What is Peter Grimes?
'''''Peter Grimes''''' is an [[opera]] by [[Benjamin Britten]]. It was first performed in 1945. It is generally thought to be the most important [[Britain|British]] opera of the 20th century. It is about a community in a small fishing village in the east of England in the 1820s. Peter Grimes is a fisherman who feels that the people do not want to have anything to do with him. He wants to make lots of money so that he can marry and get people’s respect. In his obsession with catching as much fish as possible he is cruel to the boys who help him (his [[apprentice]]s), and they die. At the end of the opera Grimes [[drowning|drowns]] himself. Britten wrote the main part (Peter Grimes) for his life partner [[Peter Pears]] to sing. There are three acts, and the opera starts with a prologue and ends with an epilogue. Some of the scenes are joined by continuous music, and some of this is often played separately in concerts. This music is known as the '''Four Sea Interludes'''. ==History of its composition== When [[World War II]] started Britten and Pears went to [[United States|America]] to avoid the war. In 1941 Britten started to feel homesick because he read an article by [[E.M.Forster]] about George Crabbe, a [[poet]] who had lived in the same part of [[England]] that Britten came from. Britten started to realize that, in order to compose well, he had to go back to his own country. Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942. The [[conducting|conductor]] [[Sergei Koussevitzky]] asked Britten to write an opera based on a poem by George Crabbe. The poem, called “The Borough”, was about the story of Peter Grimes. The village in the poem was [[fiction|fictitious]], but it was very much like [[Aldeburgh]] where Britten later made his home. Britten asked Montagu Slater to write the [[libretto]] based on the story of Crabbe’s poem. The opera was first performed at [[Sadler's Wells Theatre]] in London on 7 June 1945 by the company which later became [[English National Opera]]. The conductor was [[Reg