Prom 55 (24.8.12): Britten – Peter Grimes

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Friday 24 August at 7.00 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Britten: Peter Grimes (150 mins)
concert performance

Stuart Skelton tenor (Peter Grimes)
Amanda Roocroft soprano (Ellen Orford)
Iain Paterson bass-baritone (Captain Balstrode)
Rebecca de Pont Davies mezzo-soprano (Auntie)
Matthew Best baritone (Swallow)
Leigh Melrose baritone (Ned Keene)
Michael Colvin tenor (Bob Boles)
Felicity Palmer mezzo-soprano (Mrs Sedley)
Gillian Ramm soprano (First Niece)
Mairéad Buicke soprano (Second Niece)
Darren Jeffery bass-baritone (Hobson)
Stuart Kale tenor (Rev Horace Adams)

ENO Chorus and Orchestra
Edward Gardner conductor

English National Opera, conducted by Edward Gardner, performs one of the greatest of all English operas. Australian tenor Stuart Skelton sings the title role of the unpredictable fisherman, Peter Grimes, an outsider in a closed Suffolk community. Only the schoolteacher Ellen Orford and the old sea captain Balstrode treat Grimes like a normal human being. But will their friendship be enough to defend him when local hostility boils over into virtual mob rule?

English National Opera's revolutionary 2009 production of Britten's Peter Grimes revealed a side of the opera few had suspected. Not just one of the greatest of all English operas, but a masterpiece in a great European tradition - with musical echoes of Berg and German Expressionism. As the conductor, ENO's Music Director Edward Gardner, puts it: 'Grimes has a freedom, a strength and an emotionally connected, visceral quality that I don't think Britten ever quite recaptured - it's a piece that, at its best, feels unshackled and dangerous, and very un-English. That's why I rate it so highly.'

Tonight at the Royal Albert Hall you can hear precisely what he means - as ENO reunite their cast for one night only at the BBC Proms.

[Volti Subito]

Friday 24 August at 7.00 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Britten: Peter Grimes (150 mins)
concert performance

English National Opera, conducted by Edward Gardner, performs one of the greatest of all English operas. Australian tenor Stuart Skelton sings the title role of the unpredictable fisherman, Peter Grimes, an outsider in a closed Suffolk community. Only the schoolteacher Ellen Orford and the old sea captain Balstrode treat Grimes like a normal human being. But will their friendship be enough to defend him when local hostility boils over into virtual mob rule?

English National Opera's revolutionary 2009 production of Britten's Peter Grimes revealed a side of the opera few had suspected. Not just one of the greatest of all English operas, but a masterpiece in a great European tradition - with musical echoes of Berg and German Expressionism. As the conductor, ENO's Music Director Edward Gardner, puts it: 'Grimes has a freedom, a strength and an emotionally connected, visceral quality that I don't think Britten ever quite recaptured - it's a piece that, at its best, feels unshackled and dangerous, and very un-English. That's why I rate it so highly.'

Tonight at the Royal Albert Hall you can hear precisely what he means - as ENO reunite their cast for one night only at the BBC Proms.

I like Edward Gardner's conducting, so I think I might listen tomorrow on Iplayer, but tonight belongs to Mahler, Tchaikovsky and the LPO.

V.S.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Edward Gardner is indeed one of the shining beacons of today's conductors.

[DracoM]

Impressive. Skelton in decent form. Chorus fantastic. Dame Fliss doing her exemplary thing too.
I think I miss the useful claustrophobia of a theatrical acoustic. The music gives me the atmosphere better than 'real' spaces.

[Simon B]

"Concert Performance" was a misnomer - use of costumes, a few props and intelligent use of the RAH space (doubling well for precipices and seascapes stretching off into oblivion in particular) made for a pretty effective semi-staging. Inevitably some aspects were compromised, DracoM's point about claustrophobia extended to the spatial as well as sonic.

Overall, over three hours flew by. Skelton clearly the star of the show in several senses. Deserving of the huge applause (even if he did look for a split second as though he was trying to fell Ed Gardner with a single punch with his air punching antics!).

[edashtav]

Edward Gardner is indeed one of the shining beacons of today's conductors.

He was on fire tonight, Mr Host!

I stood on my two ill-matched legs as a Prommer two years ago, to hear Huw Watkins slight Violin concerto brilliantly played by Alina Ibragimova, but was transported by Britten's Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, which Gardner and the orchestra delivered in brilliant style, with such virtuosic vitesse, verve and vitality that the RAH rocked like a ship in a storm. Ed Gardner conducted the BBC SO in that marvellous performance. That’s why I tuned in for his interpretation of the whole Opera tonight. He, & the others, did not disappoint me!

