Hobson - Dean Peterson,
Swallow - John Del Carlo,
Peter Grimes - Anthony Dean Griffey,
Mrs Sedley - Felicity Palmer,
Ellen Orford - Patricia Racette,
Auntie - Jill Grove,
Bob Boles - Greg Fedderly,
Captain Balstrode - Anthony Michaels-Moore,
Rev. Horace Adams - Bernard Fitch,
Two Nieces - Leah Partridge, Erin Morley,
Ned Keene - Teddy Tahu Rhodes,
Boy - Logan William Erickson
Anthony Dean Griffey and Patricia Racette excel in John Doyle's new production of Britten's most celebrated opera, Peter Grimes - filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera.
This new MET production by award-winning director John Doyle (2006 Tony Award® Best Direction of a Musical - Sweeney Todd) of Britten's haunting seaside tale continues EMI Classics' recent collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera : Live in High-Definition series.
Peter Grimes, Britten's second opera, is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of postwar opera, and its premiere 63 years ago marked a turning point in the history of British Opera. It is now considered a masterwork of 20th Century opera, and since its premiere, it became the first opera by an English composer to enter and remain in the international repertory.
The work is based on a poem by the turn-of-the-19th-century writer George Crabbe entitled The Borough, and is set in an isolated English fishing village in the 1830s. Much of the emotional drive of the opera comes from the six 'Sea Interludes' - calm, storm, at dawn and by moonlight. These are among the most brilliantly evocative music that Britten ever wrote and which help to establish the constant, overpowering presence of the sea as the opera's dominant force.
Anthony Dean Griffey, as Grimes, is 'superb' (San Francisco Chronicle). Patricia Racette, as Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress who tries and fails to rescue Grimes from his anger and self-pity is 'near faultless' (New York Sun).
Donald Runnicles, music director of the San Francisco Opera, "drew an inspired performance from the Met Orchestra, full of passion and commitment yet free of bombast. Without slackening the dramatic tension, he found ways of drawing out both the music's austere lyricism and its violent extremes." - Boston Globe "The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual" - Benjamin Britten (commenting on Peter Grimes after its premiere in 1945)
Wholenote Review
Last year’s MET production of Peter Grimes, as seen live in high definition on movie screens around the world, is available on an EMI DVD exactly as seen live, plus interviews and behind the scenes activities (2 DVDs). Donald Runnicles conducts with Anthony Dean Giffey perfectly cast as the unfortunate Grimes. Watching at home is quite an experience, arguably better than sitting in the opera house, especially with the (optional) English subtitles to clarify the text. Bruce Surtees
