Twentieth Century opera has given us no more ambiguous an antihero than Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. The brutish fisherman who runs afoul of the intolerance of an East Anglian community invites no armchair psychoanalysis, nor does Britten’s music provide the audience with ready emotional access in the way Puccini and Strauss do with their protagonists. Grimes’ moral guilt can never be proven or disproven; therein, along with the evocative and bleak poetry of Britten’s score, lies the power of “Peter Grimes.”
Up to now, Lyric Opera audiences have identified the work’s central figure with tenor Jon Vickers, who created an unforgettable Grimes in the company premiere in 1974 and in its 1977 revival. Larger than life, epic in stature, Vickers made Grimes a figure of almost mythic proportions, a force of raw nature.
Now the role has passed at Lyric to another Canadian heroic tenor, Ben Heppner, who sang his first American production of “Peter Grimes” Friday at the Civic Opera House. He enjoyed an unqualified triumph in a role that, vocally and dramatically, fit him as snugly as Grimes’ woolly sweater. This was leagues removed from Vickers’ Grimes and it owed little, if anything, to the tensile but frail portrayal of Peter Pears, the original Grimes. Heppner, who has sung the role at Covent Garden and elsewhere, put his distinctive stamp on the part.
His always believable Grimes stood at the center of an ensemble performance as strong as anything Lyric has given us in recent seasons. Fine work from the singers and chorus under British conductor Mark Elder (in his company debut), sensitive stage direction from John Copley, a handsome physical production courtesy of San Francisco Opera and an evocative lighting design by Duane Schuler and Christine Solger Binder combined to produce memorable music theater.
Heppner is a burly man with a voice to match, one whose power and intensity made light of the quirky difficulties of a vocal line designed for Pears. Heppner humanized the outcast, made us see Grimes as a victim of his own failed idealism, not just his volatile nature. His reading was full of individual touches, as when he addressed his monologue in the hut scene (“In my dreams I’ve built a kindlier home”) directly to his young apprentice, rather than to the audience as evidence of madness. When Grimes’ sanity finally did shatter, the effect was truly pitiable. Has madness ever been more beautifully sung?
Emily Magee’s Ellen Orford, also finely sung, found just the right low-key dramatic tone to convey the schoolmistress’ concern for Grimes. Brent Ellis as Balstrode was less the savvy old salt of Lyric tradition (remember Geraint Evans?) than a youngish and kindly ally.
Copley’s staging, within the sea- and wind-battered realism of Carl Toms’ sets and Tanya Moiseiwitsch’s lived-in costumes, was rich in precisely observed detail. This Borough really looked like a place one actually could visit in Suffolk, though one wouldn’t want to live there–not with the vicious busybody Mrs. Sedley (Susan Gorton) or the moralizing hypocrite Bob Boles (John Duykers) as neighbors.
Nicely fleshing out the other villagers were Timothy Nolen (Ned Keene), Catherine Cook (Auntie), Dale Travis (Swallow), Kevin Langan (Hobson), Jerold Siena (Rector) and Robin Blitch Wiper and Alicia Berneche as the tarty nieces. Young Ryan Leveque played John the apprentice. The choral singing that is so extensive and crucial to the opera reflected glory on the fine ensemble directed by Donald Palumbo; the Lyric Chorus sang with one voice, as of one mind.
You could all but taste the sea air in Elder’s extraordinary command of orchestral sonority. His conducting proved that taut rhythmic definition and propulsion need not preclude deep lyrical understanding. Each of the “Sea Interludes” came across as a colorful, incisive tone poem taking us a step further into the tragedy. This is a conductor we really need to have back at Lyric as soon as possible.
“Peter Grimes” runs for nine more performances, through Nov. 7.
