The Stage

Peter Grimes

Published Monday 11 May 2009 at 09:50 by George Hall

Britten’s first masterpiece returns to the Coliseum in a new production by David Alden. There is greatness in the evening, much of it stemming from the pit, where Edward Gardner presides over a vividly intense account of the score, drawing the finest playing from ENO’s orchestra and wonderful work from the expanded chorus.

Alden’s staging is less sure-footed. In Paul Steinberg’s sets and Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes the period is presumably around the time of the opera’s creation - it was premiered by ENO’s parent company at Sadler’s Wells in 1945 - though the visuals lack a strong sense of an English fishing village. The outside scenes are undistinguished and even the local pub looks more like the drawing room of some louche local Bohemian, with Rebecca de Pont Davies’ landlady Auntie a hand me down version of Vita Sackville-West.

Though the score has its expressionist moments - brilliantly articulated by Gardner - the drama’s mode is realistic and communal hand gestures look wildly out of place, as do the mysterious twin schoolgirl Nieces, who seem to have wandered in from The Shining.

But there’s impressive vocal security from Stuart Skelton’s Grimes, even if the dramatic side of his creation is still a rough sketch. Gerald Finley provides a firm and incisive Balstrode, though his naval uniform indicates someone on active service rather than a retired sea-captain. Best of the principals is Amanda Roocroft, once again searching out the centre of her character’s predicament in a superbly sung and movingly acted realisation of Ellen Orford.