Opera North Peter Grimes

[Guest]

Just back from Leeds where I attended the matinee of Peter Grimes. A bit disappointing to me. Unlike many of you I am not an expert or even knowledgable about Britten. But I am learning. Opera North decided not to stream the libretto. This was not to the liking of all in attendance, including myself. I do not know this opera and it was difficult to follow not knowing the plot and not really clearly hearing what was being sung. Opera North did not stream the libretto because they had not done it in the past and the cite that Britten himself did not like such as he thought it distracted the listeners.

The production has gotten reasonable reviews. Has anyone else attended or have thoughts on not streaming the libretto?

[Mary Chambers]

I saw it a couple of years ago with much the same cast (that is if the matinee cast was the same as the evening one, which it might well not be) and I was reasonably impressed with the production apart from the fact that there was continuous fussy action during the sea interludes, when I'd prefer just to listen. The singing and orchestral playing was of a high standard on the whole, I thought.


I know the libretto very well, but the friend I went with did not. Like you, she found the words hard to follow, though she knew what happened in general. By 'streaming the libretto' do you mean what I would call surtitles? I think they would have been useful, but I have to say that the first time I saw Peter Grimes, many years ago when I was very young, I didn't know anything about it except that it was extremely famous. There were no surtitles then, and I'm sure I couldn't hear many of the words, but I was still overwhelmed by the emotional and musical experience. I would have read the synopsis in the programme, as I always did.

I doubt if Britten would have had opinions about surtitles, as they weren't invented in his lifetime as far as I know, but he would have expected his audience to have done some homework, I think. If you're going to an unfamiliar opera, it's sensible to find out about it first, and it's very easy with so much information online. Try that next time!

(PS The reviews I've seen have been raves - there were several five-star ones.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've not been able to go, but a friend at work went last week (his first Grimes, too). He thought it was excellent - except for the fact that he couldn't hear the words (particularly difficult from Grimes himself).

Surtitles can be useful - ON's use of them in their Ring cycle is exemplary - but they can take attention away from what's going on onstage. In some productions, of course, this is a bonus, but it's a shame if a well thought-out nuance in staging is missed because people are reading "Sister! My Sister!" whilst it's happening.

(And then there was ENO's production of Janacek's Broucek, where the surtitles had a mind - deliberately - all of their own. Somewhere I have a cassette of the broadcast, the roars of laughter completely lost on the radio audience who couldn't see the running commentary accompanying the action.)

[Stanley Stewart]

I am always in awe of anyone seeing Peter Grimes for the first time; a similar sense of frisson when I hear that others are seeing Hamlet as their baptism of fire - Bogey's retort in Casablanca is apt, "Louis, this is the beginning of a lifetime love affair".

A bit puzzled as to why anyone would go to see Peter Grimes, cold turkey shall we say? I agree that a bit of genning-up is also helpful. I first heard Grimes on the wireless as a 14 year old schoolboy in 1945. In turn, my parents were puzzled as to why I had borrowed a library book, Magnus Hirschfield's Aberrations & Anomalies as they also had no idea what this meant!

Are you considering acquiring a CD set with a booklet which also provides the libretto? The only time this was done in a theatre programme, in my experience, was the WNO production which came to the London Dominion in the early 80s. In turn, I would also recommend several DVD sets where you can opt for the use of subtitles. I've just checked a few on my shelves from the BBC 1969 production, with Peter Pears, to a recent 2008 at The Met, conducted by Donald Runnicles, with Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role. Available at an attractive price from the river people. And, of course, a DVD of Grimes on the Beach, 2013, is a further treat in the offing.

[Mary Chambers]

My son has recently become very interested in opera - he lives in London so has plenty of opportunities. He always listens to a CD, usually several times, before he goes to anything he doesn't know, so that by the time he gets to the performance he has some knowledge of it. He has told me that he finds surtitles invaluable.

[Black Swan]

Thanks to all for their comments. I should have used subtitles instead of lyrics, oops. I also found Peter Grimes the most difficult to understand. Thanks for the recommendations. Have the Opera North Festival of Britten series so Midsummer Nights Dream is next followed by Death in Venice. While looking through the Festival of Britten companion I was also quite shocked to see that Tadzio is being played by a Girl...... This I find quite surprising to say the least.

