View source for Peter Grimes

{{Short description|1945 opera by Benjamin Britten}}
{{about||the 1964 Australian television adaptation|Peter Grimes (Wednesday Theatre)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox opera
| name = Peter Grimes
| composer = [[Benjamin Britten]]
| image = Benjamin Britten, London Records 1968 publicity photo for Wikipedia (restored).jpg
| caption = The composer in 1968
| image_upright = 
| librettist = [[Montagu Slater]]
| premiere_date = {{start date and age|1945|06|07|df=y}}
| premiere_location = [[Sadler's Wells]], London
}}

'''''Peter Grimes''''', [[opus number|Op]]. 33, is an opera in three acts by [[Benjamin Britten]], with a [[libretto]] by [[Montagu Slater]] based on the section "Peter Grimes", in [[George Crabbe]]'s long narrative poem ''[[The Borough (poem)|The Borough]]''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional small town that bears some resemblance to Crabbe's – and later Britten's – home of [[Aldeburgh]], [[Suffolk]], on England's east coast.

The work was conceived while Britten was living in the US in the early years of the [[Second World War]] and completed when he returned to Britain in 1943. It was first performed at [[Sadler's Wells]] in London on 7 June 1945, conducted by [[Reginald Goodall]], and was a critical and popular success. It is still widely performed, both in Britain and internationally, and has become part of the standard repertoire. Among the tenors who have performed the title role in the opera house, or on record, or both are Britten's partner [[Peter Pears]], who sang the part at the premiere, and [[Allan Clayton]], [[Ben Heppner]], [[Anthony Rolfe Johnson]], [[Jonas Kaufmann]], [[Philip Langridge]], [[Stuart Skelton]], [[Set Svanholm]] and [[Jon Vickers]].

''Four Sea Interludes'', consisting of purely orchestral music from the opera, were published separately and are frequently performed as an orchestral suite. Another interlude, a [[passacaglia]], was published separately and is also often performed, either together with the ''Sea Interludes'' or by itself.

==Background==
===US: 1941–1943===
In the early years of the [[Second World War]], [[Benjamin Britten]] and his partner [[Peter Pears]] were living in the US. Britten's compositions from his years there include the song cycle ''[[Les Illuminations]]'' (1940), the ''[[Sinfonia da Requiem]]'' (1940) and his [[operetta]], ''[[Paul Bunyan (operetta)|Paul Bunyan]]'' (1941).<ref name=grove>Brett, Philip, Heather Wiebe, Jennifer Doctor, Judith LeGrove, and Paul Banks. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-000004643 "Britten, (Edward) Benjamin"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2013 {{subscription required}}</ref> 
In 1941 Britten came across a transcript in the [[BBC]]'s magazine ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'' of a talk by [[E. M. Forster|E.{{space}}M.{{space}}Forster]] about the 18th-century Suffolk poet [[George Crabbe]]. It began, "To talk about Crabbe is to talk about England". Britten was filled with nostalgic feelings about his native Suffolk. Pears found a copy of Crabbe's works in a second-hand bookshop and Britten read the poem ''The Borough'', which contained the tragic story of the Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes. He said later, "In a flash I realised two things: that I must write an opera, and where I belonged".<ref name=m61>Matthews, p. 61</ref> He and Pears began sketching an operatic scenario drawing on ''The Borough''.<ref name=m61/> 
[[File:George Crabbe by Henry William Pickersgill.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=White haired white man in sober 18th-century clothes|[[George Crabbe]]]]
From the outset the characters and story of the libretto were only loosely based on Crabbe's work. The Grimes of Crabbe's poem is an outright bully, "untouched by pity, unstung by remorse and uncorrected by shame". Three of his apprentices in succession have died before he is summoned to the Town Hall to account for his conduct, after which he is forbidden to employ another. He works alone until the ghosts of his victims begin to terrorise him and he sinks into madness and dies in bed.<ref>Crabbe, pp. 287–290 and 294–297</ref> In Crabbe's poem, Ellen Orford's tale is completely separate from Grimes's and they are not mentioned as meeting each other. The Rector, Swallow, and the proprietress of the Boar inn, "Auntie", and her nieces derive from other sections of ''The Borough'',<ref>Crabbe, p. 146</ref><ref>Greenhalgh, p. 32 and 43</ref> but other characters in the opera, including Balstrode, Boles and Ned Keene, are not in Crabbe's original.{{refn|Britten and Pears originally invented Balstrode as the landlord of the inn; he and Hobson are the only characters not traceable in some degree to the poem. The nearest to Boles's character in ''The Borough''  is an unnamed "Calvinistic Enthusiast" unconnected with the Grimes story; and there is a quack doctor in Crabbe's poem on whom the character of Keene draws (the surname is taken from an unrelated character in the poem, Abel Keene).<ref>Brett, pp. 55 and 62</ref><ref>Greenhalgh, pp. 29–30</ref>|group=n}}

While Britten and Pears were waiting for a passage back to England, the conductor [[Serge Koussevitzky]] asked the composer why he had not written an opera. Britten explained that doing so would necessitate putting all other work aside, which he could not afford to do. Koussevitzky arranged for the commissioning of the opera by the musical foundation he had recently set up. The fee was $1,000, and the opera was to be dedicated to the memory of Koussevitzky's wife, who had recently died.<ref>Brett, p. 148</ref> Britten approached his friend the writer [[Christopher Isherwood]], inviting him to write the libretto. Pleading pressure of work and some reservations about the effectiveness of the subject, Isherwood declined.<ref>Brett, p. 35</ref>

