Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at the San Diego Opera (18 April 2009)

Steuart Bedford conducts Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes with San Diego Symphony Orchestra & Opera Chorus: Anthony Dean Griffrey (Peter Grimes), Ellen Orford (Jennifer Casey Cabot), Rodney Gilfry (Capt. Balstrode), John Del Carlo (Swallow), Andrew Collis (Hobson), Kristopher Irmiter (Ned Keene), Janice Meyerson (Mrs. Sedley), Judith Christin (Auntie), Spike Sommers (Boy). Directed by: John Copley.

One of the pleasures I find in going to performances at the San Diego Opera is the Director, Ian Campbell,'s habit of throwing in a rarely performed work that isn't a part of the standard repertoire every season. This year it is Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, a musically interesting and dramatically challenging opera about a social misfit's struggle against a society longing to prosecute him for suspicion of abusive behavior toward his young apprentices (especially since he doesn't appear all that sorry for it).

To tell the truth, this isn't exactly the sort of work I'd try to introduce a newcomer to the opera with. It is really more like a sung stage play with each scene (except for the first one) being introduced and connected with 6 gorgeously descriptive 'Sea Interludes'. In order to really appreciate this opera, you really have to listen to these instrumental scene/mood-setters and 'see' what they tell you... since the vocal part of the work doesn't really contain 'songs' that will stick and keep replaying your head the way Verdi's Rigoletto does.

The current production of the opera at the San Diego Civic Theater is a traditionally set one directed by John Copley. It is an inoffensive production if not a really remarkable one... This opera has so many choral parts that the stage is filled with singers for much of the time and Mr. Copley probably had his handful just directing traffic. He moved the chorus on and off the stage well and got good to excellent acting out of most of his cast members. Though... I kept thinking to myself as I watched the show progress that if any opera out there can really benefit from a minimalistic conceptual staging rather than a traditional one, Britten's Peter Grimes is it. With the title role being such an anti-hero of highly ambiguous character who spends much of the opera working himself and his boy apprentice to the ground trying to buy the townfolks' good will with riches... I can just imagine what a poster boy for what the consequences of having too much faith in capitalism to the point of disregarding one's humanity this character from George Crabbe's poem, The Borough, that Britten had dedicated an entire opera to could be... And how that added 'abstract thought-inducing' element could help to make the story more gripping to its new audience.

Anyhow, traditional staging that does nothing more than setting the place and time of the story is what we have in this show and so if fell on the cast to deliver the drama, which, on opening night, proved rather elusive for me mostly due to my inability to relate strongly to Anthony Dean Griffrey's portrayal of Peter Grimes. He was fine to excellent on the singing front, to be sure... showcasing a very pleasant bright and lyrical tenor handled with great control - varying his dynamics with ease and with good dramatic sense. On the theatrical front, however, the man just didn't dominate the stage even though his large physique and ample head of blond hair made him easy to pick out among the crowd. Theatrically he was actually out-acted by Spike Sommers, the young boy actor who turned in a convincing portrayal of Grimes' ill-fated last apprentice - proving himself equally gripping in his stillness as he was in action.

I suppose there are two ways of playing Grimes convincingly; as a monstrous man whose demise you would cheer for louder and louder as the opera progresses, or as a decent man suffering from a hideous string of bad luck and is wrongly pre-judged and prosecuted by the holier-than-thou townfolks. Mr. Griffrey's Grimes on opening night was neither... and the...er... ambiguity of the man just wasn't dramatically compelling enough to create a memorable character for me.

As Ellen Orford, the kindly woman who remains Grimes' friend even when he doesn't deserve it, is the beautiful Jennifer Casey Cabot. A good actress whose voice was rather strained against the rather loud chorus and orchestra on opening night. Her lower range was under-projected all evening long and the top betrayed a rather prominently pulsating vibrato especially when under pressure. Janice Meyerson sung well as Mrs. Sedley and provided much of the comic reliefs through out the evening (though she also had trouble projecting her low notes during the final act, the rest of her voice sounded good to me). Kristopher Irmiter, John Del Carlo, Andrew Collis, and Judith Christin were beyond reproach in their supporting roles of Ned Keene, Swallow, Hobson, and Auntie.

The star of the evening for yours truly, though, was Rodney Gilfry's superb showing as Capt. Balstrode, one of the few characters in the opera who is willing to hear Grimes' side of the story and who refuse to mistake gossips for trustworthy testimonies. Though his physique isn't as easy to pick out from a stage-ful of villagers (and neither were his blue captain's coat and trousers), Mr. Gilfry has such an understatedly strong stage-presence that I almost wondered why the opera wasn't named 'Balstrode' rather than 'Peter Grimes'. His portrayal was utterly sympathetic and multi-faceted - completely convincing without stealing any scene that he wasn't suppose to dominate in. The music posed no trouble for his strong baritone and his embodiment of the character was so complete that I actually forgot that he was a singing operatic character rather than a normal real life seafarer!

The musically challenging opera was mostly well kept together from the pit by Maestro Steuart Bedford. Under his baton the San Diego Symphony conjured up some really vivid scenes during Britten's famous 6 sea interludes. From the coastal dawn of the first scene to the malevolent storm of the next (with intensifying wind gusts), the righteous Sunday morning in the 2nd act (complete with church bells sequence that would remind some of the coronation scene from Boris Godunov), the lonesomely moonlit night that opens Act III, and the syncopated depiction of Grimes' mental deterioration... It was a pretty splendid night at the orchestra with bits of opera strewn in.

If anything, I wish that the 4 women quartet in Act II could have blended a bit better and that the chorus could turn down their volume by a few notches. I was toward the back of the Orchestra Level for the performance and they nearly blew out both of my eardrums at various times during the final act (while also nearly completely covering Ms Casey Cabot's voice when they sang with her)... and much of the texture of the music was lost in the sheer loudness of it all.

All in all, the stage didn't catch on fire and there was no stampede at the curtain call at the end of Peter Grimes' opening night at the Civic Theater. I'm very glad that I've finally experienced this work live in theater, though. I'm a die-hard fan of more song-like melodic operas of the bel canto and earlier periods, so a song-free work like Peter Grimes is a taste I'm still working on acquiring (though if you love orchestral tone poems like I do, you'll really want to try to catch a performance of this work in the coming week if only for those splendid Sea Interludes!). If you are in San Diego area and are open to exploring one of the best operas of the modern era, the remaining performances of Peter Grimes at the Civic Theater in downtown are on: April 21, 24, 26(m).

PS: If you are planning on attending a performance of this opera for the first time, please refrain from talking during the orchestral interludes! The curtain may be down (as the set is being changed), but the story is continuing musically. There is NO intermission going on when the light is staying dim in the auditorium.

Those in San Diego area can also catch a radio broadcast of Peter Grimes on Sunday May 3rd at 7PM on KPBS 89.5FM (89.1FM in La Jolla and 97.7FM in Imperial Valley).

*Smorg received a press pass to this performance.

My other reviews of live classical music/opera performances: Dom Sébastian (OONY 2006), L'incoronazione di Poppea (LA Opera 2006, Le nozze di Figaro (SD Opera 2007), Maria Stuarda (SDO 2008), Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci (SDO 2008), Aida (SDO 2008), Kellogg's 'Fiery Furnace' and Grieg's 'Peer Gynt' (San Diego Symphony 2008), Les Pecheurs de Perle (May 2008), Tosca (SDO 2009), Don Quichotte/Don Quixote (SDO 2009), Rigoletto (SDO 2009), Respighi's Le fontane di Roma, Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor & 'Italian' symphony (San Diego Symphony & Cory Cerovsek 2009).