100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act-By-Act Synopses (50 page)

PETER GRIMES

Opera in prologue and three acts by Benjamin
Britten with libretto in English by Montagu
Slater based on the narrative poem “The
Borough” by George Crabbe.

Time: before 1830

Place: The Borough, a small fishing town on the East Coast

First performance in London, June 7, 1945

    
Peter Grimes
, first produced in 1945, is the second of Britten’s eight operas, the others being
Paul Bunyan
(1941),
The Rape of Lucretia
(1946),
Albert Herring
(1947),
Let’s Make an Opera
(1949),
Billy Budd
(1951),
Gloriana
(1953), and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
(1960). All, with the exception of the first, were received with at least a good measure of critical acclaim, but none of them, with the possible exception
of the children’s
Let’s Make an Opera
, seems to stand much chance of frequent revival.
Peter Grimes
is the one that had the widest international acceptance in its first years, being produced all over Europe, and in North and South America.

It was commissioned for Tanglewood by the Koussevitzky Foundation, and it was hailed, by some critics, as the finest English opera since Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas
(see
this page
). Its fine orchestral interludes and preludes are still sometimes played at concerts; yet it has not kept the stage in its entirety. One can only guess at the reason. It is a masterly piece of writing, but it is difficult to take warmly to one’s heart. One reason may be its sombre, rather repellent subject matter; another may be the involved, almost tortured language of the libretto, which is based on George Crabbe’s thoughtful and compassionate series of poetic letters descriptive of life in his native Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Whatever its faults, it remains one of the most interesting of modern operas in terms of the musico-dramatic problems it seeks to solve.

PROLOGUE

In the moot hall, or local court, of The Borough, a small town on the East Coast during the opening years of the 19th century, an inquest is being held. Lawyer Swallow swears in the principal witness, Peter Grimes, who tells haltingly how his apprentice had died on a fishing trip. They had had a huge catch, but the wind blew them off their course, drinking water ran out, and after three days the boy died. On his return, Peter cried for help; and the people immediately showing enmity, he abused Mrs. Sedley, the town’s strait-laced old busybody who is very wealthy and known as “Mrs. Nabob.” eventually, the widowed schoolmistress, Mrs. Ellen Orford (who is the nearest thing to a heroine in this opera), helped Peter carry the body home.

Through this brief, swift scene, the dramatic line-up is quickly made clear. Grimes is a peculiar, silent, gruff man thoroughly distrusted by almost the entire village, but pitied
and befriended by Ellen and understood only by Balstrode, a retired merchant skipper. Peter is advised not to take on any more boys as assistants—or to get a woman to look after him if he does. A woman is precisely what Peter aspires to have, and Ellen specifically. This becomes clear when the couple are left alone; but it also becomes clear in their duet that until he has cleared his name and reputation, he feels too bitter about the town gossips to tie her to himself.

ACT I

Scene 1
Several days later, there is the usual crowd on the street by the sea, outside the “Boar Tavern,” with the moot hall on one side and Ned Keene’s apothecary shop on the other. The retired sea captain, Balstrode, sits on the breakwater eyeing a coming storm; fishermen are welcomed into the “Boar” by Auntie; a methodistical fellow, named Bob Boles, refuses to have anything to do with them; Ned Keene joshes Auntie about the two girls who are the main attraction of her pub and whom she refers to as her “nieces”; “Mrs. Nabob” tries secretly to get more laudanum from Keene; and everyone busily comments on the scene and on the worsening weather. Among the crowd is the figure of Dr. Crabbe (the respected physician who wrote fine books which inspired this opera). Amidst all this, Grimes asks for help in hauling up his boat, but only Balstrode and Keene will give him a hand. The latter tells him he has secured a new boy for him from the workhouse, but that he will have to be called for. Hobson, the carter, refuses to do this job, giving the excuse that he cannot supervise the boy and do all his other errands as well; but Ellen saves the day—much to almost everyone’s disapproval—by offering to go along and take care of the lad. She even turns on the crowd and in an aria
(Let her among you without fault)
lectures them for their lack of Christianity.

The storm is rising now in earnest, both on the stage and in the orchestra pit, and after a large concerted number on this subject
(Look out for squalls)
, the stage is left alone to Grimes and Balstrode. The retired captain advises Peter to
leave the village and enlist with a merchantman, but the grim young man is bound to fight his fight against the village, win over its respect by prospering, and then marry Ellen. “She’ll have you now,” suggests Balstrode. But Grimes will not be married out of pity, and he grows angry at the older man for tendering him good advice. And when Balstrode goes off to help Auntie shutter up her pub, Grimes closes the scene with a passage in which he passionately yearns for the comfort of Ellen’s breast.

Scene 2
The interlude depicts the storm growing ever stronger, and it is still raging when the curtain goes up on the inside of the “Boar” at 10.30 that night. “Mrs. Nabob” is there hoping to get her laudanum from Keene; the two “nieces” come in in their night-clothes, afraid of the storm; and the methodistical Boles, now quite drunk, tries to make passes at them. Fortunately, Captain Balstrode is there to keep him under control.

