Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten. The English libretto was written by Montagu Slater, which was adapted from The Borough, a poem by George Crabbe. It was first performed at Sadler's Wells in London on June 7, 1945 and was the first of Britten's operas to be a critical and popular success. As it is still widely performed both in the U.K. and internationally, it is considered part of the standard repertoire.

Plot Synopsis

Prologue and Act I

Peter Grimes is questioned at an inquest over the death of his apprentice. Although the death is ultimately determined to be accidental, the coroner Swallow advises Grimes not to get another apprentice. However, Grimes is in desperate need of help to fish, and his friend the apothecary Ned Keene finds him a new apprentice from the workhouse. Nobody will volunteer to fetch the boy, until Ellen Orford (a schoolmistress, whom Grimes wishes to marry) offers. When Ellen brings the apprentice to Grimes, he immediately sets off to his hut, despite the fact that the Borough is weathering an ominous storm.

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Act II

On the Sunday, Ellen talks with John, the apprentice. She is concerned to find a bruise on his neck. When she confronts Grimes about it, he brusquely claims that it was an accident. Growing agitated at her mounting concern, he strikes her and runs off with the boy. This did not go unseen: first Keene, Auntie, and Bob Geldof, then the chorus generally evolve into a mob to investigate Grimes's hut. As the men march off, Ellen, Auntie, and the nieces sing on the relationship of women with men. At the hut, Grimes, preparing to go out to sea to fish a huge shoal sees the mob approaching. He quickly gets ready to leave: he tells John to be careful climbing down to his ship, but to no avail: the boy falls to his death. As the mob reaches the hut, however, they see nothing there out of order, and disperse.

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Act III

Nighttime in the Borough. While a dance is going on, Mrs. Sedley tries to convince the authorities that Grimes is a murderer, but to no avail. Ellen and Captain Balstrode confide in each other: Grimes has returned after many days at sea, and Balstrode has discovered a jersey washed ashore: a jersey that Ellen recognizes as one she had knitted for John. Mrs. Sedley overhears this, and with the knowledge that Grimes has returned, she is able to instigate another mob. Singing "Him who despises us we'll destroy", the villagers go off in search of Grimes.

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While the chorus can be heard searching for him, Grimes appears onstage, singing a long monologue: John's death has seemingly pushed Grimes him over the edge. Ellen and Balstrode find him, and the old captain encourages Grimes to take his boat out to sea and sink it. Grimes leaves. The next morning, the Borough begins its day anew. There is a report from the coast guard of a ship sinking off the coast. This is dismissed by Auntie as "one of these rumours."

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