Customer Reviews

Britten - Peter Grimes / Atherton, Langridge, English National Opera

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having seen a 1996 revival of this production at the ENO (my first encounter with Grimes), I was anxiously awaiting this release on DVD. Am pleased to report it is as gripping and shattering an experience. Cast all around is up to the task, and orchestra superbly captures the rhythms of Britten's driving score. Sound and video are fine. Would have appreciated optional surtitles to help grasp all the words, but we're left at the mercy of singers' diction. All in all, an extraordinary evening in the theatre.

Langridge is the only tenor I've heard in the title role that equals the unforgettable performance of Jon Vickers. But the overall effect of this ENO performance is rather weak. The orchestra playing is tepid and I found the choral work on the ragged side. At the conclusion of the first act when the chorus questions, "Home. You call that home!", the crisp and stunning attack that can be heard in the Covent Garden DVD is lost but then again the ENO production doesn't have Colin Davis leading. The production is stylized and abstract, appearing to be from Peter's insane standpoint. which is a very compelling and valid concept.

I greatly admire Landridge's performance and singing here even if he's terribly flat for the beginning of the critical Great Bear and Pleiades aria, it is a compelling performance. I only wish the rest of the performance measured up to Landridge's effort.

I would stick with the Covent Garden DVD. Jon Vickers's Grimes was one of the great operatic characterizations of the 20th Century.

no subtitles, audio is just 2ch Dloby Digital. Kultur should have been done much better!
no complain about stage and musical