Synopsis: Peter Grimes
Composer
Benjamin Britten
Librettist
Montague Slater
Sung In
English
Met titles In
English
German
Spanish
PROLOGUE
During an inquest at the town hall, the lawyer Swallow questions the fisherman Peter Grimes about the death of his apprentice during a storm at sea. Though the room is crowded with villagers hostile to Grimes, Swallow accepts the man’s explanation of the event and rules that the boy died accidentally. He warns Grimes not to take on another apprentice until he lives with a woman who can care for the boy. When the hall empties, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress, asks Grimes to have courage and promises to help him find a better life.
ACT I
On the beach, villagers look out to the sea. Balstrode, a retired sea captain, warns that a storm is approaching. Grimes calls for help from the harbor to land his boat. When Grimes finally gets ashore the apothecary Ned Keene tells him that he has found the fisherman a new apprentice at a workhouse. When the carrier Hobson refuses to fetch the boy, Ellen offers to go with him. The villagers make hostile comments, and she accuses them of hypocrisy. As the storm rises and the crowd disperses, Grimes is left alone with Balstrode, who tries to convince him to leave the village. The fisherman explains that first he has to make enough money to open a store and marry Ellen.
That night, as the storm rages, the villagers gather at Auntie’s tavern. Auntie’s “nieces” are frightened by the wind, and Bob Boles gets into a fight with Balstrode over one of them. When Grimes enters looking for his new apprentice, there is a sudden silence, and he begins talking to himself, mystifying everyone. The drunken Boles tries to attack Grimes. In an attempt to restore quiet, Ned Keene starts singing a sea shanty. Hobson and Ellen arrive with Grimes’s new apprentice, John. The fisherman immediately leaves, taking the boy back into the storm and to his hut.
ACT II
On Sunday morning, as Ellen and John are watching the villagers go to church, she discovers a bruise on the young boy’s neck. Grimes comes to take John fishing, and when Ellen tells him that he cannot buy peace by hard work, he hits her and drags the child off. Auntie, Ned Keene, and Bob Boles have observed the incident and the members of the congregation hear about it as they come out of church. The men decide to confront the fisherman, and despite Ellen’s protest, the angry mob marches off to Grimes’s hut. Ellen, Auntie, and the nieces remain behind, reflecting on the childishness of men.
Grimes orders John to dress for work. He dreams of the life he had planned with Ellen, but his thoughts return to his dead apprentice. As he hears the mob approaching, he rushes John out. The boy slips and falls down the cliff. Grimes escapes. Bob Boles and the rector find the hut empty and orderly and decide that they have misjudged Grimes. The villagers disperse, except for Balstrode, who looks over the cliff and knows better.
ACT III
A dance is under way in the town hall. Outside, Mrs. Sedley tries to convince Ned Keene that Grimes has murdered his apprentice. Balstrode enters with Ellen and tells her that Grimes’s boat has returned but that there is no sign of him or the boy. He has also found John’s jersey, and Ellen remembers embroidering the anchor on it. Mrs. Sedley has overheard the conversation and informs Swallow that Grimes’s boat is back. Once again, the crowd sets off on a manhunt.
Grimes, deranged and raving, listens to the villagers shouting his name in the distance. He hardly notices Ellen and Balstrode, who try to comfort him. Ellen asks Grimes to come home, but Balstrode tells him to sail out.
As dawn breaks, the villagers return to their daily chores.