Copious Notes: Met's 'Peter Grimes' this weekend

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Raised by opera-loving parents in a rock ’n’ roll world, Rich Copley has parlayed his broad interests into his career writing about arts and entertainment. Since 1998, he has covered performing arts, film and faith-based popular culture for the Lexington Herald-Leader, the daily newspaper in Lexington, Ky. It’s a pretty broad beat, but Rich delights in finding influences of the past in the present and showing fine arts fans the value of pop culture, and vice versa. ~ Copious Notes is a blog covering that broad spectrum. If you want to read about specific areas of interest, such as theater or opera, click on one of the categories to the right and you will be whisked away to all posts in that category. Also, look around the blog for links; multimedia items such as photo albums, videos, and interviews with artists; and other nuggets. Have fun, and thanks for dropping in. The header for this blog was designed by Danny Kelly and the illustration was drawn by Camille Weber.

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March 14, 2008

Met's 'Peter Grimes' this weekend

Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Peter Grimes. Copyrighted photo by Ken Howard | The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera’s Live HD broadcasts go dark this weekend with Benjamin Britten’s modern masterpiece Peter Grimes.

Anthony Dean Griffey sings the title role in this story of a fisherman who hopes for a better life but suffers from misfortune and bad temperament. The opera is known for letting the audience decide whether Grimes is a true villain or a victim of society. This production is directed by John Doyle, whose Tony Award-winning production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company originally was staged at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park.

Anthony Tommasini's review for The New York Times provides a nice, quick historical accounting of the 1945 opera at the Met, and he says that Griffey's performance adds new dimensions to the role:

"Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places. Every word of his diction is clear. You sense Grimes’s dreamy side struggling to emerge. The moments of gentleness, though, make Mr. Griffey’s impulsive fits of hostility, his bursts of raw vocal power, seem even more threatening."

The opera will be shown at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Regal Hamburg Pavilion 16, Lexington Green Movies 8 and Richmond Mall Cinemas 8; and at 3 p.m. March 16 at Lexington Green and Richmond Mall. Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for children. Click here for links to advance tickets.

If you can't make it to the movie theater, Peter Grimes is also the Met's radio broadcast this week, heard in Central Kentucky on WEKU (88.9 FM).

Posted at 12:01 AM in Opera | Permalink

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