Peter Grimes

A fishing village on the wild coast of England. Life there is hard, the fishermen go out to work on the tempestuous sea, live in humble cabins and at night get drunk with the village wenches at the local tavern. It’s a small community where everyone knows everyone else and keeps an eye on each other. One of the fishermen, Peter Grimes, lives on the fringes of this society. He does not stick to the rules, has no grip on himself and even mistreats his apprentices. The only person who takes his side is the well-intentioned village teacher, Ellen Orford.

But not even she can help him when at night he takes his apprentice out to the cliffs and certain death. Isolated from his fellow men and as a loner unsuited to adapting to a social setting, Peter Grimes is driven to suicide.

It is a coproduction with the English National Opera in London. The director David Alden stages this striking opera with visual originality. At its core are two prominent Finnish performers. The tenor Jorma Silvasti, who appears regularly at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden, sings the title part, the first time he has played a part in opera in Flanders. The renowned Finnish conductor and composer Leif Segerstam is conducting Peter Grimes for the first time.