Grimes comes stumbling in out of the storm without the oilskins all the others are wearing, and looking like a thing completely apart. That is how he is treated, and when he sings a strange song about the stars and the storm
(Now the great Bear)
, the drunken Boles decides the man has sold his soul to the devil and tries to hit him over the head with a bottle. Balstrode intervenes once more, and peace is temporarily restored as everyone breaks into an elaborate and effective round concerning fishing, three strikingly different tunes being sung simultaneously. But when the strong tenor voice of Peter takes up the round alone with a saturnine variation on the words, the others recoil temporarily in horror, then take it up again. At the climax, Hobson the carter breaks in accompanied by Ellen and the new boy for Grimes; and the scene closes as Grimes insists on taking the boy home directly, despite the storm and despite the fact that it has washed away the cliff outside his house.

ACT II

Scene 1
It is several weeks later and a fine, sunny Sunday morning, as the music of the intermezzo (or Act II Prelude) suggests. Ellen is outside the church, whence issue sounds, now and again, of the music of the service and even a portion of the sermon. Ellen sits knitting, sings philosophically about the weather, and speaks comfortingly to little John, Grimes’s new apprentice, who stands gloomily by never uttering a sound. Presently she discovers a tear in his coat and a bruise on his neck. Peter, she realizes, has been maltreating the boy despite his promises to reform. The gloomy fisherman comes in to get the boy to go out in his boat and roughly repulses Ellen when she asks that the child be allowed to rest on Sunday at least. No, says Peter, he must solve his problems by “lonely toil,” by amassing wealth, and forcing the good opinion of The Borough. In despair, Ellen declares that this plan is not a good one, that they have failed together. Peter cries out in anguish, strikes the woman he thought would save him, and runs off after John.

But Boles, Keene, and Auntie have overheard some of this quarrel, and they come out from their shops and sing a trio—
Grimes is at his exercise
. Gradually the stage fills with the congregation from the church, and a strong feeling against Grimes is again worked up despite Ellen’s attempts to explain what had happened. The chorus works up to a pitch where they feel sure that murder is afoot, and a party of men is organized to go to Grimes’s place expecting to find him doing something dreadful. Even the respected Balstrode cannot dissuade them, especially after the Rector is persuaded that something must be done. Only Auntie, her “nieces,” and Ellen remain behind to sing a quartet about the childishness of men:

Shall we smile or shall we weep

Or wait quietly till they sleep?

Scene 2
Grimes’s hut turns out to be only an upturned boat, but it is in ship-shape order. There are two doors—one
to the road, the other to the cliff that, as we have heard, has been recently washed away in the storm. Peter shoves the boy into the hut and throws his sea-going clothes towards him. The boy only sniffles, and Peter has a long aria in which he speaks of his ambition to have a good home with Ellen and with children of theirs. But at its close, he seems to be haunted by a vision of the boy who had died in the boat. Just then he hears the posse on its way up. He thinks the boy has been complaining about him, and rudely pushes him out of the hut on the cliff side. Then he climbs out after him—and we hear a terrible scream: the boy has fallen down the cliff that isn’t there. But the posse has not heard it; and when they come snooping in, they are only impressed with the neatness and innocent appearance of the hut. Ironically, Swallow is inspired to comment that this should put an end to the anti-Grimes gossip; but Balstrode, looking out of the hut on the cliff side, remains there after the others depart.

ACT III

Scene 1
After a quiet prelude, descriptive of the moonlight, the curtain rises on the street outside the “Boar Tavern.” It is an evening several days later, and first a polka, later a waltz, is heard as it is danced at the tavern. Outside, the drunken Swallow makes heavy-handed advances to the “nieces,” and when they have escaped him, Mrs. Sedley tries to impress Ned Keene with her suspicions about Grimes and his new apprentice, who have not been seen for two days. Keene only laughs at her. Then, after a group of respectable folk have said goodnight to the Rector and Dr. Crabbe, Ellen and Balstrode come in, much worried. Though Peter has been missing two days, his boat is still on land, and Ellen has found the boy’s jersey, all wet. They fear the worst, and go off, rather hopelessly, to try to help him. Mrs. Sedley then seeks out Swallow, insists that Grimes’s disappearance without his boat clearly points to murder, and finally manages to work up the people to a point where they are ready to form another posse to go after the outcast.

Scene 2
After a strange intermezzo, suggesting the madness that is finally descending on Peter Grimes, we see him, several hours later, beside his boat. Off-stage, the calling of the posse is heard now and again, as he has a long, weird scene by himself. He sings of the sea, refers to the deaths of his apprentices, imagines he is again with Ellen, curses his persecutors and defies them. Ellen and Balstrode come upon him there; and over Ellen’s protest, Balstrode—quietly and in a speaking voice—advises Peter to take his boat out to sea and sink with it. In a kind of trance, and with Balstrode’s help, Peter launches his boat.

Dawn comes, and with it the mob enters and disperses. Life in the fishing village starts again; Swallow notes that the coastguard reports a boat sinking at sea; they decide it is just a rumor; and everyone goes about his business.

PORGY AND BESS

Opera in three acts by George Gershwin with
libretto in English by DuBose Heyward and Ira
Gershwin, based on the play
Porgy
by DuBose
and Dorothy Heyward