===London: 1943–1945===
During the voyage back to England, Pears continued to work on the scenario of the opera while Britten composed ''[[A Ceremony of Carols]]'' and ''[[Hymn to St Cecilia]]''.<ref>Brett, p. 47</ref> The story, and Grimes's character, underwent substantial changes in the early stages of drafting. For a long time during the gestation of the work Britten conceived Grimes as a [[baritone]] role. Pears persuaded Britten to play down any emotional tie Grimes might feel to the apprentice, and play up his position as an outsider in an intolerant society. At first, Britten had Grimes murdering his apprentices rather than being at worst negligent.<ref>Carpenter, p. 208</ref> For some time the dénouement had Grimes on the marshes, going mad and dying there.<ref name=b52>Brett, p. 52</ref> An episode with smugglers was dropped and several characters were gradually eliminated as work progressed on the story.<ref>Brett, p. 48</ref> By the time Britten and Pears returned home in April 1943 the shape of the work was not greatly different from the final version, and to turn the scenario into a libretto Britten recruited an old friend, the writer [[Montagu Slater]].<ref>Carpenter, p. 169</ref>
 
Slater was a journalist, novelist and playwright. Before the war Britten had composed incidental music for two short verse-plays of his. [[Eric Crozier]], who worked closely with Britten, comments that the whole of the original text of the libretto – "apart from six quatrains by Crabbe and the small phrase 'Grimes is at his exercise'" – is Slater's work. He abandoned Crabbe's rhyming couplets and allowed his text "to reflect the diverse speech-rhythms of the individual Borough characters":
{{blockindent|He wrote it in a four-beat, half-rhymed, simply worded verse which expands at moments of heightened intensity into more formal verse-patterns and a richer vocabulary: the latter qualities are clearly recognisable in such climactic arias as Ellen's "Let her among you without fault cast the first stone", or "Embroidery in childhood was a luxury of idleness", and in Peter's "What harbour shelters peace?", or "Now the Great Bear and Pleiades".<ref name=h25>Herbert, p. 25</ref>|}}
In Crozier's view, Slater's "short interjectory sentences" in the [[recitative]]s and the "more expansive phrases" of the arias are ideal for musical setting.<ref name=h25/> In Slater's hands the character of Grimes was further developed. In Pears's words, Grimes is "neither a hero nor a villain", but "an ordinary, weak person who, being at odds with the society in which he finds himself, tries to overcome it and, in doing so, offends against the conventional code, is classed by society as a criminal, and destroyed as such. There are plenty of Grimeses around still, I think!"<ref>Brett, p. 152</ref>

Discussions between composer and librettist, revisions and corrections took nearly eighteen months.<ref name=b149/> In January 1944 Britten started writing the music and just over a year later it was complete.<ref name=b149>Brett, p. 149</ref> The premiere had been planned for Koussevitzky's [[Tanglewood Festival]], but the festival had been suspended for the duration of the war, and Koussevitzky waived his contractual rights and gave his blessing to [[English National Opera|Sadler's Wells Opera]] to stage the first performances, saying that the opera – which he thought the greatest since ''[[Carmen]]'' – belonged not to him but to the world.<ref>Brett, p. 98</ref>

[[Tyrone Guthrie]], the general administrator of the Sadler's Wells company, appointed his assistant Eric Crozier to stage the piece, and the latter, together with Britten, made adjustments to the libretto during rehearsals when Slater's text proved unsuitable for singability or clarity.{{refn|In addition to minor alterations, Britten, with the help of another writer friend, [[Ronald Duncan]], made a substantial change to Slater's text, rewriting Grimes's "mad" soliloquy in Act 3 scene 2, which the composer found "pedestrian" in the original libretto.<ref>Carpenter, pp. 216–217</ref>|group=n}} Slater resented this, and insisted on publishing his original version in 1946, as ''Peter Grimes and Other Poems''.<ref name="Carpenter, p. 217">Carpenter, p. 217</ref> Crozier brought in Kenneth Green to design the costumes and sets, the latter being naturalistic and based on Aldeburgh.<ref>Brett, p. 41</ref>

==Performance history==
===Premiere===
Sadler's Wells had been closed during the war, and the premiere of ''Peter Grimes'', on 7 June 1945, marked the reopening of the theatre.<ref name="Carpenter, p. 217"/> When [[Joan Cross]], director of the company, announced the plan to reopen the house with ''Peter Grimes'' − herself and Pears in the leading roles − there were complaints from company members about supposed favouritism and the "[[Wikt:cacophony|cacophony]]" of Britten's score.<ref>Gilbert, p. 98</ref> Yet when ''Peter Grimes'' opened it was hailed by public and critics;<ref>See, for example, "Sadler's Wells Opera – ''Peter Grimes''", ''The Times'', 8 June 1945, p. 6, and [[William Glock|Glock, William]]. "Music", ''[[The Observer]]'', 10 June 1945, p. 2</ref> its box-office takings matched or exceeded those for ''[[La bohème]]'' and ''[[Madama Butterfly|Madame Butterfly]]'', which were being staged concurrently by the company.<ref>Banks, pp. xvi–xviii.</ref>

