politically engaged and known for his communist sympathies, would later write the libretto for Peter Grimes. The composer finds his intellectual home within the GPO Film Unit: left-wing, pacifist, homosexual.
1937
In the spring, Britten becomes friends with the tenor Peter Pears, with whom he starts what would become a lifelong relationship.
1939
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears emigrate to the United States together. During these years in America, Britten meets Serge Koussevitzky, at that time the chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
1941
An article by E.M. Forster about the poet George Crabbe in The Listener magazine catches the attention of Britten and Pears. They read his work, which makes the two long to return to their home country.
1942
Shortly before Pears and Britten set off in March for England, they receive a commission from Koussevitzky to create an opera. During the Atlantic crossing, they work on a scenario for this new opera, Peter Grimes.
1945
On 7 June, the premiere takes place of Peter Grimes in Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London.
1946
On 21 July, Britten’s second opera, The Rape of Lucretia, premieres at Glyndebourne.
1947
The composer and his partner settle on the east coast of England in Aldeburgh, the town that is the setting for The Borough by George Crabbe, the poem on which Peter Grimes is based.
1948
Britten, Pears and the director Eric Crozier start up the Aldeburgh Festival. The original intention is to make it a home for their own opera company, the English Opera Group, but the festival gradually develops into a multidisciplinary event.
1949 – 1960
During this period, Britten composes the operas Billy Budd, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
1962
Creation of the War Requiem, a major work by the composer that exemplifies his pacifist views.
1973
Britten undergoes a heart operation. On 16 June, Death in Venice has its premiere. It would be the composer’s last opera.
1976
Britten dies on 4 December, aged 63. The composer is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church in Aldeburgh. His partner Peter Pears dies ten years later and is buried next to him.
The composition of Peter Grimes
Montagu Slater’s libretto confronted Benjamin Britten with various challenges.
Photo: rehearsal Peter Grimes - DNO 2024, © Bart Grietens
The composition of Peter Grimes
After first drafts and ideas for his new opera, Benjamin Britten approached writer Montagu Slater in 1942. The two discussed a lot, on general issues such as the approach to the different characters, and on more specific matters, such as the choice of certain words. After about a year and a half, the text was ready for the next phase: composition.
Montagu Slater’s libretto confronted Benjamin Britten with various challenges. Firstly, his decision to divide each of the opera’s three acts into two scenes where the action was consecutive or virtually so, or even overlapping, gave Britten the option of composing each act as a single, uninterrupted piece of music. But there were scene changes between the scenes in the first and second acts, so interludes would be needed, and some kind of interlude would also be required in the third act to show the passage of time.
Then there was the problem of the Prologue. This realistic opening scene gives the necessary prior history, presents the theme of the opera and introduces the main characters by name. However, it does this at such a rate and so concisely that it could never be a self-contained part; it was clear the Prologue would have to be merged with the first act. This would necessitate yet another intermezzo to cover the scene change. Britten then added preludes to the second and third acts to make the structure of his composition complete. As a result, there are six orchestral interludes in total.
Music required by the story
Britten also had to allow for the fact that each act in Slater’s libretto contained opportunities for sounds or song ‘required by the story’, in contrast to the music that had to be composed because of the conventions of opera. For example, the first scene in The Boar pub works up to a moment when the apothecary Ned Keene spontaneously bursts into song, singing ‘Old Joe has gone fishing’ with the rest of the pubgoers joining in. It was important in this scene not just to make sure the song appeared natural in the context but also to get across the contrast between the storm raging outside and the warmth and sociability indoors.
Here, Britten drew on his experience composing for radio dramas. Mixing panel technology had shown him the many options available for using music at a range of levels — in the background, in the foreground or somewhere in between. If there are multiple streams of sound, one can be brought to the fore while another can be turned down in volume. With this mechanism in mind, he decided to portray the storm in full force in the first interlude and then let it fade out as the curtain rises.
The scene in The Boar that follows is largely composed as a lively form of free recitative, interrupted by short passages of storm music whenever the door opens to allow various characters to enter. This creates the perfect setting for the song the pubgoers sing. This cross-fading mechanism is also used for the church service during the conversation Ellen has with the new apprentice, during the procession to Peter Grimes’s hut and in the final act, when a polka band plays in the background.
The characters
Some critics have suggested the chorus is the real main protagonist in Peter Grimes, but this analysis is misleading. While most of the villagers are narrow-minded fanatics, they are still clearly-defined individuals who only merge into the crowd when their personal feelings are smothered by the herd instinct - as happens in the hunt for Peter Grimes. The shifts in focus that portray Balstrode, Boles, the Rector, Swallow, Keene, Hobson, Mrs Sedley, Auntie and her two nieces sometimes as individuals - singing short solos - sometimes as neighbours and sometimes as members of the general chorus are deployed deliberately by Slater and Britten as a way of achieving a certain characterisation.
Britten’s main concern in Peter Grimes was to do justice to the voices of the main protagonists, the minor characters and the chorus. This does not mean simple, uncomplicated vocal lines; rather, it means that – except for the interludes – the orchestra is used as an accompaniment, subservient to the storyline.
As regards the character of Peter Grimes himself, his solos are like monologues, with a looser, often incoherent structure. There is a divide he is unable to bridge between his inner life and the world around him. Britten demonstrates masterly creativity in finding appropriate ways to express this feeling of maladjustment in musical terms. Peter’s disturbed frame of mind is reflected not only in the fragmentary style but also in the interrupted movement of his vocal part and a tendency to use large intervals, sometimes even greater than an octave.
