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''Peter Grimes'' is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the narrative poem, "Peter Grimes," in George Crabbe's book ''The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional village which shares some similarities with Crabbe's, and later Britten's, own home of Aldeburgh, a town on England's east coast. It was first performed at Sadler's Wells in London on 7 June 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall, and was the first of Britten's operas to be a critical and popular success. It is still widely performed, both in the UK and internationally, and is considered part of the standard repertoire. In addition, the ''Four Sea Interludes'' were published separately (as Op. 33a) and are frequently performed as an orchestral suite. The Passacaglia was also published separately (as Op. 33b), and is also often performed, either together with the ''Sea Interludes'' or by itself. ==Composition history== In 1941, shortly after the first performance of his opera ''Paul Bunyan'', Britten and his partner Peter Pears went to stay at Escondido, California. There they read the poem by Crabbe and were struck by it. Britten, being a native of Suffolk, strongly identified with the tragic story of the Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes. This opera was first conceived while Britten was in California. Happening to read E. M. Forster's article on the 18th-century Suffolk poet George Crabbe in the BBC's magazine ''The Listener'', he was straight away filled with nostalgic feelings about Suffolk. Pears found a copy of Crabbe's works in a second-hand bookshop and Britten read the poem ''The Borough'', which contained the tragic story of the Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes. He said later: in a flash I realised two things: that I must write an opera, and where I belonged.〔Matthews (2003), Ch. 4, "America Is What You Choose to Make It"〕 Britten returned to England in April 1942. Soon after his return, he asked Montagu Slater to be his librettist for ''Peter Grimes''.〔Matthews (2003), Ch. 5, "What Harbour Shelters Peace?"〕 Britten and Pears both had a strong hand in drafting the story, and in this process the character of Grimes became far more complex. Rather than being the clear-cut villain he is in Crabbe's version, he became a victim of both cruel fate and society, while retaining darker aspects in his character.〔Geoffrey Wheatcroft, ("The lesson of Peter Grimes" ), ''The Guardian'' (London), 6 August 2000〕 It is left to the audience to decide which version is more true, and to see how clear-cut or ambiguous the various characters are.〔 Stephen Johnson, ("''Peter Grimes''" ), ''The Guardian'' (London), 3 March 2001. Review of the opera in Birmingham〕 Pears was certainly the intended Peter Grimes,〔Anthony Tommasini, ("The Outsider in Their Midst: Britten’s Tale of the Haunted Misfit" ), ''The New York Times'', 1 March 2008.〕 and it is likely that Britten wrote the role of Ellen Orford for Joan Cross. The work has been called "a powerful allegory of homosexual oppression",〔 Philip Brett and Elizabeth Wood, (, "Lesbian and Gay Music" ), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, editors. London: Macmillan, 2001.〕 and one of "the true operatic masterpieces of the 20th century,"〔 but the composer's own contemporary (1948) summation of the work was simpler: a subject very close to my heart—the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual.〔("Opera's New Face" ), ''Time'', 16 February 1948]〕 Though as the writing of the libretto progressed, certain versions showed Grimes' relations with his apprentice to be bordering on paederastic, Pears persuaded Slater to cut the questionable stanzas from the final version.〔James Fenton, ("How Grimes became grim" ), ''The Guardian'', 3 July 2004〕 The opera was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundations and is "dedicated to the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky", wife of the Russian-born American conductor Serge Koussevitzky. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Grimes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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