SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Britten, Peter Grimes: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the English National Opera. Conductor: Edward Gardner. London Coliseum, London. 9.5.2009 (JPr)

Peter Grimes became part of the history of Sadler’s Wells Opera, the predecessor to English National Opera, when it was premièred on 7 June 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall. Despite its dark subject matter it was the first of Britten’s operas to gain for him both a critical and a popular success. Britten and his partner, Peter Pears, had been in America escaping the war since 1939 and were in California when they read George Crabbe’s poem The Borough. As a native of Suffolk, like Crabbe, Britten strongly identified with the tragic story of Peter Grimes, an Aldeburgh fisherman. Britten and Pears returned as conscientious objectors to England in 1942. Not long after, Montagu Slater was asked to write the libretto and, with the input of Britten and Pears, Grimes, while retaining the dark side to his character, also becomes the victim of cruel fate and the society in which he lives. It was, as Britten later pointed out, ‘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.’ Is Grimes Britten himself railing against some perceived guilt at being homosexual and his suffering from the social mores of the time and the gossips? Probably yes. There is a suggestion that Britten was molested by a master at school and this adds a possible element of paedophilia to an already harrowing tale of child slavery and child abuse. Or is it more simply the tale of Britten as the outsider (Grimes) unaccepted in his own hometown (country?) – the composer leaves it to his audience to decide.

David Alden who directed this new ENO Peter Grimes sums up its meaning as ‘On some levels it’s less about the man Grimes than about the Borough’s relationship with a man who may or may not be a sociopath-sadist-paedophile;  but they turn him into that, whether he is or not. He is the scapegoat without any real evidence … I’d be very interested in seeing a production of Peter Grimes where he is obviously a paedophile, a production that plays it really clearly, but I don’t want to do it that way. Ultimately I’d feel it was a betrayal of the real feel of the piece.’

So how does David Alden present Peter Grimes? Well we are in Aldeburgh about the time the opera was composed, perhaps at the end of WWII and everyone is demob happy. Certainly Grimes is someone who is misunderstood and clearly does not fit in the others is hunted and harried by the ‘mob’ until he loses his mind and sinks his boat out at sea. In fact the main set by Paul Steinberg is part fish market, part community hall with a sloping corrugated tin roof and benches. This converts with a few battered armchairs and a fireplace into ‘The Boar’ pub. In Act I there is no hint of the sea on-stage though it is ever-present in the music. In Act II Scene 1 you get a hint of a typically grey Suffolk seascape. Grimes’s hut is constructed from two walls and the rearranged benches. The Moot Hall in Act III is only hinted at but the stage clears to show us at the bleak shoreline for Grimes’s dismal dénouement. Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes make the setting even more redolent of Walmington-on-Sea from Dad’s Army but this reference would I believe be lost on the American director and his team.  

It is perhaps one of the finest evenings of music-theatre I have attended at the London Coliseum for many years; the soloists, chorus and orchestra were on top form. It didn’t all work but there were some unforgettable moments such as the coup de théâtre when Grimes lets the rope helping his apprentice down the cliff fall loose from his hands as he panics when ‘the Borough’ approaches his hut and the choruses repeated menacing calls of ‘Grimes … Peter Grimes’ after having waved small Union Jacks. The prospective horrors of mob-rule are only too obvious at this moment as they set out to pursue Grimes. This all comes at the expense of a loss of feeling that there is a real community here and this is not helped by David Alden giving the chorus and other performers random movements when they sing ‘Old Joe has gone fishing’ and elsewhere in their contributions to accentuate the music that has no real dramatic purpose other than to be distracting. It is possible we are seeing these events, such as the ‘fancy dress’ dance at the start of Act III, through the confused reality of the laudanum-addled Mrs Sedley but that is most unlikely.

Mrs Sedley in her twin-set and with her ‘Murder most foul it is’ and ‘Crime, which my hobby is’ is none other than Miss Marple and this is part of a very closely observed collection of vignettes for the leading characters. The Nieces are child abuse victims often in school uniform clutching dolls in school uniform too and the sisters rarely let go of each other. Ned Keene is the sharply-dressed spiv who can get everything for everyone. Auntie is an androgynous Vita Sackville-West figure in stripy-suit and fur coat with a club-foot and walking stick. Perhaps Captain Balstrode seems the most normal commenter on the things happening around him. There is even some revisionism to the character of Ellen Orford who shows a lack of compassion for the plight of Grimes’s apprentice. Perhaps Grimes is the only unmarried man in the Borough or she is obligated to him in some way. More likely she thinks she can redeem him but gives up when she realises there is no hope for them and takes her first available way out of the impending marriage when Grimes’s treatment of the boy gives her that opportunity.

All the roles were well cast with good singing actors – Felicity Palmer, a gossipy Mrs Sedley, Rebecca de Pont Davies as the procuress Auntie and Gerald Finley a sympathetic Captain Balstrode - who bring their characters to life with their strong singing. In fact all the other smaller roles added to the wonderful ensemble created including Michael Colvin’s intemperate Bob Boles, the Methodist, Leigh Melrose’s creepy Ned Keene and Matthew Best's lecherous lawyer Swallow who reappears in Act III Scene 1 with his trousers at half-mast. Amanda Roocroft as Ellen sings very strongly and with little sense of vulnerability, her anguish at the end more a result of her realising Grimes is a lost cause and that she was misguided to ever think she could save him.

The American Stuart Skelton seemed to have Jon Vickers’s portrayal in mind as Grimes. Vickers was a strange man who would not sing Tannhäuser and the young Siegfried because of the dubious morality of their characters but he embraced Grimes. His Grimes was lost in reverie one moment yet erupted with brutality the next. Here in Act II Grimes tenderly kisses Ellen before slapping her almost making us miss this important violent outburst. Stuart Skelton is not a real heldentenor like Vickers and has an essentially lyrical voice; there is much vocal grace to his quiet singing even if it was sometime a little like crooning. These gentler moments made his powerful outbursts even more threatening. Every word was clearly heard and this added to the impact of his portrayal. He is also awkwardly built and with this natural cumbersomeness and his baby-faced appearance it was easy to imagine someone who was bullied when young and is now a bully himself. At the end he is all so very much alone and Ellen does not help him push the boat out as in the libretto states.

According to David Alden Peter Grimes ‘lies halfway between Anything Goes and Wozzeck’ – Wozzeck yes but it is hard to discern where the Cole Porter is. The closest to the Broadway influence Alden suggests is in the work would lie with the  Gershwin-inspired second ‘Storm’ Interlude. This and the others evoking, where appropriate, dawn, Sunday morning, moonlight, the raging sea and village life were atmospherically played by the ENO Orchestra sounding better than it has for many years to my hearing. Edward Gardner’s account was rich in orchestral detail and colours and even though it was perhaps a little carefully paced at times nevertheless it was nuanced, impassioned and illuminating.

My final tribute goes to the enhanced ENO chorus and their chorus master, Martin Merry, for their important contribution to the evening’s success. Their savage cries for vengeance will live long in my memory and they acted with great commitment throughout even when performing the ludicrous ‘hand-jiving’ David Alden wanted them to do.

© Jim Pritchard

reviewer


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