xoxo ‘Verity’

My take on the chorus is a bit different from Art’s. I rather liked the massed choir approach of this production. It seems to me that Britten uses the chorus in three ways in this opera – as a kind of Greek chorus framing and commenting, as the massed Borough speaking with one voice (although frequently a contrapuntal one), and as individual townspeople. This last seems to me the least successful, especially at the beginning of Act III. So I didn’t mind at all the emphasis on the choir character of the chorus.

The most memorable Grimes for me was a concert production conducted by Rostropovich at the Barbican, with Ben Heppner, Nancy Gustafson and Bryn Terfel. The star was the extraordinary LSO chorus which just stood and sang to thrilling effect.

Grimes was actually the first opera I ever attended at the Met, shortly after moving to NYC in 1977, and I loved that production, which managed to create the illusion of being in a real English fishing village. The naturalistic sets worked with the music and a very naturalistic blocking for the cast that made the choristers into real townspeople. In this production, they remain resolutely choristers, sitting at times in neat rows as if a chorus in a concert presentation of the opera… usually standing still and singing at the audience, rather than moving about as if they were real villagers enacting a drama.

The music works its magic, but fighting against the limitations imposed by the production — at least as seen in the opera house. Perhaps this is not such a problem in the broadcast, where the close-ups and camera movement can present an illusion of a totally different sort of production.

I found your comments about the opera quite helpful in finding a deeper appreciation for the music. Thanks.

Nico, many of your words kept echoing through my head as I experienced Peter Grimes for the first time Sunday. Especially “music that is a citizen of the space it is trying to describe”, and “the drug of Britten’s craft.” Thrilling, upsetting, hypnotic, gorgeous, painfully sad, shocking, beautiful . . . I can’t find adequate words to describe this music that is new to me. Sometimes I need a sort of crystallizing moment, or word, or note, to suddenly reveal new music to me. I did some reading on Grimes before hand, but it was your Met website article that seemed to prepare me to hear the emotional heart of the music. I keep playing the Interludes over and over. (The Britten/Pears Decca CD, sfmike). I suspect Billy Budd and The War Requiem are going to sound entirely different to me now; I’m a slow learner. Now it’s on to your music.

The question about notation is fascinating; I would love to see the score for Seeing is Believing. Did your Dutch colleagues use baroque bows or modern bows?

Peter Grimes yesterday was brilliant, although I was of at least two minds about the production. I listened particularly with your comment about the orchestra overwhelming Peter when he attempted to move and I didn’t quite hear it. But I did certainly hear the orchestra as a protagonist and noted particularly the scoring of “the Great Bear . . .” as really a duet with Peter as well as a masterpiece of scoring.