Comments on: A Friendly Face in the Crowd

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:36:55 +0000

The Jon Vickers/Colin Davis recording is still easily found on cd as well. No one comes close to Vickers, I think, for revealing what Nico called the sinew of emotion in this great work.

By: sfmike

sfmike — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:41:17 +0000

And real fairies prefer “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Actually, I love all of Britten’s operas, and they are way better live than on recordings, the mark of a really great opera composer.

@Steve: Definitely get the Britten/Pears recording. It’s about as definitive as recordings come. But then do check out the Jon Vickers performance on DVD. I had the good luck to encounter “Peter Grimes” for the first time at the San Francisco Opera in 1976, with Vickers singing. It’s one of the greatest performances in operatic history. His rendition of “The Great Pleiades” was so heart-rending that the entire audience was wiped out, and we hadn’t even gotten through Act One. I hope the Met does the opera justice, though in truth they don’t have a very good track record with Britten.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:34:00 +0000

Yes, but real men prefer Billy Budd.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:58:47 +0000

Wow! Fascinating piece. The Met HD video theatre broadcast will be my first Peter Grimes, but first I’m off to buy the Britten/Pears recording tomorrow. I have the Vickers DVD, but I’m not sure I want his particular take on the role to be my first exposure.

Suddenly you’re all over the place! That’s great. After reading the New Yorker piece on you and listening to some of your music online, I was happily excited to stumble onto this Grimes article on the Met website. And was surprised to learn you’d done some arrangements for Rufus Wainwright’s “Release the Stars”; I’m off to see him solo in Monterey next weekend. Attention Margaret Juntwait, we want to hear Nico, Rufus and Alex Ross together on a Met Intermission Panel!
I’m looking forward to more of your music and writing.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:41:31 +0000

Excellent piece. Seems I’m turned on to something new every time I visit your site. It’s a great pleasure.

By: minim

minim — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:59:13 +0000

This is a great piece, and obviously I have never really paid enough attention to Grimes and will do so in the future. Right now though, you’ve just made me remember that I have all of BB’s string quartets lurking on my music drive – thank you!

By: Michael Greenebaum

Michael Greenebaum — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:14:37 +0000

This is a tremendous and revealing commentary; thank you. I have loved and been troubled by Grimes ever since I heard the first matinee broadcast in 1948. I am troubled by Britten’s ambivalence towards the Borough; treated as a whole it is given magnificent music, but its individual members are treated with the contempt that often creeps through when Britten deals with the demotic. Your comment about the opening scene is apt, but I have often wondered whether Mrs. Sedley is necessary and why the “goodnight” scene in Act III is so gratuitously cloying.

I shall see the matinee in a local cinema and I shall enjoy it more thanks to your commentary.

Michael