3 days the Peter Grimes premiere!

“Our goal was to create a psychological space that has a reference to a fishing village.” In between rehearsals, Scott Pask talks about his set design for Peter Grimes. Just like director John Doyle and costume designer Ann Hould-Ward, Pask is making his Met debut with this production. And just as for the director, Pask’s initial inspiration came from the fishing village of Hastings on the English coast where Doyle lives. “It started with a trip to visit John,” Pask says. “I went to the beach [in Hastings] to see the net huts that are singular in their way, like big black narrow skyscrapers, sort of strange. It’s still a very significant working fishing town, and this presence, this sculpture on the rocky beach, was pretty incredible. The huts are a very stark presence—with the years of tar, varnish, paint, and salt staining.” Their look became the central image for his Grimes set, which consists of black wooden walls with doors and openings on several levels above the stage, that shift from scene to scene, finally closing in around the tormented title character.Even though the imagery is based on an actual place, it’s not supposed to be a “realistic” setting. “John’s goal,” Pask explains, “was not to be literal or naturalistic about it. We wanted to provide a framework that pulsates with the music, that shifts and changes and creates an atmosphere and that has character and an ominous presence about it. There is no escape, no relief, like the mob justice that condemns Grimes. So there’s tension that is built up by being within this box that constrains and shifts configurations. At times we have more space, but it is this presence that is relentless.” In one scene, it appears as if the set is being pushed right to the edge of the proscenium, as if the singers were going to fall off the stage if they took a step forward. “I think the audience perceives the tension more than the performers,” the designer says. “There’s actually more room on stage than it appears. But it is meant to feel that way, that we are on the precipice of something. Hopefully, to a degree where it is not startling, just unsettling.”

4 days to the Peter Grimes premiere!

Read the second part of an interview with Anthony Dean Griffey who talks about singing the title role in Britten’s opera.

On Peter Grimes role models
I sang the role for the very first time 12 years ago as a student at Tanglewood for the 50th anniversary of the American premiere, which took place in Tanglewood. Many people said to me, “Who did you mold your Peter Grimes after? Was it John Vickers, or Peter Pears, or Anthony Rolfe Johnson, or Philip Langridge?” And I said, Honestly, I didn’t see any of their performances. I have such respect for all of those artists, but as an artist myself, I always take what the composer and the librettist give and make the role my own. I think it’s important—people don’t want to see a carbon copy of something that happened twenty years ago. That’s what made the great singers great artists, it was their own individuality. It’s important to bring your own special ingredients, so to speak, to the recipe to spice it up.

On the opera’s social message
It’s a piece that I believe in 110 percent. It’s a piece not just for opera lovers, but for people who are not regular theatergoers. And it’s also a wonderful first opera for people to see because it’s so accessible. Everyone can relate to the character of Peter Grimes, of being an outcast, of having judgment placed upon you, of the hypocrisy of society, and it has all these things in it. I think it’s an important work on a musical level, but on a social level it’s even more important because it has such a strong, strong message that society needs to see and hear.

5 days to the Peter Grimes premiere!

With the final dress rehearsal coming up Monday, Peter Grimes is almost ready for its opening night audience. Here are some photos from this week’s rehearsals.

Anthony Dean Griffey (center) stars in the title role.

Patricia Racette sings Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress.

Peter Grimes and his boy apprentice in a scene from Act II

Grimes and Captain Balstrode (Anthony Michaels-Moore) in the final scene of the opera

Photos: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera