Opera House, Nuremberg State Theater, Germany. First Rang Mitte Loge. (Row 4, Seat 685, 77.6 euros)
Opera House at Nuremberg State Theater.
Story. The fisherman Peter Grimes gets exonerated in the death of his apprentice. He wants to get another apprentice so he can go back to his job, wanting to make enough money to get married to his girlfriend Ellen. Grimes eventually finds John as the new apprentice. After being seen abusing Ellen and John, Grimes runs off with the boy to his hut. When the mob nears, Grimes hurries off to start his fishing trip, asking John to be careful climbing down the cliff. John trips and dies. The mob doesn't see Grimes or John, so they disperse. A couple of days later, Ellen and retired skipper Belstrode exchange observations that cast suspicion on Grimes. That is overheard by Mrs. Sedley who whips up another mob. Grimes flees, and meets Belstrode who suggests that he sail into the open sea, which Grimes does.
Conductor - Lutz de Veer; Peter Grimes - Peter Marsh, John the apprentice - Oliver Hedrich-Gehring, Ellen Orford - Emily Newton, Captain Balstrode - Sangmin Lee, Auntie - Almerija Delic, First niece - Chloe Morgan, Second niece - Nayun Lea Kim.
The website says there are German and English surtitles. Only German was offered.
Tickets can now be put in Apple Wallet.
It took us a while to find these seat numbers on the top of the back of the chairs.
Most people know Britten's Four Sea Interludes, which comprise of four of the six interludes in the opera Peter Grimes: Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight, and Storm. The other two interludes are a passacaglia and the scene change in Act 3. I have heard The Four Sea Interludes in concert multiple times.
As to the opera itself, this was my first live encounter with it. During the pandemic I caught a Princeton Summer Festival broadcast of the opera, but don't remember much of it.
The story I put together is a pretty good summary of the plot. It doesn't talk about characters such as the Methodist priest, the nieces and the bar owner. However, today's presentation had quite a few major deviations from that "standard" synopsis.
The most obvious one is in the character of Peter Grimes. In the "original" he is hapless and reckless, making wrong decisions that end up ruining his life. In the Nuremberg version, he is a child abuser, murderer, and a pedophile. In the scene that supposedly shows him as having a nightmare about the death of his first apprentice, here he is kneeling over a blood-soaked John. There is a scene which implies Ellen as being shocked at the images she sees on Grimes's computer.
The next one would be the character of Ellen. While she is the long-suffering girlfriend in the original (reminds me of Michaela in Carmen), here she eventually falls for Belstrode, so one could interpret their scheming together for the demise of Grimes.
There is also a surreal element in that Peter Grimes had a double who showed up at a scene. Even though I had no idea what it meant, I was expecting other similar situations but didn't observe any.
Britten wrote the role of Grimes with his partner Peter Pears in mind. I wonder if today's portrayal would make Britten spin in his grave. Would the Grimes today be a role he would write for Pears?
The website describes this opera as sung in English, with German and English surtitles. Well, no English surtitles. English when sung in opera is generally difficult to get, and I am not being particularly critical here if I say there is a lot of accent. Peter Marsh as Grimes was the most intelligible. Emily Newton (Ellen) is from Texas, yet her words were difficult to make out (and it's not because of the southern drawl). For a while Anne actually thought they were singing in German.
Our prior encounters with operas in Germany led us to believe they like in-your-face type interpretation. Today's show confirmed that, it was violent, hard-edged, and overly so. Grimes came across as someone worthy of despise and hatred, rather than someone to feel sorry for. Being "out there" does not equate to making the show more enjoyable.
Setting all that aside, the singing was uniformly good in this 1300-person (my estimate) theater, and - to the extent we understood what was happening - the acting was good. There was a quartet in the middle of Act 2 that was quite exquisite. The Sea Interludes made a lot more sense in context.
Richard Wagner Platz right outside the opera house.
I snapped this just as the first half (in the middle of Act 2) ended.
I cannot name all the principal singers. To the conductor's left are John, Peter Grimes, and to the right are Ellen and Belstrode.
With one intermission, the opera was just about three hours long.
The primary reason for this Germany trip is because of the Passion Play. We managed to find five operas in the cities we plan to visit.
[Note: I notice today the opera website added the phrase "Note: The production focuses on pedophilia and violence against children. However, no explicit acts of violence against children are depicted on stage." I supposed they got quite a bit of "feedback" on this issue. And the disclaimer is only true if you don't count a blood-soaked child's body as an explicit act of violence.]
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