====Original cast====
[[File:Peter-Grimes-Wells-1945.jpg|thumb|upright=3|alt=stage scene, showing crowd in the open air with a church and a pub behind them|Scene from 1945 production]]
{| class="wikitable"
!Role
![[Voice type]]
!Premiere cast, 7 June 1945<br>(Conductor: [[Reginald Goodall]])
|-
|Peter Grimes, ''a fisherman''
|[[tenor]]
|[[Peter Pears]]
|-
|Ellen Orford, ''a widow, Borough schoolmistress''
|[[soprano]]
|[[Joan Cross]]
|-
|Auntie, ''landlady of The Boar''
|[[contralto]]
|[[Edith Coates]]
|-
|Niece 1
|soprano
|Blanche Turner
|-
|Niece 2
|soprano
|Minnia Bower
|-
|Balstrode, ''retired merchant skipper''
|[[baritone]]
|[[Roderick Jones (baritone)|Roderick Jones]]
|-
|Mrs Sedley, ''a rentier widow''
|[[mezzo-soprano]]
|Valetta Iacopi
|-
|Swallow, ''a lawyer''
|[[Bass (voice type)|bass]]
|[[Owen Brannigan]]
|-
|Ned Keene, ''apothecary and quack''
|baritone
|Edmund Donlevy
|-
|Bob Boles, ''fisherman and Methodist''
|tenor
|Morgan Jones
|-
|The Rev Horace Adams, ''rector''
|tenor
|Tom Culbert
|-
|Hobson, ''carrier''
|bass
|Frank Vaughan
|-
|Dr Thorp{{refn|The name of the silent role of the doctor is changed to Dr Crabbe in the published libretto.<ref>Herbert, pp. 88 and 92ff</ref>|group=n}}
|silent role
|{{ill|Saša Machov|cs}}

|-
|John, ''Grimes's apprentice''
|silent role
|Leonard Thompson
|}
:Source: Libretto.<ref name=h88>Herbert, p. 88</ref>

===Later London productions===
Sadler's Wells and its successor, [[English National Opera]], staged new productions in 1963, 1990 and 2009.<ref>Gilbert, pp. 595, 601 and 604</ref> Grimes was played by, respectively, Ronald Dowd, [[Philip Langridge]] and [[Stuart Skelton]]; the conductors were [[Charles Mackerras]], [[David Atherton]] and [[Edward Gardner (conductor)|Edward Gardner]].<ref>Gilbert, pp. 181 and 437; and "Peter Grimes", ''The Times'', 9 May 2009, p. 32</ref>

''Peter Grimes'' was staged at the [[Royal Opera House]] in 1947, in a production by Guthrie, conducted by [[Karl Rankl]], with Pears, Cross and [[Edith Coates]] reprising their roles from the Sadler's Wells premiere. There have been four new productions at Covent Garden since then, directed by [[John Cranko]] (1953), [[Elijah Moshinsky]] (1975), [[Willy Decker]] (2004, a co-production with the [[Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie]], Brussels) and [[Deborah Warner]] (2022, a co-production with the [[Teatro Real]], Madrid, the [[Teatro dell'Opera]], Rome, and the [[Opéra National de Paris]]).<ref name=roh/> The conductors were, respectively, Goodall, [[Colin Davis]], [[Antonio Pappano]] and [[Mark Elder]], and the title role was sung by Pears, [[Jon Vickers]], [[Ben Heppner]] and [[Allan Clayton]].<ref name=roh>[https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/work.aspx?work=702&row=21&letter=P&genre=All& "Peter Grimes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323130344/https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/work.aspx?work=702&row=21&letter=P&genre=All& |date=23 March 2022 }}, Royal Opera House archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> In revivals of the earlier productions, Grimes was played by tenors including [[Richard Lewis (tenor)|Richard Lewis]],<ref>[https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=9772&row=1 "Peter Grimes, 1948"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323130345/https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=9772&row=1 |date=23 March 2022 }}, Royal Opera House archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> [[Richard Cassilly]],<ref>[https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=15194&row=1 "Peter Grimes, 1977"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190831/https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=15194&row=1 |date=9 May 2022 }}, Royal Opera House archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> [[Robert Tear]],<ref>[https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=15194&row=1 "Peter Grimes, 1978"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190831/https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=15194&row=1 |date=9 May 2022 }}, Royal Opera House archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> Langridge,<ref>[https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?row=6&performance=16544&page=0 "Peter Grimes, 1989"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323130409/https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?row=6&performance=16544&page=0 |date=23 March 2022 }}, Royal Opera House archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> and [[Anthony Rolfe Johnson]].<ref>[https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?row=11&performance=11482&page=0 "Peter Grimes, 1997"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190832/https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?row=11&performance=11482&page=0 |date=9 May 2022 }}, Royal Opera House archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref>

