Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes (Britten). Libretto by Montagu Slater; prol. and 3 acts; first performance London 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall.

The Borough, a small fishing town on the East Coast, about 1830: At the inquest on the death of Grimes's Apprentice, Swallow, the Coroner, decides that he died ‘in accidental circumstances’, but the people of the Borough suspect Grimes of causing the death. His only friends are Ellen Orford who goes with the carrier, Hobson, to bring the new Apprentice found for him by Ned Keene, and Capt. Balstrode. In the Boar (run by Auntie and her two Nieces), Mrs Sedley, the town gossip, is meeting Keene to collect her tablets. Boles, who is drunk, is prevented by Balstrode from attacking Grimes. Ellen finds a bruise on the young apprentice's neck and the townsfolk assume Peter is beating him. In his hut, Grimes hears the men, led by Rev. Horace Adams, marching toward his hut. He rushes to get out to sea and the boy falls from the hut and is killed. When the boy fails to return, Ellen realizes the Borough will again accuse Grimes of being responsible for his death. Balstrode advises Grimes to take his boat out to sea and scuttle it.