Grimes

Peter Grimes, Metropolitan Opera, 2/28/08.

Yeah, I've just about given up on the punny titles. Sorry. Also about the lateness. The academic life is eating me alive currently, and will always come first (Professor, if you're still reading, take note!).

This was another one that stumped the busking flutist in the subway station, who was giving a uniquely pointless rendition of Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. On solo flute. Then he played Pomp and Circumstance, because Elgar was also English. Oh, yeah, the performance. In the opera house. Right.

After one more disclaimer: I like Britten, but am not a fanatic. This was my first time seeing Peter Grimes live.

Musically, it was stunning. I don't know where that chorus came from, but I don't think it's the one I was hearing a year ago. The blending problems have disappeared completely, and the result is very very very good. I think Doyle's static direction helped, but Donald Palumbo deserves an awful lot of credit. I already expected a lot of out the orchestra, and they delivered. This also goes out to conductor Donald Runnicles. I heard a few minor coordination problems in some exposed sections, and in the first act the orchestra drowned out the soloists more than a few times, but things settled down into consistent magnificence by Act II.

Before I get to the principals, the problem: that would be the production. I really really really didn't like John Doyle's Sweeney Todd, and somehow it doesn't surprise me that this production is a product of the same director. In Sweeney, the actor-instrumentalists seemed to be the only thing animating the blocking, and any good combinations were just a coincidence of the orchestration. So I wasn't sure what would happen when that element disappeared, and the answer is a lot of people standing still a lot. Not that there is anything inherently wrong about a very static production, but it didn't work out well here.

The set is a big dark wall that moves up and downstage, effectively making the stage considerably smaller at most points. A few scenes are opened out a bit, but for much of the time everyone is crowded down on the apron. Doors on the wall open to reveal bit characters, which I thought was one of the best parts of the set, making quick entrances and exits not seem awkward and emphasizing the survelliance of the borough residents. But the set was just kind of big and ugly without providing much of anything in the way of atmosphere or place (literal or not--it just loomed). It's the Season of the Unit Set at the Met this year, apparently.

All of this crowding downstage I think was supposed to convey a sense of claustrophobia but occasionally restricted the amount of movement that was possible in a crowded space. Too much of the blocking was tableau-like and flat, and restored none of the life that was sucked out by the set. The costumes were dark and monotonous, which sometimes made it difficult for me up in the Family Circle to identify who was singing, which is always a problem.

I gather that Anthony Dean Griffey is an experienced Grimes, and you could hear it. He has a beautifully pure tenor sound, but still projects enough for the house. But I'm afraid he didn't make a giant impression on me. I say all of this with a large grain of salt because I was, as I said, in the Family Circle. I don't think this production was directed in a way to work very well from such a distance, and I just lost so much of the intensity that I can only hope was more readily apparent from the orchestra. It's obvious that Grimes is complicated, but I could never really tell what the Griffey take on him was until the last act.

I love Patricia Racette, and she was marvelous here, though she suffered from some of the same dramatic vagueness. Her singing seemed absolutely perfect for Ellen Orford, and her diction outstanding (as was Griffey's).

Digression: I tried to not turn on the titles, but was struggling so much to understand things that I gave in halfway through Act I. I don't have enough experience know if this is normal for Britten in the Family Circle or not. I could tell there was a colorful mixture of accents at work, though.

I'm going to pull a Tommasini and not really say much specific about the other singers, but note that they were "strong," particularly Anthony Michaels-Moore's Balstrode (thankfully not pulling a Borodina and speaking the lines at the end very well).

Go see it if you can, but don't miss the radio broadcast for anything.

I suppose I have to mention Jon Vickers in here somewhere, because everyone does, but, to tell the truth I haven't seen him, because the DVD was checked out of the library (I watched the Zurich one with Ventris instead). But now he has been mentioned, and I will go back and watch the video once it reappears.