Britten – Peter Grimes
John Graham-Hall; Susan Gritton; Christopher Purves; Felicity Palmer; Catherine Wyn-Rogers; Teatro alla Scala; Robin Ticciati
Opus Arte OA 1103 D
The year 1945 saw the premiere of what many consider the greatest of English operas to date, Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. The harrowing tale of a fisherman whose apprentices suffer mysterious deaths at sea was quickly taken up internationally, with Milan’s La Scala mounting a production in 1947. The present DVD brings us their latest staging, featuring a predominantly English cast and production team. John Graham-Hall plays the demanding leading role of Grimes as a paranoid wreck of a man with little suggestion of the commanding malevolence the late Jon Vickers brought to the role. Though his reedy voice is bright enough to fill the hall and his interpretation is effective in its own terms, Graham-Hall has a bit of trouble finding his notes at times, especially if a large interval is involved. The supporting cast is rock solid however, with Susan Gritton as Ellen Orford and Christopher Purves as Captain Balstrode both excelling in their roles as Grimes’ only friends amongst the hostile hypocrites of the fishing village. The massive choral passages so vital to this work are commanding, though it would be wise to turn on the English captions as the diction of the Italian chorus is sometimes a bit mushy (oddly, there are no Italian subtitles offered on this disc).
The orchestra pit at La Scala is larger than most, allowing a luscious string section to bloom under the assured leadership of the rising young British conductor Robin Ticciati. Perversely, director Richard Jones has opted to move the time frame of this fishy tale from coastal Britain of 1830 to the urban blight of U.K. council housing of the 1980s. The money saved on costuming was evidently passed on to movement co-ordinator Sarah Fahie, who gingers up the strutting local yobs and mini-skirted strumpets with some risible disco-era booty shaking. The only visible evocations of the sea are limited to incongruous flocks of stuffed seagulls perched hither and yon. Set designer Tom Pye contributes clever articulated boxes which sway effectively from side to side in the strobe-lit storm scene. Video and sound quality are both excellent. Despite my reservations about the wacky stage direction this is a production well worth a look.
Concert Notes:The Canadian Opera Company presents seven performances of Peter Grimes from October 5 to 26 at the Four Seasons Centre. James Ehnes performs Britten’s Violin Concerto with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Stéphane Denève’s direction on October 10 and 12 at Roy Thomson Hall. (See Editor’s Corner in our June 2013 issue for a review of Ehnes’ recording of this concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony.)
