Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes: Opera Analysis

Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes is an opera that premiered June 7th 1945, in London, England. Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He became a central parent of 20th-century classical tune, with a vary of works collectively with opera, extraordinary vocal track, orchestral and chamber portions. Britten was a leading composer of the 20th century and is still highly regarded today.

Britten chose Montagu Slater as his librettist for Peter Grimes. Slater was an English librettist, poet, playwright, and novelist. Britten met Slater when Britten moved back to England and asked Slater to rise to the task of the librettist. Slatter accepted the task and Britten asked Slatter to use the narrative poem, Peter Grimes, in the book The Borough, by George Crabbe.

The plot of Peter Grimes starts during a coroner’s investigation at the city hall, the proficient lawyer Swallow examines the angler Peter Grimes regarding the perishing of his student at some phase in a hurricane adrift. Despite the fact that the room is packed with townspeople antagonistic to Grimes, Swallow acknowledges the man’s clarification of the event and strategies that the kid kicked the bucket coincidentally. He cautions Grimes now not to handle each other disciple until he lives with a lady who can think about the kid. At the point when the corridor exhausts, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress, requests that Grimes have fortitude and certifications to help him find a higher life. Grimes calls upon a new student from the workhouse. The boy falls to his death when he slips off the cliff. The townspeople immediately go and find Grimes to punish him; he pleads mercy to Ellen Orford but does not work. Then an old sea captain suggest that Grimes sets sail out to sea and drowns himself as his punishment.

Britten’s Peter Grimes has some significant compositional characteristics that make it different from other operas. In the opera Peter Grimes is known to be a bad person, when he actually is not. Instead the cruelty of the society turns him crazy and pushes him over the edge. Another characteristic is that Britten is believed to have written Peter Grimes for another reason. It is known that he reflected the character Peter Grimes and women that he had feelings for reflected Ellen Orford. Although Britten was homosexual, it represented the oppresion he faced during this time towards his homosexuality. These compositional characteristics create created an interesting hidden meaning to the opera.

Peter Grimes appealed to me in many ways. I really enjoyed the setting of the opera. A small fishing town that is controlled by the townspeople creates an interesting plot with questions that are hard to answer. Another aspect of the play that I enjoyed was the conflict it created. The conflict made it look like Peter Grimes was a murder to his two apprentances. Although he did not do anything the village made him crazy because they thought he was killing his students, but he was not. Ultimately causing Grimes to banish himself and die. Him dying this way leads me into the ideas I did not not enjoy in this opera. I did not like how the way Grimes died. I would have enjoyed to see that someone would have testified for him that he did not murder those students and he is actually inoscent. Another aspect I did not enjoy in the opera was that nothing happened between Grimes and Orford. The romance part of the opera lacked, and it caused it to not have any strong feelings or disappointing break apart. The opera Peter Grimes had its strong and weak parts to the story.

I would recommend Peter Grimes to other peers. I feel that the positive parts out way the negative parts. I really enjoyed the plot and I feel that the plot is appealing to others. The opera also creates uncertainty at the end. I really did not know what was going to happened and that is what made the opera much more enjoyable. I really enjoyed Peter Grimes and I would highly recommend the opera to anyone that asked for my opinion.