Warsaw Grand Theatre - Polish National Opera (Teatr Wielki) 7 June 2024 - Peter Grimes | GoComGo.com

Peter Grimes

Warsaw Grand Theatre - Polish National Opera (Teatr Wielki), Moniuszko Auditorium, Warsaw, Poland
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Friday 7 June 2024
7 PM

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Warsaw, Poland
Starts at: 19:00
Acts: 3
Intervals: 2
Duration: 3h 20min
Sung in: English
Titles in: Polish

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Overview

The story has a great deal in common with an ancient tragedy which, alongside the wonderful music, gives the piece a timeless quality.

It tells of a protagonist that is conflicted with social morals and conventions, a cruel fate that he cannot escape, and a punishment for his hubris. Grimes’s mysterious inability to fit in with his surroundings is played up and romanticized. Andrzej Tuchowski, Britten’s Polish biographer, wrote that Crabbe’a Grimes has psychopathic features, while Britten makes him a Byronic character. Although not a decadent romantic poet, he is a doomed man who will never find happiness in this world.

The fact that Benjamin Britten’s operas, which had until recently been rarely staged in Poland, are more and more often shown in this country can largely be credited to Mariusz Treliński who has a very high opinion of Britten’s music. It has been his intention for some time to put on Peter Grimes and as the artistic director of the Polish National Opera, he had had a hand in the company’s staging of Curlew River and Billy Budd (together with the Norwegian Opera and Ballet in Oslo).

Let us use our imagination and travel to Aldeburgh, a small fishing village in Suffolk on the east coast of England. The area was where composer Benjamin Britten was born and spent most of his life. He cherished the rocky coastline washed by crashing waves of the North Sea, the harbor at the mouth of the Alde River, and the town clinging to the church walls. Having spent a few years in America, where he fled in fear of war (he was a declared pacifist) and lived off writing film music, Britten decided to return to England together with his partner tenor Peter Pears, leaving behind in New York a less patriotically inclined friend poet W.H. Auden. Britten and Pears settled in Aldeburgh, which became their private Arcadia and a place where they founded an intimate festival in 1948 that is regularly held until this day.

Aldeburgh was also where poet George Crabbe lived and worked at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and whose poem The Borough captivated young Britten. Its protagonist, a violent recluse by the name of Peter Grimes has been ostracised by the fishing community of Aldeburgh. The subject seized Britten’s imagination and in 1945 he completed his first opera titled Peter Grimes, entering the world of stage music with a bang. Instantly after its London opening, in which Peter Pears sang the title role, Grimes was classed as a masterpiece for its refreshing, both eclectic, and very individual musical language. England was to become an operatic powerhouse yet again – having discovered his vocation, Britten was writing one opera after another, including The Rape of Lucretia, the wonderful Billy Budd, the comedic Albert Herring, Death in Venice after Thomas Mann, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw, the television opera Owen Wingrave, and a chamber masterpiece for children Let’s Make An Opera.

Peter Grimes is a work of incredible dramatic power, soaked in sea salt and north winds. It is a tale of a man who lives off fishing, raw, reticent, and eager to make money, yet at odds with the local community who accuses him of brutality towards his young apprentice and blames him for the death of one of them. The few friends who stand up for him are Ellen Orford, a widow whom Grimes wants to marry, Balstrode, a retired sea captain, and apothecary Keene. But even they cannot defend Grimes when it turns out that the fisherman contributed to the death of another minor apprentice who had died in an accident. This time Grimes must accept the blame – he sets out to sea on his own.

History
Premiere of this production: 07 June 1945, Sadler`s Wells, London

Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the narrative poem, "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's book The Borough. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional village which shares some similarities with Crabbe's, and later Britten's, own home of Aldeburgh, a town on England's east coast.

Synopsis

Prologue

A Suffolk coastal village, mid-19th century (The date is not specified, but the foghorn in Act III places it later than the date of Crabbe's poem)

Peter Grimes is questioned at an inquest over the death at sea of his apprentice. The townsfolk, all present, make it clear that they think Grimes is guilty and deserving of punishment. Although the coroner, Mr Swallow, determines the boy's death to be accidental and clears Grimes without a proper trial, he advises Grimes not to get another apprentice—a proposal against which Grimes vigorously protests. As the court is cleared, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress whom Grimes wishes to marry as soon as he gains the Borough's respect, attempts to comfort Grimes as he rages against what he sees as the community's unwillingness to give him a true second chance.

Act 1

The same, some days later

After the first orchestral Interlude (in the Four Sea Interludes concert version entitled "Dawn"), the chorus, who constitute "the Borough", sing of their weary daily round and their relationship with the sea and the seasons. Grimes calls for help to haul his boat ashore, but is shunned by most of the community. Belatedly, Balstrode and the apothecary, Ned Keene, assist Grimes by turning the capstan. Keene tells Grimes that he has found him a new apprentice (named John) from the workhouse. Nobody will volunteer to fetch the boy, until Ellen offers ("Let her among you without fault...").

As a storm approaches, most of the community—after securing windows and equipment—take shelter in the pub. Grimes stays out, and alone with Balstrode confesses his ambitions: to make his fortune with a "good catch", buy a good home and marry Ellen Orford. Balstrode suggests "without your booty Ellen will have you now", only to provoke Grimes's furious "No, not for pity!" Balstrode abandons Grimes to the storm, as the latter ruminates "What harbour shelters peace?" The storm then breaks with a vengeance (second orchestral Interlude).

