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Stuart Skelton in Janacek’s Jenufa |
Skelton set to make waves
PREVIEW - PETER GRIMES
London Coliseum
THE team that created the thrilling production of Janacek’s Jenufa at the English National Opera two years ago is back in rehearsals again at the Coliseum.
This time they have got together for a new production of Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece Peter Grimes, the anti-hero outsider in an East Anglian fishing village.
David Alden is in charge of the production again and resident conductor Edward Gardner will be handling the electrifying score.
Stuart Skelton and Amanda Roocroft, both acclaimed for their Jenufa performances, are coming together again as Peter Grimes and Ellen, his wife.
The new production is a major challenge. For Jenufa, the team succeeded in turning a little-performed Czech opera into a highly acclaimed production.
Grimes, by contrast, is widely known and regarded by most opera buffs in this country as the greatest opera of the 20th century.
It was premiered by the ENO at the end of the war in 1945. Since then it has entered the repertoire of opera companies throughout the country.
For Stuart Skelton, the production is particularly challenging as he will be following in the footsteps of some greats, notably Peter Pears in the original production and Jon Vickers at the Royal Opera House.
An Australian now aged 40, Skelton has emerged as one of the finest heroic tenors of his generation, widely acclaimed for portrayals of Siegmund in Wagner’s Ring and for Strauss leider recitals.
So far, though, he has only performed Grimes once, at Frankfurt four years ago.
Yet it is a role that almost looks written for him.
“I was brought up in the Anglican Church tradition so I have a strong grasp of the Britten/Pears music and, living close by the ocean in Australia, I know about the sea,” he said during a break in rehearsals.
“I haven’t done much research into Grimes as so much of the material on Britten verges on hagiography.
“To understand Grimes, you have to go to the spit at Aldeburgh, watch the waves and the sea, feel the wind, hear the birds and imagine Grimes and the villagers putting out to sea.”
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