Striking Twice
14 February

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There is a real problem with being an opera buff of a certain age.

Firstly, most of the standard repertoire that you are likely to want to see, you have seen a few times and at least once in a more than passable production.

The consequence of this is that most of what you see anew is likely to be less good than something that you have already seen.

Secondly, when you do hit on something that exceeds your expectations, it sets even higher standards for performances that may follow.

The consequence of this is likely to be that if you go and see the same production again, you are going to be disappointed.

So, what were we to do with Peter Grimes?

Ross and I had been to see it back in November of 2006. I'd rated it with four stars. I'd made it one of my opera performances of the year for "creating a disturbing picture of mob rule in a close-knit community". Should we go again?

Ross said yes and I demurred though I had reservations.

Interestingly, if you look back at the tale of November 2006, the journey over was tricky (weather), we had a meal at Café Rouge and we went with Roland.

This time, the journey was tricky (there'd been an accident earlier which caused tailbacks), we had a meal at Café Rouge and Roland was there with some of his friends though we didn't actually meet up.

So, what to say about the performance? Well, I was completely bowled over. Instead of sitting there thinking "I've seen all this before", I was completely drawn into the created world and was seeing more and more subtleties that I'd not noticed first time around. For example, I don't remember seeing Ellen Orford and Peter Grimes kiss during the first sea interlude but it made absolute sense of everything that followed. If there's is a potentially physical relationship rather than something spiritual and hinted at, then their desire to set up home becomes much clearer and the possibility that Grimes is sexually abusing the boys in his care reduces to an absolute minimum. Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts performance has matured considerably. He commanded the music and played with silence, tempo and attack as though the medium were speech and not song. I've not heard Giselle Allen give a better performance.

Jonathan Summers was a revelation as Balstrode. I've been used to seeing this character played quite straight with a crusty nobility. Here the portrayal was much more rounded, brusque, cantankerous, quite nasty with women, salaciously rude in his humour after a few drinks. And then level-headed, non-judgemental and almost kindly. And all of this after not liking him in the rôle when I saw him in performance at English National Opera. Another complete knockout.

Yvonne Howard's Auntie was stalwart again and her nieces, Amy Freston and Claire Booth, were, it was very clear, damaged teenagers angry at everything around them and hell-bent towards self-destruction in some form or another. There was an interpolated cat fight between the two young women that I don't remember from last time and far more interplay between them and the townsfolk in the carnival scene. Alan Oke's Bob Bowles was a tragically drunken bible-basher drawn by his physical torments into the actions that revolted his spirit-self. Ethna Robinson was a nasty, prying Mrs Sedley. Roderick Williams was fine as drug peddling apothecary, Ned Keene.

All sorts of episodes were more telling. The frenzied attack on the Grimes effigy was frightening. It was much clearer that the building Grimes's house was a flashback to happier times. The children at the end running off to the left of stage mirrored the arrival of the children at the right of the stage at the beginning when they found the washed-up dead body of Grimes on the beach.

I could go on.

I wept. I wept unashamedly for most of the last act.

It was that good.

I was very glad that I didn't have to go to work the following day. It would have felt very unreal. I needed time and space to absorb and settle.

Would I go and see it again?

You betcha.

A five star event and no mistaking.