[Mary Chambers]

I listened on Radio 3 and thought it was pretty good, apart (and how often do I say this?) from poor diction from some singers, including the chorus on occasion, and Amanda Roocroft rather often. It's true that sopranos always seem to have more difficulty with diction than anyone else, but at times she wasn't singing the words at all, just the notes. I can only hope that the words (which are important) were more audible in the hall than on my radio. Stuart Skelton's Grimes, Iain Paterson (Balstrode), and of course Felicity Palmer's Mrs Sedley were, to me, the best performances. Orchestra under Gardner excellent. Gardner also said something about the fascination of Britten's operas lying in the fact that they never offer simple resolutions - words to that effect - which I completely agree with.

There was appalling premature applause, both at the end of Act 2 and at the very end, when the last notes had hardly died away before some fools rushed in. Who on earth is this insensitive?

I enjoyed both interval talks, particularly the second about the sounds of the Suffolk coast. It made me feel very Suffolk-sick.

[DracoM]

AAMOI, were there actual boys/apprentices silent but 'on stage' at RAH? Pretty tricky in a concert perf of such a work without them. AFAIR, none were credited on the BBC site. Sorry to be ignorant.

Yes, for a change, the interval talks were excellently apposite, careful, quiet and part of the total package.

[Mary Chambers]

AAMOI, were there actual boys/apprentices silent but 'on stage' at RAH? Pretty tricky in a concert perf of such a work without them. AFAIR, none were credited on the BBC site. Sorry to be ignorant.

I wasn't in the hall, but a name was given for the apprentice in the cast list read out at the end of the broadcast.

I'd be interested to know how full the hall was.

[Simon B]

Ability to discern words was variable - but the building is the principal culprit here. Every nuance of every word was clear when Stuart Skelton was singing towards or at 90 degrees or less away from me. When singing at the opposite side of the hall I couldn't hear a word. No reflection on his performance - just something that goes with the territory in that hall.

To answer Mary's question the hall was almost 100% full, just a few empties at the back of restricted view circle. If you think that audience was bad - well, you should've tried Weds or Thu! Last night's was generally -much- quieter and more attentive, comparatively almost no coughing. The applause that broke out in the middle of act III was unfortunate and somewhat shattered a hugely dramatic silence, but that was the only annoyance I noticed all night. The applause at the end was a bit too soon, but there have been far worse...

[David Underdown]

Even from the third row of the Arena, Roocroft's fiction was sometimes lacking. However she was on much better form than in the recent ROH run (probably have a vocally solid Grimes helps). However, I do like her characterisation of the part

[David Underdown]

I meant also to say that I found the staging very effectively done. The action was mostly confined to a small strip of stage which despite the overall size of the hall made for an appropriately claustrophobic atmosphere, and good use was made of the steps into the Arena and onto the stage for hauling Grimes's boat up prior to the storm, and when the prentice slipped. the echo also added to the atmosphere at times particularly after the choral shouts if Peter Grimes (though somewhat spoiled by the applause).

Best of all was Grimes's final exit - swallowed up by the sea of humanity in the Arena

The b

[Nick Armstrong]

Best of all was Grimes's final exit - swallowed up by the sea of humanity in the Arena

Wow! Serious? He staggered off the stage and through the prommers?

[Simon B]

Wow! Serious? He staggered off the stage and through the prommers?

Yes, all the way to one of the exits right at the back of the arena. He didn't fall over a bag or send a bottle flying once either .

It was very effective, and as close as a coup de theatre as you could have wanted without any of the, well, trappings of a theatre. Quite an actor, Stuart Skelton...

[Richard J.]

Best of all was Grimes's final exit - swallowed up by the sea of humanity in the Arena

Yes, that was very effective. His quite fast progress wasn't interrupted at all. The sea of humanity parted smoothly to let him through in a quasi Moses/Red Sea effect.

I had a good view of that from the Side Stalls, but my position was not good to hear the words. At times the tempo was such that there was barely time to fit all the words in. It was my first hearing of this work apart from excerpts and the interludes, so I have nothing to compare with, but I wondered whether Gardner's tempi were faster than other conductors.?

Overall a stunning evening with great dramatic tension. The silent part of John, the new apprentice, was very well acted by Jacob Mason-White.

On the subject of premature applause, while I find that concert audiences have become better at allowing a silence after a work ends quietly, my impression is that opera audiences haven't yet learnt this, and will applaud even though the conductor's baton is still raised. Some of them have come to listen to the singing, so feel they can applaud as soon as the singing stops. Or is that unfair?