[Mary Chambers]

. While looking through the Festival of Britten companion I was also quite shocked to see that Tadzio is being played by a Girl...... This I find quite surprising to say the least.

Really? If that's the case, I'm very shocked. It just isn't necessary, though the casting of Tadzio is always a problem. They usually cast someone too old.

It's bad enough that in their Midsummer Night's Dream some of the fairies are played by girls, but this seems to be a trend now. (To be fair, the vocal score says trebles for the principal fairies, trebles or sopranos for the others.) I've even read of productions of The Turn of the Screw (in America, I think) where Miles is sung by a girl. So wrong.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A fiver can be less well spent than getting a second-hand copy of the ENO Guide to Peter Grimes (which includes full libretto, history of the composition, Musical discussion, production history and copious photos. (plus similar for Gloriana in the same volume).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0714538566/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

[Bert Coules]

I very much dislike the practice of using surtitles for operas performed in English (whether written so or in translation) but I fear that listening habits have become so lazy (or perhaps simply so unaccustomed to the environment and acoustics of theatres), and singing teaching now so far emphasises beauty of line over clarity of communication, that they are probably here to stay. Their presence, it seems to me, only encourages bad habits on the part of both audiences and performers.

[Flay]

Here is the Grimes libretto:

http://www.radio.rai.it/radio3/radio3_suite/archivio_2005/eventi/2005_04_09_petergrimes/libretto_originale.pdf

I am really looking forward to seeing this again on the 10th October. Radio 3 broadcast the last ON Grimes production and must say I prefer to listen to this over again than to the ENO's version of July 2009. Perhaps many of the cast were more youthful?

I do wish that ON would record it as a DVD.

But I agree with Mary that the cast presence during the Interludes was distracting and unnecessary.

[Black Swan]

Thanks to all for the great advice and discussion. I've learned a valuable lesson. I normally do spend time getting to know a piece, I have a huge collection of the ENO Opera Guides and for some reason didn't do so with Grimes. I had expected to be able to get the gist of the plot as the work was in English. I now am thinking of a DVD version, which is a huge change. Last night I was of the opinion I never wanted to hear it again. But that has past. I do agree with Mary about the cast movements in the interludes.

Am now looking forward to the other 2 Opera's though am oddly bothered by the casting of Tadzio by a girl in Death in Venice, which I can't quite understand the rationale for.

[verismissimo]

... I first heard Grimes on the wireless as a 14 year old schoolboy in 1945...

Gosh! That's wonderful, Stanley.

How I should love to have been at the first performance (7 June 1945, Sadler's Wells). I never saw Pears in the role, but Jon Vickers at Covent Garden (disliked by the composer) was one of my most memorable evenings at the opera house. And Philip Langridge at ENO in the mid-90s was not so far behind.

On Thursday I'm off to Symphony Hall in Birmingham. It's Vladimir Jurowski's first time conducting the work. And I'm looking forward to hearing/seeing the Australian Stuart Skelton as Grimes.

Such an amazing musical and theatrical experience, I expect...

[Mary Chambers]

Am now looking forward to the other 2 Opera's though am oddly bothered by the casting of Tadzio by a girl in Death in Venice, which I can't quite understand the rationale for.

I'm extremely bothered by it, too, though there hasn't been one good Tadzio in the several productions of this opera that I've seen. In some ways the concert performance with Philip Langridge that I went to was the most satisfactory - Tadzio was left to our imagination! (He doesn't have to sing.)

[Flosshilde]

Tadzio was left to our imagination! (He doesn't have to sing.)

Quite - so there's absolutely no reason for him to be played by a girl. There must be willowy youths in the stage schools & drama clubs locally, surely>

[jean]

Makes me think of Frederick Rolfe's The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole, where (also in Venice) he disguises the beautiful youth he really wants to write about as a girl, because he thought his novel could not be published otherwise.

(It wasn't publishable anyway, but that was because he was so libellously rude to the thinly-disguised expats he encountered there.)