BRITTEN

Peter Grimes

 

Christopher Ventris - Peter Grimes

Emily Magee - Ellen Orford

Alfred Muff - Balstrode

Liliana Nikiteanu - Auntie

Sandra Trattnigg - Niece I

Liuba Chuchrova - Niece II

Rudold Schasching - Bob Boles

Richard Angas  - Swallow

Corneila Kallisch - Mrs Sedley

Martin Zysset - Rev Horace Adams

Cheyne Davidson - Ned Keen

Valeriy Murga - Hobson

 

Orchestra and Chorus of the Zürich Opera House / Franz Welser-Möst

 

Recorded Live December 2005

 

Peter’s Line “Where the walls themselves gossip of inquest” - his cry of pain to Ellen after the coroner’s open verdict on the loss of his first apprentice - cues the scenery and concept. The Borough, some of its citizens mounted on chairs and pillars permanently suspended above an unchanging set, is never absent form this stylised, Brechtian (and Weillian) production. Pountney’s stage has no room for naturalistic clutter - no real boats, no fishing net, no beach………..

 

……….No Grimes on film is without some distinctive merit but this new EMI issue is carried by its cast, phenomenal chorus contribution, director and conductor to an important new interpretative level.

Mike Ashman (Gramophone)

 

EMI DVD 5009719