Britten - Peter Grimes / Davis, Vickers, Harper, Bailey, Royal Opera Covent Garden

Britten - Peter Grimes / Davis, Vickers, Harper, Bailey, Royal Opera Covent Garden | Jon Vickers, Colin Davis | Great Opera, Great Tenor

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Britten - Peter Gr...

	Britten - Peter Grimes / Davis, Vickers, Harper, Bailey, Royal Opera Covent Garden Jon Vickers, Colin Davis Kultur Video, 2003 average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Royal Opera Chorus. Peter Grimes was the work that established Benjamin Britten as a major musical force when it was first performed in 1945. It is now universally acknowledged as one of the twentieth century's finest operas. In this performance Canadian tenor Jon Vickers - internationally acclaimed for his portrayal of Grimes - heads a cast that gives vivid life to this masterpiece.

seaworthy

To the casual listener, Britten may be an acquired taste. And this opera is probably the most accessible of all Britten's works - in other words, a good place to start. In my opinion, it's an unforgettable experience, one that only grows on you with rehearing.

It's a grim story of a fisherman ill at ease with others. He's lost an apprentice at sea and is suspected of having physcally abused the boy. While one woman, Ellen Orford, tries to be his friend, the village gives him no room in their busy, opinionated, suspicious world. He is a monster, unwelcome in their tight little society, a creature to be feared and shunned. When Grimes acquires a new apprentice we know the results will be tragic.

In this recording, the title role is portrayed by Jon Vickers who made this one of his personal triumphs. To see it as well as hear the magnificent singing more than doubles the satisfaction of the performance.

I remember hearing the premiere radio broadcast of this piece from the Met when I was a teenager - I'm in my 70's now. Even then its strange story mesmerized me. Now, after many hearings, it is a joy to finally see what my imagination could not conjure up.

This performance is intense, focused, brooding, in every way "seaworthy" for anyone who turns to opera for a musical experience that is both beautiful and terrible. The fate of Peter Grimes will stay with you long after the credits have run.

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Great Opera, Great Tenor

Peter Grimes is one of my "desert island" all time favorite operas. It is an incredible piece of music. Jon Vickers is, to my taste, the finest tenor I have ever heard and his portrayal in this opera is one of his greatest performances. I have seen him (live) in the opera on five occasions and only wish that I could have seen him perform it even more. It is true, as another reviewer noted, that Britten himself didn't like Vickers' interpretation (Vickers being a much different type of singer than Peter Pears for whom Britten wrote the opera) and Vickers has changed a bit of the text in the second act scene in his hut. But, with all due respect to the genius of Britten, I think Vickers' interpretation (and his text changes) are definitely for the better. Vickers makes Peter Grimes more fearsome than Pears did (at least comparing recordings, I never saw Pears perform the opera) but in Crabbe's original poem, Grimes is a pretty fearsome person.

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GREAT MUSIC AND THEATER! GREAT VICKERS!!!

I was fortunate to see and hear Jon Vickers in this role both at the MET and in this particular production at Covent Garden (once sitting within reach of Vickers in the side stall seats!). Britten was a pedophile and that's what the Opera is about. Vickers however, who was homophobic transforms the work into something much more 'universal' than the petty gay themes that are in all of Britten's Operas.

It is a magnificent perfomance both vocally and theatrically and is as close to a 'must', like Callas' Tosca , as there is in Opera.

good stuff

Benjamin Britten wrote the role of Grimes for Peter Pears (who sings it on the Decca recording of the opera), a much lighter voice than Vickers. Britten reportedly disliked the Davis/Vickers production. No one else does, though. Heather Harper (the superb soprano soloist on Colin Davis's 1965 Messiah on Philips) is an excellent Ellen (better than her Decca counterpart, Claire Watson) and the whole production is first-rate. If you enjoy the opera, pick up the Decca recording too -- Britten himself conducts atmospherically, Pears is very moving in the title role -- less brutal and more vulnerable than Vickers, but both interpretations are valid. One reviewer questioned the "greatness" of the opera -- for me, it's as good as the best of Puccini and Strauss, and only the greatest Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner operas surpass it. The source, by the way, is a poem (c. 1810) by George Crabbe, well worth reading.

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Not quite the desert island opera

There is much that is engaging in the production, staging and singing are consistanly on a high level. Davis is a marvelous conductor and his singers seem to embody the characters they portray. But having known this opera rather well for nearly 40 years, I find myself less and less convinced that it is a great work. It is certainly an effective dramatic vehicle and contains some of Britten's most striking music. Unfortunately, most of that is in the orchestral interludes. The vocal music, solos and ensembles suffer from a lack of direction except when Britten uses a short repeated phrase. The libretto itself contains much very awkward writing and Britten seems to choose the most awkward way of setting it. Many of the lines are directionless, shapeless and contrary to the shape needed to give the intended meaning to the text. He also introduces meaningless melismas at the most inopportune times. Since Britten was not a great melodist but rather an orchestral colorist his vocal lines do not become more natural with familiarity. They seem to become more forced and unnatural. This is particularily strange considering the composers prominance in the world of 20th century opera. One suspects that his reputation might fade as time goes on. Unquestionably a brilliant man, his work seems to emerge from a brilliant intellect rather than from a musical genius.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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