PRESENTED BY THE BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, BERGEN NATIONAL OPERA AND BERGEN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Peter Grimes

Benjamin Britten's masterwork is set in a claustrophobic seaside town on England's windswept coast, and is some of the most powerful and theatrical music written for the operatic stage.
This concert performance of Benjamin Britten’s great opera is conducted by BFO Music Director Edward Gardner, and the title role is sung by tenor Stuart Skelton, whose interpretation of the role is recognised as peerless: "Surely now the Grimes of our day. Not to be missed on stage," wrote the Sunday Times. 

Peter Grimes is a true psychological thriller, painting a vivid portrait of a small community's descent into suspicion, gossip and bullying in the face of a tragedy. What has happened to fisherman Peter Grimes's missing apprentice? What part has Grimes, always the town's outsider, played in the boy's disappearance? As mistrust grows, Grimes's life spirals into downfall with dramatic consequences.

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976) music
MONTAGU SLATER (1902–1956) libretto
Peter Grimes, op. 33

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Ed Gardner conductor

Bergen Philharmonic Choir
Edvard Grieg Choir
Collegium Musicum’s Choir
Royal Northern College of Music Choir, Manchester
Håkon Matti Skrede choir master

Stuart Skelton Peter Grimes, a fisherman
Giselle Allen Ellen Orford, a widow, Borough schoolmistress
Annika Schlicht Auntie, landlady of The Boar
Ida Falk Winland 1st niece
Vibeke Kristensen 2nd niece
Roderick Williams Balstrode, retired merchant skipper
Catheryn Wyn-Rogers Mrs. Sedley, a rentier widow
Matthew Best Swallow, a lawyer
Marcus Farnsworth Ned Keene, apothecary and quack
Colin Judson Bob Boles, fisherman and Methodist
James Gilchrist Rev. Horace Adams, the rector
Barnaby Rea Hobson, the carrier

Performed in English, with Norwegian surtitles.