Welcome to London Grip, a forum for reviews of books, shows & events – plus quarterly postings of new poetry. Our most recent posts are listed below. Older posts can be explored via the search box and topic list. For more information & guidelines on submitting reviews or poems please visit our Home page.
Composer: Benjamin Britten
Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Director: Melly Still
Cast: Nicky Spence, Sally Matthews, David Kempster, Dominic Sedgwick, Oliver Johnston, Dame Sarah Connolly, Flur Wyn, Eiry Price, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Sion Goronwy, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Callum Thorpe, Helen Jarmany, Maya Marsh
Running time: Three hours, fifteen minutes, including two intervals.
On tour, further performance on June 7 in Plymouth.
In difficult times, it would seem, people crave total escapism – or deep catharsis from confronting our own failure as humans and society.
Just when Britain was emerging from the horrors of World War Two, Benjamin Britten’s harrowing operatic depiction of an outsider, hounded to death by a small-minded, hypocritical society was first performed to critical and public acclaim.
It is still among the most regularly performed operas and, judging by the rapturous applause of the Welsh National Opera’s latest version, it has lost none of its ability to tap into a collective vein of guilt and horror.
The Welsh National Opera is itself in mortal danger from drastic arts cuts, which this production remarkably turns to strength, under the aegis of Melly Still, making her WNO directorial debut.
The stark economy of Chiara Stephenson’s minimal set is entirely in keeping with storm-tossed lives on an eroding coast and it puts the focus on the elemental power of Britten’s music.
At the heart of it all is the unforced, pure tenor voice of Nicky Spence as a Peter Grimes who takes the audience through every stage of his agony to the final broken notes of despair.
He is a force of purposeful stillness, around which swirls malign gossip and drunken bad behaviour, and he is infuriatingly flawed, refusing to be moved by the wise counsel of Balstrode (David Kempster) and Ellen Orford (Sally Matthews).
Kempster as Balstrode has the gravitas of an older sea captain that only a young fool would ignore and Matthew’s Orford is a dainty, beautifully pleading, nurturing presence beside Spence’s bulky Grimes who is almost literally out of her reach.
The women of the cast – Matthews as Orford, Dame Sarah Connolly as the pub landlady, and Flur Wyn and Eiry Price, as her nieces, are in wonderful harmony as they lament their inability to prevent male-instigated tragedy – a cri de coeur from the pacifist Britten.
Matthews’ and Spence’s duets are also haunting vignettes of the “kindlier lives” they manage to live only in their dreams.
The main obstacle to making them reality is the chorus, terrific, because this is the WNO, and terrifying, with its furious energy, so much greater than the sum of the parts.
Its purpose is not social justice, but finding a victim. The greatest tragedy is that once the citizens of The Borough have driven one Peter Grimes to Davy Jones’ locker, they will not be satisfied until they have hunted down the next non-conforming outsider to drown.
Peter Grimes
Composer: Benjamin Britten
Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Director: Melly Still
Cast: Nicky Spence, Sally Matthews, David Kempster, Dominic Sedgwick, Oliver Johnston, Dame Sarah Connolly, Flur Wyn, Eiry Price, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Sion Goronwy, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Callum Thorpe, Helen Jarmany, Maya Marsh
Running time: Three hours, fifteen minutes, including two intervals.
On tour, further performance on June 7 in Plymouth.
In difficult times, it would seem, people crave total escapism – or deep catharsis from confronting our own failure as humans and society.
Just when Britain was emerging from the horrors of World War Two, Benjamin Britten’s harrowing operatic depiction of an outsider, hounded to death by a small-minded, hypocritical society was first performed to critical and public acclaim.
It is still among the most regularly performed operas and, judging by the rapturous applause of the Welsh National Opera’s latest version, it has lost none of its ability to tap into a collective vein of guilt and horror.
The Welsh National Opera is itself in mortal danger from drastic arts cuts, which this production remarkably turns to strength, under the aegis of Melly Still, making her WNO directorial debut.
The stark economy of Chiara Stephenson’s minimal set is entirely in keeping with storm-tossed lives on an eroding coast and it puts the focus on the elemental power of Britten’s music.
At the heart of it all is the unforced, pure tenor voice of Nicky Spence as a Peter Grimes who takes the audience through every stage of his agony to the final broken notes of despair.
He is a force of purposeful stillness, around which swirls malign gossip and drunken bad behaviour, and he is infuriatingly flawed, refusing to be moved by the wise counsel of Balstrode (David Kempster) and Ellen Orford (Sally Matthews).
Kempster as Balstrode has the gravitas of an older sea captain that only a young fool would ignore and Matthew’s Orford is a dainty, beautifully pleading, nurturing presence beside Spence’s bulky Grimes who is almost literally out of her reach.
The women of the cast – Matthews as Orford, Dame Sarah Connolly as the pub landlady, and Flur Wyn and Eiry Price, as her nieces, are in wonderful harmony as they lament their inability to prevent male-instigated tragedy – a cri de coeur from the pacifist Britten.
Matthews’ and Spence’s duets are also haunting vignettes of the “kindlier lives” they manage to live only in their dreams.
The main obstacle to making them reality is the chorus, terrific, because this is the WNO, and terrifying, with its furious energy, so much greater than the sum of the parts.
Its purpose is not social justice, but finding a victim. The greatest tragedy is that once the citizens of The Borough have driven one Peter Grimes to Davy Jones’ locker, they will not be satisfied until they have hunted down the next non-conforming outsider to drown.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, theatre, year 2025 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, theatre