MET Peter Grimes

I very much enjoyed last night's Metropolitan Opera HD telecast on PBS in New York of Benjamin Britten's opera, PETER GRIMES, conducted by Donald Runnicles, and featuring the quite remarkable Anthony Dean Griffey as Grimes with a fine supporting cast. I am a long-time contributor to the international discussion group, OPERA-L and wrote a review of the telecast yesterday that resulted in a very nice response.

I will share my OPERA-L review here:

"I did not have a chance to hear/see the MET's new PETER GRIMES this season until the telecast. I heard moments of one of the Sirius webcasts and was quite impressed, despite some of the negative reviews of the production on OPERA-L, but tonight was my first full view/hearing.

I have to say that this GRIMES was one of the most satisfying MET musical experiences I've had in a very long time. The orchestra under Donald Runnicles was magnificent--colors, texture, emotion, pacing. (Anthony Dean) Griffey is most impressive, IMHO, as Grimes; the perfect combination of the heroic and lyric--not at either extreme. He is, and has always been, a fine actor, and his portrayal was, again IMHO, spot on. He made the character human, not particularly "mad". I felt Grimes to be misunderstood but not an outsider as he is often played. His mad scene in the final act was really a tour-de-force.

I'm not a fan of Patricia Racette. I admire her commitment and intelligence, but often find her voice somewhat bland and she is almost always a notch too light-voiced for the spinto parts that she takes on. Not here... she really, really impressed me as Ellen Orford with smooth, powerful vocalism and with more than her common VOCAL emotion (she is often a very dramatic on-stage performer but not with the voice itself).

Jill Grove really stood out as "Auntie" with a far more than "comprimario" voice. Felicity Palmer as Mrs. Sedley, now somewhat dry of sound after a long career, acted brilliantly and would occasionally surprise with some nicely-supported tone breaking through her other vocalism (she also sings the English text with so much refinement). Anthony Michaels-Moore's voice has always been a bit nasal for my taste, but he puts out a consistent, burly sound and, from a dramatic perspective, makes a wonderful Captain Balstrode.

I found the set very interesting... it engaged me more than I thought, bringing me into the drama in a way that made all of the performers onstage, even when many, quite close to the audience. The chorus, btw, performed stunningly... grasping Runnicles' brisk but sweeping tempi and articulating the text with great strength.

I'm so surprised to be this excited about something from the MET! :-)"