OPERA REVIEW: PETER GRIMES

Pictured: Ben Heppner

JOHN COULBOURN, Special to TorSun
09 OCT 2013
R: 4.5/5

TORONTO - A lot can change in 70 years but not everything gets simpler. Certainly, thanks to a seemingly never-ending flow of horrific news stories, composer Benjamin Britten’s darkly masterful opera PETER GRIMES is, if anything, more emotionally complex and morally ambiguous for a contemporary audience than it was for the audience at its 1945 première in London, England.

Back then, one suspects, it would have been easier by far to condemn the nosey hypocrites that populate the small fishing village at the heart of George Crabbe’s poem, The Borough (which inspired the opera), as moralizing poseurs for their treatment of the fisherman of title, a lumpen, hard-working anti-social type who exists under a cloud of suspicion after his young apprentice dies in mysterious circumstances. But in today’s world of heightened social awareness and responsibility, it is not so easy to dismiss their concerns, particularly in the fine production currently gracing the stage of the Four Season Centre, under the aegis of the Canadian Opera Company.

At least initially, director Neil Armfield (whose work for Opera Australia, the Houston Grand Opera and the West Australia Opera is ‘revived’ here by Denni Sayers) makes the most of that ambiguity, letting us believe there may be something to their suspicions, as a malevolent Ben Heppner (in magnificent tenor voice, despite some lingering vocal problems that forced him to cancel an opening night appearance) simmers and stews in the title role. In a magnificently nuanced performance, Heppner builds a memorable Grimes, completely human, undone but undiminished by his own obstinacy.

And happily, Heppner has been surrounded by a superb supporting cast that works hard to showcase that humanity, from bass-baritone Alan Held as the gruff but compassionate Balstrode, to soprano Ileana Montalbetti, whose soaring high notes as school mistress Ellen Orford make up for the fact she all but disappears in the lower registers. Throw in tenor Roger Honeywell (as a feisty, fiery Bob Boles), mezzo Judith Christin (as the addled Mrs. Sedley) and a host of others and it is all but impossible not to get caught up in this dark tale, particularly when it is anchored by the strength and musicality of the COC Chorus backed by the nuanced work of conductor Johannes Debus and the COC Orchestra.

In staging the work, Armfield embraces Britten’s conceit wherein the poet Crabbe haunts the stage in a spectral, non-singing turn, and while Thomas Hauff adds an element of detached depth to the production in his role of observer and arbiter, one can’t help but wish Armfeld and his associates had found something more for him to do than re-arrange the chairs on Ralph Myer’s austere and highly evocative community hall set, finely lit by Damien Cooper. Granted, it affords us the opportunity to enjoy Britten’s musical evocations of nature and humanity to the utmost, but it also impedes the dramatic flow of what is otherwise a strong and moving production.