Benjamin Britten’s first and most popular opera, premièred in 1945, was inspired by The Borough, a poem by the 18th century clergyman George Crabbe. The story relates a confrontation between a Suffolk fishing village community and the fisherman they hold responsible for the deaths of two very young apprentices. Lynch-happy, they want him convicted of murder.
The opera, realistic and metaphysical, directed by Mariusz Treliński and conducted by Michał Klauza, is excellently cast. The numerous storm sequences and interludes, orchestrally, chorally and visually, dominate the action and drive the drama forward with great effect.
The raging sea complements the raging in Grimes’s delirious mind. The turmoil is brilliantly orchestrated. The production, powerfully backed up by Bartek Macias’s towering photographic imagery, is a thrilling experience.
Is Peter Grimes a murderer? Is he a brutal paedophile? Montagu Slater’s libretto is ambiguous. Grimes shouldn’t be allowed near children. A callous and brutal man, he overworks and treats his apprentices cruelly.
Britten’s Grimes, however, is not Crabbe’s sadist. He is a deeply wounded human being. Wretchedly poor, he leads a lonely tortured life and longs for peace and for the love of a woman and child. He treats others as he has been treated. He is violent in spite of himself. Full of self-hatred, he has terrible feelings of guilt.
Excluded, ostracised, insulted, accused by a malicious and hostile community, Grimes is a tragic figure finally driven to suicide. Peter Wedd excels in the role. There is a strong performance, too, by Cornelia Beskow as the schoolteacher who feels sorry for him and wants to help him.
Benjamin Britten, homosexual and a conscientious objector, clearly identified with Grimes. The opera is an emotional plea for people to live and let live.
Polish National Opera’s Peter Grimes can be watched free on the OperaVision channel.