===Regional British productions===
Productions by other British opera companies include [[Colin Graham]]'s 1968 staging for [[Scottish Opera]], conducted by [[Alexander Gibson (conductor)|Alexander Gibson]] with [[Nigel Douglas (tenor)|Nigel Douglas]] as Grimes;<ref>[http://operascotland.org/tour/520/1968 "Peter Grimes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190831/http://operascotland.org/tour/520/1968 |date=9 May 2022 }}, Opera Scotland. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> [[Glyndebourne Festival]]'s first production of the work in 1992, directed by [[Trevor Nunn]] and conducted by [[Andrew Davis (conductor)|Andrew Davis]] and, in revivals, [[Franz Welser-Most]] and [[Mark Wigglesworth]];<ref>[https://www.glyndebourne.com/opera-archive/?search_archive=1&archive_opera=607&archive_season=&archive_composer=&archive_year= "Peter Grimes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190833/https://www.glyndebourne.com/opera-archive/?search_archive=1&archive_opera=607&archive_season=&archive_composer=&archive_year= |date=9 May 2022 }}, Glyndebourne performance archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> a 1999 version by [[Welsh National Opera]], directed by [[Peter Stein (director)|Peter Stein]] and conducted by [[Carlo Rizzi (conductor)|Carlo Rizzi]] with [[John Daszak]] as Grimes;<ref>"Fishing vainly for English oddities", ''The Times'', 17 February 1999, p. 35</ref> and [[Opera North]]'s 2006 production, directed by [[Phyllida Lloyd]] and conducted by [[Richard Farnes]] with Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as Grimes.<ref>"Peter Grimes", ''The Independent'', 5 November 2006, p. 99</ref> In the summer of 2013, to mark the centenary of Britten's birth, the [[Aldeburgh Festival]] staged its first performance of ''Peter Grimes''. It was played in its natural setting on the beach at Aldeburgh. [[Steuart Bedford]] conducted, and [[Alan Oke]] sang Grimes.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/18/peter-grimes-on-the-beach-aldeburgh-festival-review "Grimes on the Beach"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323130406/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/18/peter-grimes-on-the-beach-aldeburgh-festival-review |date=23 March 2022 }}, ''The Guardian'', 18 June 2013</ref>

===American productions===
The American premiere of the work was given in August 1946 at [[Tanglewood]], conducted by Koussevitzky's protégé [[Leonard Bernstein]], with [[William Horne (tenor)|William Horne]] in the title role.<ref name=dw>Watt, Douglas. "'Peter Grimes'" Has Operatic Greatness in Lenox Premiere", ''The Daily News'', 7 August 1946, p. 45B</ref> The [[Metropolitan Opera]] first staged the piece in 1948 with [[Frederick Jagel]] as Grimes. The house staged a new production in  1967, directed by Guthrie and conducted by Colin Davis, with Vickers as Grimes. A subsequent production, by [[John Doyle (director)|John Doyle]], was presented in 2008, conducted by [[Donald Runnicles]], with [[Anthony Dean Griffey]] in the title role.<ref>[http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm "Peter Grimes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231114417/http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm |date=31 December 2018 }}, Metropolitan Opera archive. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref>

===Continental Europe===
One of the first productions of the work outside Britain was at the [[Royal Swedish Opera]] in March 1946, conducted by [[Herbert Sandberg (conductor)|Herbert Sandberg]], with [[Set Svanholm]] as Grimes.<ref name=pga>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/944263 "''Peter Grimes'' Abroad"], ''Tempo'', no. 15, Cambridge University Press, 1946, pp. 17–20 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324170106/https://www.jstor.org/stable/944263 |date=24 March 2022}}</ref> Productions in [[Theater Basel|Basel]], [[Vlaamse Opera|Antwerp]] and [[Zürich Opera|Zurich]] followed within weeks.<ref name=pga/> The opera was given in Paris at the [[Paris Opéra|Opéra]] in 1981 directed by Moshinsky and conducted by [[John Pritchard (conductor)|John Pritchard]], with Vickers in the title role and a largely Franco-British cast.<ref name=gparis>[https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Spectacle=106662 "Peter Grimes, 1981"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324164236/https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Spectacle=106662 |date=24 March 2022}}, L'archives du spectacle. Retrieved 24 March 2022</ref>{{refn|In addition to Vickers, the Opéra cast included another Canadian, [[Gino Quilico]], as Ned Keene.<ref name=gparis/>|group=n}} A production by [[Graham Vick]] was staged at the [[Opéra Bastille]] in 2001, conducted by [[James Conlon]], with Heppner as Grimes.<ref>[https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Spectacle=108502 "Peter Grimes, 2001"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324164238/https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Spectacle=108502 |date=24 March 2022 }}, L'archives du spectacle. Retrieved 24 March 2022</ref> A production by [[Richard Jones (director)|Richard Jones]] at [[La Scala]], Milan in 2012 was conducted by [[Robin Ticciati]], with John Graham-Hall as Grimes.<ref>[https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Spectacle=43206 "Peter Grimes, 2012"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324164240/https://www.lesarchivesduspectacle.net/?IDX_Spectacle=43206 |date=24 March 2022 }}, L'archives du spectacle. Retrieved 24 March 2022</ref> In addition to the co-productions, above, between the Royal Opera and the Monnaie in Brussels, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, and the Paris Opéra, productions included two in 2022: at the [[Vienna State Opera]] in a production directed by [[Christine Mielitz]] and conducted by [[Simone Young]], with [[Jonas Kaufmann]] as Grimes, [[Lise Davidsen]] as Ellen Orford and [[Bryn Terfel]] as Balstrode;<ref>[https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/season-tickets/detail/event/983447014-peter-grimes/ "Peter Grimes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190832/https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/en/season-tickets/detail/event/983447014-peter-grimes/ |date=9 May 2022 }}, Wiener Staatsoper. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref> and the [[Bavarian State Opera]] in a production by [[Stefan Herheim]], conducted by Gardner, with Skelton as Grimes, [[Rachel Willis-Sørensen]] as Ellen and [[Iain Paterson]] as Balstrode.<ref>[https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/peter-grimes "Peter Grimes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414074449/https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/peter-grimes |date=14 April 2022 }}, Bayerische Staatsoper. Retrieved 23 March 2022</ref>

