Tender and Engrossing

Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes' in Bologna
impresses GIUSEPPE PENNISI

The Teatro Comunale in Bologna has revived a production of Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes. I saw and heard it in the 21 May 2017 matinée performance. The production was created some twelve years ago as a joint effort by the Modena Teatro Comunale, Ferrara Opera House, and Ravenna Dante Alighieri Theatre. It is a demonstration that smaller theatres can provide excellent time-resisting productions, far superior to those offered by highly subsidized major opera houses.

A scene from Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes', at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2017 Rocco Casaluci

British operas are not often staged in Italy, especially because of the difficulties finding interpreters able to master singing in English. Major houses import productions lock, stock and barrel from Britain. Thus it is praiseworthy that three small theatres joined forces to produce one of the best versions of Peter Grimes I have seen and heard in the last fifteen years.

I saw an (imported) production with Seiji Ozawa in the pit, Philip Langridge in the title role and David Kneuss as stage director in Florence in 2002. At La Scala in 2012, Robin Ticciati was the conductor, John-Graham Hall the protagonist and the staging was signed by Richard Jones ('Engrossing and Moving', 28 May 2012). The differences between the two productions were striking. In the former, the sea was always present (as it must) but Ozawa gave excessive emphasis to the orchestral contrasts. In the latter, Ticciati extracted from La Scala marvelous sounds and John-Graham Hall was engrossing, but Richard Jones did not contemplate any sea. In 2013 Antonio Pappano presented Grimes in concert version in Rome, with the idea of making a CD. A 3,000 seat auditorium is not apt for Peter Grimes, especially if the orchestra is expanded and the chorus is huge. (See 'A Grand Sea Symphony', 6 November 2013). The CD never came about.
In this production, Juraj Valčuha is the conductor, and the chorus is led by Andrea Faidutti. The director is Cesare Lievi, the sets are signed by Csaba Antal and the costumes by Marina Luxardo. The sea with its violence and its richness is felt from the prologue in the Moot Hall arranged for a coroner's inquiry. The Borough, and even The Boar Inn, are surrounded by dark Suffolk sea. Many reviewers consider Peter Grimes to be an ambivalent opera: the audience is left to decide whether Grimes is to be pitied or to be blamed. Juraj Valčuha makes a clear choice; in the opera there is violence (from most of the Borough residents against the marginalized and progressively excluded Grimes) but also a great deal of tenderness: from Grimes' aria 'Now the Great Bear and the Pleiades' to his second act monologue; from the duet between Ellen and Auntie to the final chorus when it becomes clear that the Borough has experienced a tragedy from which it ought never to recover.

Valčuha would not have been able to give this tender touch without an excellent cast of singers who could act very well. They are fourteen. It is impossible to name all of them.

Ian Storey (left) in the title role of Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes' with his apprentice, John (not credited), at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2017 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

As Grimes, Ian Storey has the clear voice that impressed La Scala's audience in Tristan und Isolde and Jenufa in 2007. Charlotte-Anne Shipley and Mark S Doss are Ellen Orford and Captain Balstrode, the only ones to understand the unfolding drama.

From left to right: Grimes' Apprentice, John, Charlotte-Anne Shipley as Ellen Orford and Ian Storey in the title role of Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes', at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Photo © 2017 Rocco Casaluci. Click on the image for higher resolution

At the end of May, if the weather is good, Bologna people go to the beach. Some boxes were empty, but the applause showed that the audience was enthralled.