Britten and Grimes

‘What harbour shelters peace?’ On the opera Peter Grimes, exclusion and stigma

“…This collection of poems included the story of Peter Grimes. Britten later said he felt at that moment everything had changed, he knew he wanted to write an opera about Grimes and he knew he had to return to his Suffolk roots and settle in Aldeburgh (Brett 1977).…”

“…As a homosexual and lifelong pacifist in post-war Britain, Britten struggled with his outsider status. Philip Brett, in his 1977 essay on the subject, cited Britten's difficult relationship with his sexuality as the inspiration for Peter Grimes : 'There is every reason to suppose that the unspoken matter is what in 1945 was still the crime that hardly dare speak its name, and that it is to the homosexual condition that Peter Grimes is addressed' (Brett 1977;2006 reprint: p. 20). Leonard Bernstein described Britten as 'a man at odds with the world' and said of his music 'if you hear it, not just listen to it superficially, you become aware of something very dark' (Carpenter 1992: p. 588).…”

“…The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual' (Time 1948). Pears described Peter Grimes as 'very much of an ordinary weak person who offends against the conventional code, is classed by society as a criminal and destroyed as such' (Brett 1977;2006 reprint: p. 20). Hans Keller, an influential cultural commentator of the time, writing on the opera's popularity, reflected 'There is a little bit of Grimes in all of us' (Keller c. 1945).…”