POETIC INJUSTICE
Tough opera, Peter Grimes. The story is of child abuse causing death. The composer (benjamin britten) and librettist (Montagu Slater) ask us to view the perpetrator as a tragic hero and the townspeople as hypocrites — even though, in seeking to protect the apprentices Grimes treats as chattel, they are transparently in the right.
britten complicates (or redeems) this moral morass with music of extraordinary originality and dramatic verve. We are gripped by the narrative, challenged by its ambiguities and somehow, ultimately, moved.
And often, at the Four Seasons centre, confused. yes, this is another case of director Knows best from a company that never met an opera it did not think it could improve on. And another spirited effort from a sturdy musical crew to sing their way out of a bad, bad business.
Never mind the seascape and storm that do so much to universalize this tale, set on the english coast in the 1830s. In this cOc co-production of Australian origin, all the scenes but one take place in a mid-20th-century community centre with workaday tables, stackable chairs and a standard-issue clock above the mandatory stage-withina-stage. The heave-ho with the ropes, the mending of nets, the carousing in the tavern, the spontaneous assemblies of the outraged populace — all of this unfolds in one drab interior, which, however striking at first for its verisimilitude, is memorable in the long run only for its ugliness.
And while the fisherman of the title (played on Saturday by Anthony dean Griffey rather than the ailing ben Heppner) remains the central figure of the opera, he is given a run for his money by a bearded silent character who stalks the proceedings and even helps with set changes. you must read the notes by director Neil Armfield to discover that this is George crabbe, the author of the poetry on which Peter Grimes is based, who does make a few cameos in the libretto but has nothing like the importance that he is given here.
Well, whatever. The cheers at the end were for the cast, and especially Griffey. High or low, soft or loud, his voice had ring and resonance. I can imagine more granitic projection of character, but not more musical métier. Hiring this experienced American tenor for the opening was a wise move.
bass-baritone Alan Held was another standout, maybe even shoutout, as captain balstrode. Soprano Ileana Montalbetti, an alumna of the cOc ensemble, made a threedimensional figure of ellen Orford, the only fully sympathetic character in the opera. The cOc chorus belted out with frightening intensity and supporting roles were crisply rendered.
cOc mus i c director Johannes debus seemed to have absorbed the score, drawing plenty of muscle from the orchestra but also capturing a feel for horizontal lyricism in the “From the gutter” quartet (a sweeter piece than the words suggest). It was not a bad night for the ears.
A final word about that allpurpose community centre. Possibly the creators of this
Peter Grimes (ralph Myers designed the set, Tess Schofield the costumes, while denni
Peter Grimes Sayers and Wendy Greenwood are credited with the direction and lighting of the revival) believe firmly in the value of updating the scenario and ignoring the maritime imagery of the music and the text.
but there is an economic imperative behind the trendy minimalism: building a production that can fit tightly in a container and be shipped over land and sea at the lowest possible cost. call it the curse of the co-production. Somebody should write an opera about it.