In Peter Grimes, Britten pushed the boundaries of opera by introducing new, invigorating techniques that he took from film and radio. Although this was only his first opera, he immediately showed himself to be an outstanding interpreter of psychologically complex states of mind. While there are many references to be discovered to earlier composers and operas, the originality of the work is undisputed.
Original text: Eric Walter White
Reworking and Dutch translation: Niels Nuijten
Interview with stage director Barbora Horáková Joly
Barbora Horáková Joly on the title character and community dynamics.
Photo: Barbora Horákova Joly (l) during rehearsal Peter Grimes, © Bart Grietens
In search of a culprit
An interview with stage director Barbora Horáková Joly
The opera begins in court. The whole village has turned out to watch the inquest in which the fisherman Peter Grimes is accused of being responsible for the death of his cabin boy out at sea. However, there is no proof, nor were there any witnesses. How do we first encounter the eponymous protagonist of this opera?
We see a man suddenly awakening in a new reality. His thoughts are still dwelling on what happened at sea, his fishing boat and the accident that befell his apprentice. He had to survive for three days at sea without drinking water, surrounded by the stinking fish he had caught, and with the corpse of the boy. He is clearly traumatised, and it seems as if he is trying to reconstruct the situation for himself. The question of guilt is posed both by the community, which suspects Peter Grimes, and perhaps even more so by the man himself. Guilt is one of the key themes in this opera - being accused without any facts or evidence. Grimes is a suspect purely because the people in the village think he’s strange.
So Peter Grimes was already a ‘suspicious’ individual and now something seems to have been found that allows the community to wag its finger and say, “I told you so”?
He was certainly an outsider, someone people thought weird. I see him as someone who leads a different life and thinks differently to the majority. He ponders the stars and the cosmos, and he talks like a poet, in a language they can’t really understand. That makes him guilty by definition for the community. In addition, the tragedy that takes place in this opera must have occurred more than once in this community. The young boys who are sent out on the boats to help the fishermen are taken from orphanages and put to work immediately. It is only logical that they will be unable to cope in the tough seafaring world without proper training. Death at sea is something this community lives with constantly, yet the villagers in the opera need a culprit as a way of coping with the arbitrary nature of fate.
Who are these villagers? What is the dynamic in this community?
What is nice about this opera is that Benjamin Britten and his librettist Montagu Slater show different sides to the villagers. Like in the real world, the people in their opera aren’t only bad or only good. In the final analysis, they are all afraid of being the next Peter Grimes. They try to avoid that by becoming part of the mob. Despite this, I believe each one of them has a secret and a dream they hope will come true. You see them not only supporting one another but also exploiting one another. Take the apothecary Ned Keene, who keeps stringing Mrs Sedley, with her addiction, along - they are dependent on one another. The opera shows the hypocrisy of the villagers, going to church like respectable folk on Sunday morning and then misbehaving in the pub.
Are Balstrode and Ellen, who try to help Grimes, morally superior?
I think Balstrode understands Grimes, perhaps because he went through something similar himself. It sounds to me as if he is encouraging Grimes to take certain actions he doesn’t dare take himself. This culminates in his final advice to Grimes: that he would be better off committing suicide than being lynched by the mob. These are the only spoken words in the opera and they sound to me to be tinged with jealousy. As if he really wants to drown himself at sea and redeem himself but doesn’t dare do it. Ellen has different motives. We know she is a widow and she may have lost children too. She wants to recover what she once had and sees Grimes as the perfect candidate to help her achieve this. It is no coincidence that she helps him fetch the new apprentice, and she clearly wants to care for this boy. Yet this act is precisely what leads to the tragedy, whereby she loses first the boy and then Grimes.
The sea is an important element in this opera, almost a character in its own right. It plays a key role not just in the story but also musically.
The sea brings life - in the form of employment and food - to the village, but also danger and death. Peter Grimes feels more at home in the rough seas than in the boisterous ambience of the pub. At another level, the sea is a metaphor for the emotions in the story. This is clear in the interludes that can be heard before each scene. Britten has managed brilliantly to give an intimation of the feelings and the atmosphere in the coming scene, from a terrifying storm to calm ripples on the surface during a sunny Sunday morning.
Peter Grimes is often described as a particularly English work, set in quite a specific place on the coast with its local customs and way of life. Why is it that the story feels so universal despite this?
The fishing village is representative of so many villages, towns and other communities where groups of people live alongside one another. I grew up in the Czech Republic and this opera reminds me of a village we often used to visit as a family. I have vivid memories of characters like Auntie, as well as surly old men in the local pub. I think everyone makes such associations. Britten and his librettist develop the characters very convincingly. They exploit one another and try to swindle each other but, at the same time, they need one another. Everyone in the group is afraid of becoming the next outsider. That dynamic between the group and the outsider is something found everywhere and at all times, making it still relevant today.
How do you see the transition from what is essentially an official inquest in a court of law at the start of the opera to mob justice at the end?
The village authorities - the lawyer and the clergyman - try above all to keep things calm. They don’t want any fuss. They would prefer every day to be the same, the tides ebbing and flowing, the men going fishing while the women stay at home. No storms, no uproar. I think the villagers find this life boring, so they look for something they can all gossip about and condemn. Within this group, certain people become more prominent and take the initiative. One thing leads to another until there is no going back: the culprit has to pay the price. After this outburst of violence, they return to their daily routine. At the end of the opera, it is simply remarked that a boat is sinking way out at sea - but nothing can be done. Like heroes, a community needs culprits too, whether or not they are truly guilty.
Dutch text: Niels Nuijten
The Scapegoat
In his book The Scapegoat (1982), the philosopher René Girard explores the phenomenon of the scapegoat in various societies and cultures.
Photo: rehearsal Peter Grimes - DNO 2024, © Bart Grietens
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