Aldeburgh in Suffolk was originally an isolated and rather narrow fishing village on the English North Sea coast. From 1948 this place grew into a Mecca for countless music lovers, thanks to the founding of the Aldeburgh Festival by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. The oppressive atmosphere of the village community and the omnipresence of the North Sea are unforgettable portrayed in Britten's opera
… Peter Grimes. Britten took it from the narrative poem The Borough (1810) by the Aldenburgh minister George Crabbe. In The Borough, Peter Grimes is portrayed as a cruel and alcoholic fisherman who turns against his tyrannical father by terrorizing his ship's boys. The opera's libretto has a number of important differences from the original story. The most striking difference is that the 'father motif' has been completely dropped, leaving the most direct explanation for Grimes' obsessions missing. The death of the ship's boys in the opera is also more the result of tragic circumstances than of Grimes's rash behavior. Such interventions seem illogical, but curiously enough they do work. This unwillingly turns Grimes into a ritual scapegoat who, like Hamlet, mysteriously outgrows the theater work that bears his name. The music also contributes a lot to this suggestive atmosphere. Highlights include Grimes' monologue Now the Great Bear and Pleiades and the third act 'mad scene'. Also beautiful are the instrumental interludes, in which the North Sea landscape is beautifully portrayed. The legendary 1958 recording of Peter Grimes conducted by Britten and with Peter Pears in the title role was reissued by Decca in the series Legends. (HJ)more
