Customer Reviews

Britten - Peter Grimes / Davis, Vickers, Harper, Bailey, Royal Opera Covent Garden

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I find it amazing that no one has bought this dvd or just hasn't taken the time to share comments on the performance. The staging is austere but very effective. The singing is excellent right down to the smallest rolls. And Vickers owns the role of Peter Grimes probably for ever. Granted his voice is not to everyone's taste but we can say this about any major singer. Colin Davis does great by the orchestra and everyone is in stride with the drama of the piece. I hoped this doens't become an underated and under appreciated performance. It deserves much more. This dvd belongs in every one's collection even if they don't like mid twentieth century opera. This is a classic!

To the casual listener, Britten may be an acquired taste. And this opera is probably the most accessible of all Britten's works - in other words, a good place to start. In my opinion, it's an unforgettable experience, one that only grows on you with rehearing.

It's a grim story of a fisherman ill at ease with others. He's lost an apprentice at sea and is suspected of having physcally abused the boy. While one woman, Ellen Orford, tries to be his friend, the village gives him no room in their busy, opinionated, suspicious world. He is a monster, unwelcome in their tight little society, a creature to be feared and shunned. When Grimes acquires a new apprentice we know the results will be tragic.

In this recording, the title role is portrayed by Jon Vickers who made this one of his personal triumphs. To see it as well as hear the magnificent singing more than doubles the satisfaction of the performance.

I remember hearing the premiere radio broadcast of this piece from the Met when I was a teenager - I'm in my 70's now. Even then its strange story mesmerized me. Now, after many hearings, it is a joy to finally see what my imagination could not conjure up.

This performance is intense, focused, brooding, in every way "seaworthy" for anyone who turns to opera for a musical experience that is both beautiful and terrible. The fate of Peter Grimes will stay with you long after the credits have run.

I was incredibly moved by this DVD. Peter Grimes is a masterpiece, one of the all time great operas. Britten's music has the dark orchestration of Verdi, the lushness of Puccini, but he brings it all together into his own unique and thoroughly modern sound. John Vickers is sometimes painful to watch, so deeply does he invoke the tormented soul-searching of the title character. Perhaps no opera since Otello(with the exception perhaps of Strauss' Elektra and Berg's Wozzeck) has captured alienation so well, but Peter Grimes is even more alone than Verdi's title character. Like Otello, as well as Elektra and Wozzeck, Grimes is unsympathetic in a lot of ways, but that's what makes him human, and we feel for him just the same. This production is just exquisite.

Peter Grimes is one of my "desert island" all time favorite operas. It is an incredible piece of music. Jon Vickers is, to my taste, the finest tenor I have ever heard and his portrayal in this opera is one of his greatest performances. I have seen him (live) in the opera on five occasions and only wish that I could have seen him perform it even more. It is true, as another reviewer noted, that Britten himself didn't like Vickers' interpretation (Vickers being a much different type of singer than Peter Pears for whom Britten wrote the opera) and Vickers has changed a bit of the text in the second act scene in his hut. But, with all due respect to the genius of Britten, I think Vickers' interpretation (and his text changes) are definitely for the better. Vickers makes Peter Grimes more fearsome than Pears did (at least comparing recordings, I never saw Pears perform the opera) but in Crabbe's original poem, Grimes is a pretty fearsome person.

The contrast between the lyrical and beautiful music and the difficult anti-hero, Peter Grimes, is stunning. Vickers is perfect as the pathetic and frightening Grimes. Heather Harper is beautiful as the woman who tries to hold it together and fails.

The sets are simple, but effective. Every actor plays his or her part well; there are no weak links. While it is a story about Grimes, each of the minor characters is carefully deliniated and you feel as if you know the narrow and limited world of this small fishing village by the end of the opera. All the voices are perfect for the roles. It is difficult to imagine a finer production.

Benjamin Britten wrote the role of Grimes for Peter Pears (who sings it on the Decca recording of the opera), a much lighter voice than Vickers. Britten reportedly disliked the Davis/Vickers production. No one else does, though. Heather Harper (the superb soprano soloist on Colin Davis's 1965 Messiah on Philips) is an excellent Ellen (better than her Decca counterpart, Claire Watson) and the whole production is first-rate. If you enjoy the opera, pick up the Decca recording too -- Britten himself conducts atmospherically, Pears is very moving in the title role -- less brutal and more vulnerable than Vickers, but both interpretations are valid. One reviewer questioned the "greatness" of the opera -- for me, it's as good as the best of Puccini and Strauss, and only the greatest Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner operas surpass it. The source, by the way, is a poem (c. 1810) by George Crabbe, well worth reading.

Although I don't agree that Peter Grimes is one of the greatest operas of all times, it certainly has its powerful moments. Britten is quite successful at creating an oppressive mood and a kind of generalized expression, but the lyrical moments are disappointingly devoid of melodic profile, and Grimes last soliloquy is a kind of bare, aimless arioso devoid of musical interest.

In any event, the performance is first rate. In fact, it is hard to imagine how it could be significantly improved on. All of the characters are clearly delineated, and the performers act well. Jon Vickers is his usual intense and powerful self, although I find his mealy pronunciation a little annoying. Heather Harper and Norman Bailey stand out, as does the chorus. Most of the time I was drawn into the performance. Colin Davis' conducting is also intense, the balances are good, and the tricky rhythms are handled confidently (if not flawlessly).

The picture and sound quality are quite good for an early-80s production. It is nice to have English subtitles for an opera sung in English, as one can take in the whole experience without struggling to understand the text.

The Opera "Peter Grimes" by Benjamin Britten is indeed well suited to John Vickers and associated cast in this wonderful production by the Royal Opera House, Covent garden. John Vickers is brilliant in his portrayal of this tragic character...perfectly cast for the part, he conveys the life of Peter Grimes with powerful clarity, and so we are moved to witness this character's struggle to survive in his surroundings, ever sabotaged by his own nature, and subsequently those in the village who refuse to understand, or even help him from himself. His one dear friend, Ellen Orford, (portrayed wonderfully by Heather Harper), is perhaps his only way to salvation, and yet even she is thwarted by Peter's determination to do what he will.

An Opera to watch again and again, with many glorious moments, one in particular is when Peter sings his song in the village pub, beginning with " Now the Great Bear and Pleiades", a most poignant and beautiful refrain.

I regard this production as the definitive version of this Opera by Benjamin Britten, It is absolutely "right"!

Stephen Moore.

i believe that Peter Grimes it is one of the defining works of the 20th century, and the performing of Vickers,Harper,Bailey it is outstanding,but we should not forget the other roles of Dobson, Robinson,Bainbridge and others in their little pàrts,but which are so fundamental to make us feel in a place where you see all the bad side of the human society, collectively and individually, with the kindness being cheated. A must see to everyone who wants to know why opera,when is done at this level of performance, is the mistress of arts.

The Jon Vickers performance of Peter Grimes is regarded as a real alternative to the classical Pears recording, and so, musically, it is. What is disappointing, though, about this DVD for the contemporary viewer and listener is the drabness and gloom of the set and the poor quality of the sound recording. The singing and the orchestra are excellent, but are inadequately conveyed by the primitive technology of this version.Britten - Peter Grimes / Davis, Vickers, Harper, Bailey, Royal Opera Covent Garden