PETER GRIMES

But when Grimes takes on a new apprentice, suspicion re-emerges, followed by rumours, and then the mob. Caught between a stormy sky and the turmoil of consciences, a lone man faces the verdict of a community that has already made up its mind.

In 1941, whilst in exile in California, Benjamin Britten discovered *The Borough*, George Crabbe’s long poem. Homesickness overwhelmed him – and with it came the revelation of a subject for an opera. For Crabbe paints a veritable human comedy: a vain judge, a shrewd landlady, a smarmy reverend, a gossip on the prowl, a shady apothecary – a cast of characters whom Britten and his librettist Montagu Slater bring to life with an irresistible sense of theatre. A whole world teeming with life and running wild, saved only by the compassion of a few. Premiered a month after the victory, *Peter Grimes* marked the rebirth of English opera. The score unleashes telluric forces, with orchestral interludes evoking the sea, dawn and the storm with unrivalled power.