==Synopsis==
===Prologue===

A [[Suffolk]] coastal village, "towards 1830".<ref name=h88/>

Peter Grimes is questioned at an [[inquest]] over the death at sea of his apprentice. The townsfolk make it clear that they think Grimes is guilty and deserves punishment. The [[coroner]], Mr Swallow, determines the boy's death to be accidental so Grimes avoids a criminal trial. The Coroner advises Grimes not to get another apprentice – a proposal against which Grimes vigorously protests. As the court is cleared, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress whom Grimes wishes to marry as soon as he gains the Borough's respect, attempts to comfort Grimes as he rages against what he sees as the community's unwillingness to give him a true second chance.

===Act 1===
[[File:Quay-Aldeburgh-1890s.jpg|The quay, [[Aldeburgh]]<br><small>(late 19th century photograph)</small>|thumb|alt=monochrome photograph of seaside quay with many fishing boats tied up]]
The same, some days later

After the first orchestral Interlude (titled, in the ''Four Sea Interludes'' concert version, "Dawn"), the chorus, who constitute "the Borough", sing of their weary daily round and their relationship with the sea and the seasons. Grimes calls for help to haul his boat ashore, but is shunned by most of the community. Belatedly, retired skipper Balstrode and the [[apothecary]], Ned Keene, assist Grimes by turning the [[Capstan (nautical)|capstan]]. Keene tells Grimes that he has found him a new apprentice (named John) from the [[workhouse]]. Nobody will volunteer to fetch the boy, until Ellen offers ("Let her among you without fault...").

As a storm approaches, most of the community – after securing windows and equipment – take shelter in the pub. Grimes stays out, and alone with Balstrode confesses his ambitions: to make his fortune with a "good catch", buy a good home and marry Ellen Orford. Balstrode suggests "without your booty [Ellen] will have you now", only to provoke Grimes's furious "No, not for pity!" Balstrode abandons Grimes to the storm, as the latter ruminates "What harbour shelters peace?" The storm then breaks with a vengeance (second orchestral Interlude).

In the pub, tensions are rising due both to the storm and to the fiery [[Methodist]] fisherman, Bob Boles, getting increasingly drunk and lecherous after the pub's main attraction, the two "nieces". Grimes suddenly enters ("Now the [[Ursa Major|Great Bear]] and [[Pleiades]]..."), and his wild appearance unites almost the entire community in their fear and mistrust of his "temper". Ned Keene saves the situation by starting a round ("Old Joe has gone fishing"). Just as the round reaches a climax, Ellen arrives with the apprentice, both drenched. Grimes immediately sets off with the apprentice to his hut, despite the terrible storm.

===Act 2===

The same, some weeks later

On a sunny Sunday morning (the Third Orchestral Interlude), while most Borough townspeople are at church, Ellen talks with John the apprentice. She is horrified to find a bruise on his neck. When she confronts Grimes about it, he brusquely dismisses it as an accident. Growing angry at her concern and interference, he strikes her and runs off with the boy. This does not go unseen: first Keene, Auntie, and Bob Boles, then the chorus comment on what has happened, the latter developing into a mob which sets off to investigate at Grimes's fisherman's hut. As they march off, Ellen, Auntie, and the nieces sing despairingly of the town's menfolk.  The Fourth Orchestral Interlude (Passacaglia) follows as the scene changes.  

At the hut, Grimes impatiently demands John change out of his Sunday clothes and into fisherman's gear. Though it is a Sunday he hastily prepares to set out to fish as he has seen a large school of herring. Grimes becomes lost in his memories of his previous apprentice, reliving the boy's death of thirst. When he hears the mob of townspeople approaching, he quickly snaps back to reality. He is angry and defiant, stirred by a paranoid belief that John has been gossiping with Ellen, so provoking the anger of the town against him. He warns John to be careful as they climb down the cliff to the boat, but in their haste the boy slips to his death below. When the mob reaches the hut, Grimes and the apprentice are not to be found, so they disperse, curious and suspicious.

===Act 3===

The same, two days later, night in the Borough ("Moonlight" in the ''Sea Interludes'').

At a town dance, Mrs Sedley tries to convince the authorities that Grimes is a murderer. Ellen and Captain Balstrode confide in each other: Grimes has disappeared, and Balstrode has discovered a jersey washed ashore. Ellen recognises it as one she had knitted for John. Mrs Sedley overhears this and, with the knowledge that Grimes has returned, whips up another vigilante mob. Singing "Him who despises us we'll destroy", the villagers march off in search of Grimes. (The sixth interlude, not included in the concert version of the ''Sea Interludes'', covers the change of scene.)

While the townspeople can be heard off-stage hunting for him, Grimes appears onstage singing a monologue, interspersed by cries from the mob and by a mournful fog horn (a solo [[tuba]]). The death of his second apprentice has shattered Grimes who sounds panicked, distracted and unfocused. Ellen and Balstrode discover him before the furious townspeople get there, and the sea captain advises Grimes that the best thing he can do is sail out to sea and drown himself by scuppering his boat. Silently, Grimes walks out. The next morning life in the Borough begins as usual as if nothing has happened, though there is a report from the coastguard of a boat seen sinking far off the coast. This is dismissed by Auntie as "one of these rumours".