In the pub, tensions are rising due both to the storm and to the fiery Methodist fisherman, Bob Boles, getting increasingly drunk and lecherous after the pub's main attraction, the two "nieces". Grimes suddenly enters ("Now the Great Bear and Pleiades..."), and his wild appearance unites almost the entire community in their fear and mistrust of his "temper". Ned Keene saves the situation by starting a round ("Old Joe has gone fishing"). Just as the round reaches a climax, Ellen arrives with the apprentice, both drenched. Grimes immediately sets off with the apprentice to his hut, despite the terrible storm.

Act 2

The same, some weeks later

On Sunday morning (the third orchestral Interlude), while most of the Borough is at church, Ellen talks with John, the apprentice. She is horrified when she finds a bruise on his neck. When she confronts Grimes about it, he brusquely claims that it was an accident. Growing agitated at her mounting concern and interference, he strikes her and runs off with the boy. This does not go unseen: first Keene, Auntie, and Bob Boles, then the chorus comment on what has happened, the latter developing into a mob to investigate Grimes's hut. As the men march off, Ellen, Auntie, and the nieces sing sadly of the relationship of women with men. The fourth interlude (Passacaglia) follows as the scene changes.

At the hut, Grimes impatiently drives the ever silent John into changing out of his Sunday clothes and into fisherman's gear, and then becomes lost in his memories of his previous, now dead apprentice, reliving the boy's death of thirst. When he hears the mob of villagers approaching, he quickly comes back to reality, stirred both by a paranoid belief that John has been "gossiping" with Ellen, so provoking the "odd procession", and at the same time feeling defiant. He gets ready to set out to sea, and he tells John to be careful climbing down the cliff to his boat, but to no avail: the boy falls to his death. When the mob reaches the hut Grimes is gone, and they find nothing out of order, so they disperse.

Act 3

The same, two days later, night time in the Borough ("Moonlight" in the Sea Interludes).

While a dance is going on, Mrs Sedley tries to convince the authorities that Grimes is a murderer, but to no avail. Ellen and Captain Balstrode confide in each other: Grimes has disappeared, and Balstrode has discovered a jersey washed ashore: a jersey that Ellen recognises as one she had knitted for John. Mrs Sedley overhears this, and with the knowledge that Grimes has returned, she is able to instigate another mob. Singing "Him who despises us we'll destroy", the villagers go off in search of Grimes. The sixth interlude, not included in the Sea Interludes, covers the change of scene.

While the chorus can be heard searching for him, Grimes appears onstage, singing a long monologue sparsely accompanied by cries from the off-stage chorus, and a fog horn (represented by a solo tuba): John's death has seemingly shattered Grimes's sanity. Ellen and Balstrode find him, and the old captain encourages Grimes to take his boat out to sea and sink it. Grimes leaves. The next morning, the Borough begins its day anew, as if nothing has happened. There is a report from the coastguard of a ship sinking off the coast. This is dismissed by Auntie as "one of these rumours."

Venue Info

Warsaw Grand Theatre - Polish National Opera (Teatr Wielki) - Warsaw
Location   plac Teatralny 1

The Grand Theatre in Warsaw is a theatre and opera complex situated on the historic Theatre Square in central Warsaw. The Warsaw Grand Theatre is home to the Polish National Ballet and is one of the largest theatrical venues in the world.

The Theatre was built on Theatre Square between 1825 and 1833, replacing the former building of Marywil, from Polish classicist designs by the Italian architect Antonio Corazzi of Livorno, to provide a new performance venue for existing opera, ballet and drama companies active in Warsaw. The building was remodeled several times and, in the period of Poland's political eclipse from 1795 to 1918, it performed an important cultural and political role in producing many works by Polish composers and choreographers.

It was in the new theatre that Stanisław Moniuszko's two best-known operas received their premieres: the complete version of Halka (1858), and The Haunted Manor (1865). After Frédéric Chopin, Moniuszko was the greatest figure in 19th-century Polish music, for in addition to producing his own works, he was director of the Warsaw Opera from 1858 until his death in 1872.

While director of the Grand Theatre, Moniuszko composed The Countess, Verbum Nobile, The Haunted Manor and Paria, and many songs that make up 12 Polish Songbooks.

Also, under Moniuszko's direction, the wooden Summer Theatre was built close by in the Saxon Garden. Summer performances were given annually, from the repertories of the Grand and Variety (Rozmaitości) theatres. Józef Szczublewski writes that during this time, even though the country had been partitioned out of political existence by its neighbors, the theatre flourished: "the ballet roused the admiration of foreign visitors; there was no equal troupe of comedians to be found between Warsaw and Paris, and Modrzejewska was an inspiration to drama."

The theatre presented operas by Władysław Żeleński, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski and other Polish composers, as well as ballet productions designed by such choreographers as Roman Turczynowicz, Piotr Zajlich and Feliks Parnell. At the same time, the repertoire included major world opera and ballet classics, performed by the most prominent Polish and foreign singers and dancers. It was also here that the Italian choreographer Virgilius Calori produced Pan Twardowski (1874), which (in the musical arrangement first of Adolf Sonnenfeld and then of Ludomir Różycki) has for years been part of the ballet company's repertoire.

During the 1939 battle of Warsaw, the Grand Theatre was bombed and almost completely destroyed, with only the classical façade surviving. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 the Germans shot civilians in the burnt-out ruins. The plaque to the right of the main entrance commemorates the suffering and heroism of the victims of fascism.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Warsaw, Poland
Starts at: 19:00
Acts: 3
Intervals: 2
Duration: 3h 20min
Sung in: English
Titles in: Polish
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