Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes - Deborah Warner

• Conductor

  Alexander Soddy

• Music

  Benjamin Britten
  (1913 - 1976)

• Libretto

  Montagu Slater

• Director

  Deborah Warner

• Set design

  Michael Levine

• Costume design

  Luis F. Carvalho

• Lighting design

  Peter Mumford

• Video

  Justin Nardella

• Contributor to the movements

  Kim Brandstrup

• Chorus master

  Ching-Lien Wu

When Benjamin Britten produced his first opera, Peter Grimes, for the reopening of Sadler’s Wells in London in 1945, its success was both immediate and resounding. Drawing inspiration from a poem by George Crabbe, the British composer did more than simply set to music the text by his compatriot: this work signalled a renaissance in English opera, which had all but disappeared since the death of Purcell. Whilst Britten’s superb orchestral interludes and accomplished lyricism confer upon the work a classical quality, its subject is thoroughly disturbing. Who is this Suffolk fisherman, Peter Grimes, whose apprentice drowns at sea; the butt of the villagers’ hostility? A murderer or an innocent man? A child‑killer or the victim of prejudice? An anti‑hero or a poet? These are some of the questions that make this character one of the most fascinating in the operatic repertoire. Invited to the Paris Opera for the first time and a fine connoisseur of Britten, Deborah Warner preserves all the mystery of this complex work, whilst emphasising the conflict between the group and the individual – a particularly burning issue.

Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Coproduction avec le Teatro Real, Madrid, le Royal Opera House covent garden, Londres et le teatro dell'opera, Rome

Broadcast on February 25 at 8 pm on France Musique, as part of the program "Samedi à l'Opéra", presented by Judith Chaine.

Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes - Deborah Warner

• Peter Grimes

  Allan Clayton

• Ellen Orford

  Maria Bengtsson

• Captain Balstrode

  Simon Keenlyside

• Auntie

  Catherine Wyn-Rogers

• First Niece

  Anna-Sophie Neher

• Second Niece

  Ilanah Lobel-Torres

• Bob Boles

  John Graham-Hall

• Swallow

  Clive Bayley

• Mrs. Sedley

  Rosie Aldridge

• Reverend Horace Adams

  James Gilchrist

• Ned Keene

  Jacques Imbrailo

• Hobson

  Stephen Richardson