==''Sea Interludes''==
To cover the scene changes during the opera Britten wrote six orchestral interludes.  Five of them have been published separately. The ''Four Sea Interludes'', Op 33a, is a suite of about 17 minutes' duration, comprising the first, third, fifth and second interludes from the opera, with the titles "Dawn", "Sunday Morning", "Moonlight" and "Storm".<ref>[https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Benjamin-Britten-Peter-Grimes/1540 "Britten, Benjamin: Peter Grimes op. 33 – Four Sea Interludes op. 33a (1945)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324215103/https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Benjamin-Britten-Peter-Grimes/1540 |date=24 March 2022 }}, Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 24 March 2022</ref> The fourth interlude, a [[passacaglia]], has been published separately as Op 33b, and is sometimes appended to the ''Four Sea Interludes'' in concert and recordings.<ref>[https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Benjamin-Britten-Peter-Grimes/2680 "Britten, Benjamin: Peter Grimes op. 33 – Passacaglia op. 33b (1945)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509190832/https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Benjamin-Britten-Peter-Grimes/2680 |date=9 May 2022 }}, Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 24 March 2022</ref> Britten conducted the [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]] in the first performance of the suite at the [[Cheltenham Music Festival|Cheltenham Festival]], a week after the opera's premiere; the London premiere was at the [[the Proms|Proms]], in August 1945,<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eqqdgw "Prom 34"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324221944/https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eqqdgw |date=24 March 2022 }}, BBC Genome. Retrieved 24 March 2022</ref> and the five interludes were conducted by [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]] in October 1945.<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 27 October 1945, p. 8</ref>

==Critical reception==
===First productions===
In ''[[The Observer]]'', [[William Glock]] rated the first act less convincing than the other two, but found the opera as a whole "a most thrilling work", displaying Britten's "genius".<ref>Glock, William. "Music", ''The Observer'', 10 June 1945, p. 2</ref> ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'''s critic, William McNaught, considered the music "full of vivid suggestion and action, sometimes rising to a kind of white-hot poetry", but thought the libretto insufficiently "operatic" – "overloaded with scrappy and not always telling incident".<ref>McNaught, William. "Peter Grimes", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 9 June 1945, p. 3</ref> ''[[The Scotsman|The Scotsman's]]'' critic took a different view, calling the work "that rare thing – a piece of perfect collaboration between librettist and composer".<ref>"Sadler's Wells Opera", ''The Scotsman'', 18 July 1945, p. 4</ref> The reviewer in ''[[The Times]]''{{refn|Reviews in ''The Times'' were not signed at the time, but the paper's chief music critic of the period was [[Frank Howes]].<ref>"Mr Frank Howes", ''The Times'', 30 September 1974, p. 17</ref>|group=n}} found the use of a single spoken line for Balstrode at a key point intrusive in an otherwise through-composed score, but praised Britten's "effortless originality" and "orchestral music of diabolical cunning".<ref>"Sadler's Wells Opera", ''The Times'', 8 June 1945, p. 6</ref>

After the American premiere, the critic [[Douglas Watt (critic)|Douglas Watt]] opened his review "''Peter Grimes'' has greatness", and called the work "an opera for our time, brilliantly conceived and executed", with the "breathtaking pleasure" of the music matched by "the strong and lovely libretto", though he predicted that if an impresario succeeded in staging the piece on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] "it will be met with much intolerance and displeasure by audiences unprepared for its surprising magnificences".<ref name=dw/> In ''[[The Boston Globe]]'', Cyrus Durgin praised the young Bernstein for bringing out "the drive and dissonance of an opera which is far from 'tuneful' in the conventional sense" and rated the work "a step forward for opera in this country, and anywhere for that matter".<ref>Durgin, Cyrus. "Tanglewood", ''The Boston Globe'', 7 August 1946, p. 20</ref>

===Later assessments===
''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' describes ''Peter Grimes'' as "a powerful allegory of [[Violence against LGBT people|homosexual oppression]]",<ref>Brett, Philip and Elizabeth Wood, [http://www.rem.ufpr.br/_REM/REMv7/Brett_Wood/Brett_and_Wood.html "Lesbian and Gay Music"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830221102/http://www.rem.ufpr.br/_REM/REMv7/Brett_Wood/Brett_and_Wood.html |date=30 August 2010 }}, ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (professor of music)|John Tyrrell]], editors. London: Macmillan, 2001</ref> and ''[[The New York Times]]'' has called it one of "the true operatic masterpieces of the 20th century";<ref name="NYTimes">[[Anthony Tommasini|Tommasini, Anthony]], [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/arts/music/01grim.html "The Outsider in Their Midst: Britten's Tale of the Haunted Misfit"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210093902/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/arts/music/01grim.html |date=10 February 2018 }}, ''The New York Times'', 1 March 2008.</ref> the composer's own contemporary (1948) summation of the work was "a subject very close to my heart – the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080819175729/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794230-1,00.html "Opera's New Face"], ''Time'', 16 February 1948</ref> In a 1963 analysis of the opera in ''[[Music & Letters]]'', J. W. Garbutt contended that Britten's "inventive genius" and the richness of the score led the listener to suspend disbelief, but that Slater's libretto failed to reconcile the violent and the visionary in Grimes's character and conduct.<ref>Garbutt, J. W. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/731394 "Music and Motive in 'Peter Grimes'"], ''Music & Letters'', October 1963, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 334–342 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325120304/https://www.jstor.org/stable/731394 |date=25 March 2022 }}</ref> In a retrospective consideration of the opera in 1972, Peter Garvie argued in ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'' that although it had seemed uniquely new when it first appeared, it was in fact "a great but final reincarnation of more or less traditional opera", and that it holds no promise of redemption for the characters, unlike Britten's later operas.<ref>Garvie, Peter. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/942520 "Plausible Darkness: 'Peter Grimes' after a Quarter of a Century"], Tempo, 1972, No. 100 (1972), pp. 9–14 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325120306/https://www.jstor.org/stable/942520 |date=25 March 2022 }}</ref>

