Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Met’s grim production of PETER GRIMES returns, featuring a shattering performance by Allan Clayton in the title role

• By drediman
• November 14, 2022
• No Comments

This weekend, I was able to attend the final performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s fall run of Peter Grimes. With music by British composer Benjamin Britten and libretto by Montagu Slater, the 1943 opera is undoubtedly one of the great operas of the twentieth century. Set in a small English coastal town circa 1830, the work specifically tells the story of a fisherman – the titular Peter Grimes – who undergoes intense, arguably unfair scrutiny by his community to tragic ends.

Thematically, the work explores the nature of compassion and abuse, as well as the consequences of small town mentality, which manifest themselves in a string of potent scenes that uncannily combine music and drama. Britten’s orchestral writing is especially exquisite, particularly in its evocation of the ocean and its many moods. Additionally, the opera features monumental choral numbers, allowing the awesome Met Chorus to shine, which they most certainly did. British tenor Allan Clayton returns to the Met after making a stunning debut as the anguished Danish prince in Brett Dean’s operatic adaptation of Hamlet. Here, he takes on another unhinged title character, and it’s bound to be one of his signature roles. As Grimes, Clayton wields his expressive tenor voice with scalpel-like precision, resulting in a shattering characterization that dives into terrifying psychological territory with frightening intensity (his final breakdown in Act Three is absolutely harrowing). Also worthy of mention is lovely Australian soprano Nicole Car, who in contrast brings steadfast strength to her portrayal of Ellen.

For all his trademark minimalism, director John Doyle utilizes the entire verticality of the Met’s massive proscenium to create striking stage pictures. It’s an altogether grim staging that points indiscreetly to the the work’s endgame tragedy. Its use of massive mobile walls to create claustrophobic spaces is especially effective in evoking the suffocating oppression suffered by Grimes’s troubled psyche. Throughout, Australian conductor Nicholas Carter does Britten’s score justice, bringing nuanced poetry and muscular power from the mighty Met Orchestra.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

PETER GRIMES
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours, 20 minutes (with two intermissions)
Closed