Jonas Kaufmann and Lise Davidsen are ready for Peter Grimes
NewsThe tenor’s website confirms he will spend January and February in Vienna as Benjamin Britten’s tortured fisherman.#
Lise Davidsen sings Ellen Orford.
Simone Young conducts.
To die for?
I find Britten dull. Can’t connect.
OK the 4C-interludes are nice show music – but otherwise this opera leaves no lasting impression.
¡Madura!
You can’t be serious? Peter Grimes is one of the all time operatic masterpieces.
You mean in English opera history?
Operabase lists over 2200 performances in 26 countries since 1996.
Your mask has slipped.
“Leaves no lasting impression.” That’s why it, along with several other Britten operas, is almost the ONLY one to have entered the international standard rep since 1945.
I understand. It took me years to appreciate his music but the effort was so very much worth it in the end. Keep working at it would be my recommendation!
If his new Liszt album is anything to go by, this Peter Grimes will be suffering from catarrh.
Maybe he needs to suck on a fisherman’s friend…
Brilliant!
JK singing Liszt is a sacrilege.
Like Anna doing Dido.
Not the first, and it looks as though there will be plenty more.
Great ! Meanwhile an amusing comment on this same opera by tenor Jose Cura
” I don’t sing in English either, although one day I hope I have the courage for Peter Grimes: a fantastic piece but, my God, terrifying. I look at the score and I piss my pants it’s so hard.”
With that kind of vulgar English, he won’t get very far.
Rendeder unto Caesar what is Caesar´s. In other words LEAVE PETER GRIMES TO JON VICKERS!!!!
Is that the opera where he sings about “a one-whore’s open sleigh”?
“Lise Davidsen sings Ellen Orford.”
Thanks for the clarification…otherwise we would have thought she’d take on Auntie…
Aunty is a mezzo!
You missed my point entirely.
When did the two lead roles in Grimes land into heroic/dramatic territory? Did Vickers start this?
Sorry, I accidentally voted Chris Ponto’s comment down instead of up. Good, interesting question, especially as I heard Vickers as Grimes at CG in the’70s.
Yes, Vickers started it. Britten himself was not a fan, though more than enough other people though it worked.
We heard Jon Vickers as Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1970’s. It more than “worked.” His singing was spellbinding, with the strongest stage presence of any tenor I’ve seen. Those qualities also made his Florestan in FIDELIO remarkable.
The ROH is casting Allan Clayton this season.
Could be ….it’s as much an acting role as a vocal one…but can he bring both as powerfully as Vickers? Perhaps no one can. And Pears, the original muse, was no slouch either.
One of my singing teachers and friend, Heather Harper, was the Ellen Orforrd woth Jon Vickers and Peter Pears – so very different but equally good.
Harper was the perfect Ellen. I just don’t hear Davidsen in the part at all.
Heather Harper was matchless. She could – and did – sing everything.
Please God no. The last person I want to hear as Grimes is a knödeling Bavarian semi-baritone. Lise Daviden might be good though.
Why are you forcing yourself to go? It’s not compulsory?
And don’t forget one B Terfel as Balstrode in the same cast, also in the exciting new ROH production a little later.
A wonderful pairing for such a wonderfully moving opera. Wish them so well.
Jon Vickers was phenomenal but London (ENO) and elsewhere have been lucky enough to have both Philip Langridge and Stuart Skelton; very different singers but, like Vickers, providing compelling portrayals.
Don’t forget the excellent Ben Heppner.
Why can’t the Vienna State Opera show its damn cast lists? Who is the Auntie? Who sings Sedley? Production opens in weeks!
Anthony Dean Griffey is stunningly good as Grimes.
As the brooding fishermen, I think he will do very well. Hope he regularly sings this role though.
Are vee sure vee vant a Tscherman-accented Peter Grimes?? (Ja, ja, I know… trite.)
And Simone Young conducting? What shall we expect?
Misfire. Kaufmann’s English is accentless.
I have tix for Grimes in Venice. Ugh. That’s just about the last opera I had hoped to see at Fenice. It’s part of an opera tour. I dreamt of seeing Verdi or Puccini in Italy. But at least I’m seeing Gioconda at Scala, and Nabucco at Verona. I saw Vickers in Grimes. Fell asleep. Sorry folks, call me whatever names you want, but I thought it was beyond dull.
Gregory Kunde did a great Peter Grimes In Spain. Goosebumps!!
You gotta be kidding me!!!! There´s only ONE PETER GRIMES and that is JON VICKERS, my fellow Canadian. He must be tossing and turning in his grave if he sees how things have got out of hand these days!!!!
The main character in this is the chorus. The whole fishermen community. It is an unapologetic portrayal of a mob as devastating as the sea itself. Masterful opera!