Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten

A subject dear to me – the fight of the individual against the masses. The more cruel the society is, the more cruel the individual becomes. So has Benjamin Britten defined Peter Grimes premiered in London, in 1945, his first opera to gather public and critical acclaim and nowadays regularly performed.  Largely inspired by ‘The Borough’, a George Crabbe’s long narrative poem, the plot unfolds in a fictitious fishing village somewhere in the eastern seaboard of England surely similar to Aldeburg, a place where Crabbe grew up and Britten lived till his death.

The music revolves around a tormented relation between the fisherman Grimes and his community and tragedy erupts when he is questioned about the death of one of his apprentices. Now socially excluded it is left to the audience to decide the true nature of Peter Grimes.

Director | David Alden

Revival director | Ian Rutherford

Set designer | Paul Steinberg

Costume designer | Brigitte Reiffenstuel

Light designer | Adam Silverman

Choreographer | Maxine Braham

Conductor | Graeme Jenkins

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Peter Grimes | John Graham-Hall

Ellen Orford | Emily Newton

Balstrode | Jonathan Summers

Auntie | Rebecca de Pont Davies

Niece 1 | Bárbara Barradas

Niece 2 | Mariana Castello-Branco

Bob Boles | James Kryshak

Swallow | Graeme Danby

Mrs. Sedley | Maria Luísa de Freitas

Reverend Horace Adams | Carlos Guilherme

Ned Keene | João Merino

Hobson | Nuno Dias

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CORO DO TEATRO NACIONAL DE SÃO CARLOS

Principal Conductor | Giovanni Andreoli

ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA PORTUGUESA

Principal Conductor | Joana Carneiro

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Production | English National Opera, co-production with De Vlaamse Opera, Ópera de Oviedo and Deutsche Oper Berlin

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Photography credits | Robert Workman