In ''The University of Toronto Quarterly'' in 2005, Allan Hepburn considered the various views of previous commentators on the extent to which homosexuality is relevant to the plot of the opera. He notes that in [[Peter Conrad (academic)|Peter Conrad's]] analysis, "Grimes the boy-killer is the homosexual outcast, looking to Ellen Orford to effect his redemption, even his cure", and that for [[Philip Brett]] Britten's operas are "preoccupied with the social experience of homosexuality", but Hepburn concludes that Grimes can be seen in several different ways:
{{blockindent|as a misfit: as a queer character who cannot envision himself married to a woman; as a labourer who cannot work his way into the good graces of the townspeople; as a victim of oppression who cannot counteract the rumours that circulate about him.<ref>Hepburn, Allan. "''Peter Grimes'' and the Rumour of Homosexuality", ''University of Toronto Quarterly'', Volume 74, Spring 2005, pp. 648–655</ref>|}}

In 2020 [[Rupert Christiansen]] wrote that ''Peter Grimes'' can be labelled a "folk" opera, to the extent that:
{{blockindent| it embodies a distinctly English culture in the same way that [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' embodies Russianness and [[George Gershwin|Gershwin]]'s ''[[Porgy and Bess]]'' is shaped by the African-American experience – something most evident in all three operas through the magnificent choruses that incorporate traditional tunes.<ref name=rc>Christiansen, Rupert. [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A622092391/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=2008097a "''Peter Grimes'': how the Second World War spawned Britten's moral masterpiece"], Telegraph Online, 27 April 2020. {{subscription required}} {{Cite web |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7B%7B%21%7D%7DA622092391&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco&asid=2008097a |title=Gale - Product Login |access-date=23 April 2025 |archive-date=20 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720193947/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7B%7B%21%7D%7DA622092391&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco&asid=2008097a |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>|}}
Christiansen also remarks on "the sharp, Dickensian characterisations" of the various inhabitants of the Borough, showing the composer's exceptional gift for setting the English language to music.<ref name=rc/>

