yet terrible and deep

Then back to sea with strong majestic sweep
It rolls in ebb yet terrible and deep.

So ends Britten's Peter Grimes which we saw broadcast live from the Met this afternoon. I have seen the work before. I saw it at Covent Garden in 1975 in a production that featured Jon Vickers, Thomas Allen, Geraint Evans and Heather Harper. Now I'm much more conscious at 50 than I was at 18 of the moral ambiguity of the piece and better equipped philosophically and musically to respond to a performance. With that caveat, I enjoyed the Covent Garden production but this one left me speechless. "Shock and awe" in the opera house.

Tony Dean Griffey was born to play the role of Peter Grimes. He had complete vocal mastery of this extraordinarily difficult part. "Now the Great Bear and the Pleiades" was every bit the equal of Pears' version. He acted wonderfully bringing out the ambiguity in Grimes with great skill. It was a searing performance. The supporting cast was very good indeed. I particularly liked Anthony Michaels-Moore as Balstrode. Patricia Racette acted and sang well as Ellen Orford although maybe she has just a touch too much vibrato to be ideal in the role. The chorus, which is hugely important in this piece, was fantastic.

The set was ingenious. It was just a wall with windows and doors that moved position as the action demanded. Simple but effective. One never sees the sea but in this production it is omnipresent; eternal and deadly. Maybe it really is the true protagonist. Certainly the marvellous orchestral performance conjured up by Donald Runnicles gave it its full weight.

Peter Grimes is Britten's greatest work and he, in turn is one of the greatest of twentieth century composers. This production is near perfect. I doubt I will ever again hear such an impressive performance of a modern opera. If you are in New York, and can get a ticket to one of the remaining performances, go!