Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes is one of the few operas of the last
half-century to have gained a secure place in the repertory. Its
appearance in 1945 shortly after the end of the war in Europe was a
milestone in operatic history as well as in British music. But the
origins of the work lie in the United States, where Britten and his
friend Peter Pears (the first Grimes) spent the years 1939-42. In 1941
they read an evocative essay by the novelist E. M. Forster on the
Suffolk poet George Crabbe (1754-1832); this precipitated Britten's
decision to return to his native country, and sent them both to Crabbe's
poem, The Borough, which gave them the idea for the plot they drafted
together. This book opens with Forster's original essay and his later
one on Crabbe and Peter Grimes. From there the reader can trace the
history of the opera: in Donald Mitchell's annotated interview with the
wife of the librettist, Montagu Slater; in Philip Brett's detailed study
of the fascinating documents preserved in the Britten-Pears Library at
Aldeburgh; and in his history of the work's stage presentation and
critical reception. Hans Keller's remarkable synopsis, first printed in
1952, is complemented by a fine new analytical study by David Matthews
of Act II scene 1, the crux of the opera.