==Recordings==
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!width="160"|Cast:<br>Peter Grimes,<br>Ellen Orford,<br>Balstrode, Auntie
!Conductor,<br>Opera House and Orchestra
!Label<ref>[http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLBRPETE.HTM Recordings of the opera on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702015530/http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLBRPETE.HTM |date=2 July 2021 }} Retrieved 7 November 2010</ref>
|-
|1948 || [[Peter Pears]],<br>[[Joan Cross]] || [[Reginald Goodall]],<br>[[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden Orchestra and BBC Theatre Chorus|| CD: [[EMI Classics]] 64727<br>Cat: (excerpts)
|-
|1958 || [[Peter Pears]],<br>[[Claire Watson]],<br>[[James Pease]],<br>Jean Watson || [[Benjamin Britten]],<br>[[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus, <br>Recorded Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London|| London CD: [[Decca Records|Decca]]<br>Cat: 414577 (reissued 1990, 2001, 2006)
|-
|1969 || [[Peter Pears]],<br>[[Heather Harper]],<br>[[Bryan Drake]],<br>[[Elizabeth Bainbridge]] || [[Benjamin Britten]],<br>[[London Symphony Orchestra]], Ambrosian Opera Chorus, <br>Recorded Snape Maltings.|| BBC Recording DVD: [[Decca Records|Decca]]<br>Cat: 074 3261
|-
|1978 || [[Jon Vickers]],<br>[[Heather Harper]],<br>[[Jonathan Summers]],<br>[[Elizabeth Bainbridge]] || [[Colin Davis]],<br>[[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus ||CD: [[Philips]]<br>Cat: 462847 (reissued 1999)
|-
|1981 || [[Jon Vickers]],<br>[[Heather Harper]],<br>[[Norman Bailey (bass-baritone)|Norman Bailey]],<br>[[Elizabeth Bainbridge]] || [[Colin Davis]],<br>[[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus ||DVD: Kultur<br>Cat: 2255 (released 2003)
|-
|1992 || [[Anthony Rolfe Johnson]],<br>[[Felicity Lott]],<br>[[Thomas Allen (baritone)|Thomas Allen]],<br>[[Patricia Payne (mezzo-soprano)|Patricia Payne]] || [[Bernard Haitink]],<br>[[Royal Opera House]], Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus|| CD: [[EMI Classics]]<br>Cat: 5483222 (reissued 2003, [[EMI Classics]]: 915620)
|-
|1994 || [[Philip Langridge]],<br>Janice Cairns,<br>[[Alan Opie]],<br>Ann Howard|| [[David Atherton]],<br>[[English National Opera]] Orchestra and Chorus || DVD: Kultur<br>Cat: 2902
|-
|1995 || [[Philip Langridge]],<br>Janice Watson,<br>[[Alan Opie]],<br>Ameral Gunson || [[Richard Hickox]],<br>[[City of London Sinfonia]] and [[London Symphony Orchestra]] Chorus || CD: [[Chandos Records|Chandos]]<br>Cat: 9447
|-
|2004 || Glenn Winslade,<br>Janice Watson,<br>{{Nowrap|[[Anthony Michaels-Moore]]}},<br>Jill Grove || [[Colin Davis]],<br>[[London Symphony Orchestra]] and Chorus || CD: LSO Live<br>Cat: 54 <ref>Andrew Clements, [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jul/09/classicalmusicandopera.shopping "Britten: Peter Grimes: Winslade/ Watson/ Michaels-Moore/ Wyn-Rogers/ Grove/ Rutherford/ Lemalu/ London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra/ Davis"] . ''The Guardian'' (London), 9 July 2004</ref>
|-
|2005 || [[Christopher Ventris]],<br>[[Emily Magee]],<br>Alfred Muff,<br>Liliana Nikiteanu || [[Franz Welser-Möst]],<br> Orchester und Chor der [[Zurich Opera|Oper Zürich]] || DVD: [[EMI Classics]]<br>Cat: 00971
|-
|2008 || [[Anthony Dean Griffey]],<br>[[Patricia Racette]],<br>[[Anthony Michaels-Moore]],<br>[[Felicity Palmer]] || [[Donald Runnicles]],<br> Orchestra and Chorus of the [[Metropolitan Opera]] || DVD: [[EMI Classics]]
|-
|2012||[[John Graham-Hall]],<br>[[Susan Gritton]],<br>[[Christopher Purves]],<br>[[Felicity Palmer]]||[[Robin Ticciati]],<br>Orchestra e Coro del [[Teatro alla Scala]]||DVD: Opus Arte<br>Cat: OA1103D<ref>[http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/56200/Benjamin-Britten-Peter-Grimes "Recordings of ''Peter Grimes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007014757/http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/56200/Benjamin-Britten-Peter-Grimes |date=7 October 2012 }}, Presto Classical</ref>
|-
|2013
|[[Alan Oke]],<br> Giselle Allen,<br> David Kempster,<br> Gaynor Keeble
|[[Steuart Bedford]],
[[Britten-Pears Orchestra]], Chorus of [[Opera North]], Chorus of the [[Guildhall School of Music and Drama]]
|CD: Signum SIGCD 348
DVD: Arthaus Musik 102179
|-
|2019||[[Stuart Skelton]],<br>[[Erin Wall]],<br>[[Roderick Williams]],<br>[[Susan Bickley]]||[[Edward Gardner (conductor)|Edward Gardner]],<br> [[Grieg Hall]], [[Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra]], Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Royal Northern College of Music Chorus, Choir of Collegium Musicum||CD: Chandos <br>CHAN 5250<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205250 |title=Britten; Peter Grimes, Op.33 |access-date=5 September 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804173717/https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205250 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|}

==Notes, references and sources==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book | last=Banks| first=Paul| year=2000| title=The Making of Peter Grimes: Essays and Studies| location=Woodbridge| publisher=Boydell Press | isbn=0-85115-791-2}}
*{{cite book | last = Brett | first = Philip|authorlink=Philip Brett| title = Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes| date = 1983| location = Cambridge and New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-22916-6}}
*{{cite book | last = Carpenter | first = Humphrey | authorlink=Humphrey Carpenter|title = Benjamin Britten: A Biography| date =1993 | location =London | publisher =Faber & Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-14325-2 }}
*{{cite book | last =Crabbe | first = George|authorlink=George Crabbe| title =The Borough | orig-date=1810|date = 1903| location =London | publisher =Dent | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.93595/page/n17/mode/2up| oclc =931157038 }}                              
* {{cite book|last=Gilbert |first= Susie|year=2009 |title=Opera for Everybody |location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn= 978-0-571-22493-7}}
*{{cite book | editor-last = Herbert| editor-first =David | title =The Operas of Benjamin Britten | date =1989 | location =London | publisher =Herbert Press | isbn =978-1-871569-08-7 }}
*{{cite thesis |last= Greenhalgh|first=Michael |date=2013 |title= A critical edition, with introduction and commentary, of the libretto texts of Montagu Slater and Benjamin Britten's ''Peter Grimes'' |type=PhD  |publisher=University of Oxford |oclc=908409328 }}
* {{cite book | last=Matthews | first=David | author-link=David Matthews (composer) | title=Britten  | year=2013 | publisher=Haus Publishing Limited | location=London | isbn=978-1-908323-38-5}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Payne |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Payne |date=Autumn–Winter 1963 |title=Dramatic Use of Tonality in 'Peter Grimes' |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |issue=66–67 |pages=22–26 |doi=10.1017/S0040298200036317 |jstor=943322 |s2cid=146426517 |ref=none }}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{YouTube|1xZC7SJXkPg|Professor Stephen Arthur Allen (Rider University) Lecture for Princeton Festival}}
* [http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLBRPETE.HTM Further ''Peter Grimes'' discography]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/operaon3/pip/egylz/ Benjamin Britten's ''Peter Grimes''] (BBC synopsis)
* Hensher, Philip. 2009. "[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/may/08/peter-grimes-philip-hensher A Man for the People]". ''The Guardian'' (8 May).

{{Benjamin Britten|state=collapsed}}
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