Peter Grimes
Had this new production opened at Covent Garden, critics would be hailing it as a triumph of British Culture. Tourists would mutter "this is why we come to London!", perhaps even briefly forgetting their outrageous hotel tariff.
Yet apart from the excellent English conductor Mark Wigglesworth, this very English opera was produced using almost exclusively Australian talent. The token singing Brit, Susan Gritton, was clearly no equal-opportunity casting – her voice magnificent, her acting measured and moving, everything about her perfectly fitted to the part – but the same could be said of each of the eleven other soloists.
The result of so much perfection is that the evening is satisfying in every way. Wearing a blindfold one could simply enjoy the wonderful orchestra and orchestration, and even with earplugs and supertitles anyone would be drawn in by the dramatic story and beautifully dreary 1940s set and costumes by Ralph Myers and Tess Schofield. But opera at its best is a "total art work," or Gesamtkunstwerk, as Wagner put it, and here director Neil Armfield really gives us the whole enchilada.
For many people, opera (and indeed life) comes down to some rare significant moments. This production has a few, but the one that hits audiences like an unexpected punch in the jaw comes when Peter, despised by the entire village for the death of his apprentice, walks into the local pub and is greeted with total silence. The brutish, bullying fisherman Grimes, confronted with his grim place in this world, turns to the stars (as a fisherman would in a fit of transcendence) and sings: "Now the great Bear and Pleiades where earth moves/Are drawing up the clouds of human grief." Stuart Skelton glides seamlessly from a tender falsetto to a full-bodied voice of anguish, transporting us to a plane of empathy even with his beastly character. Skelton's complete ownership of the role for the next decade seems inevitable.
It is difficult to think of anything to complain about in this production, except the fact that only six performances will be given in Sydney. Jason Catlett
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