CHAPTER THREE Grimes and Lucretia One of the sure tests of a composer's stature is how he reacts to success. ‘The furore over Peter Grimes both at home and abroad after its premiere in 1945 was possibly more remarkable than that accorded any other opera this century. In the first few years ofits existence Grimes was produced al- most everywhere, even at La Scala, Milan, and at the hidebound Metro- politan Opera in New York. In connection with the Met production (a se- vere test of the work by all accounts), Britten’s face appeared against abad ound of fishing nets on the cover of Time magazine, which ran a lengthy and informative article on him in its inimitable house style (16 February 1948). Not all the attention was adulatory, of course, As the anonymous reporter of Time put it, “English critics, having adopted Benjy Britten as a national hero, now insist on talking like Dutch uncles to him.” When you examine the London reviews of the first run of per- formances at Sadler's Wells you cannot help being appalled by their su- perficiality and patronizing tone. Dyneley Hussey in The Spectator may be taken as an example: “There is no limit to what such a talent may accom- plish, if the composer will aim at bold and simple effects, avoid excess of Originally published in Nigel Fortune, ed., Masi and Theaoe: Eaays in Honour of Winton Dean (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 1987), 353-6. 54Grimes and Lucretia / 55 clever devices and subtle points that fail to make their effect in the theater, and above all, concentrate on the broad vocal melody as the central fea- ture of his music” (15 June 1943). Another striking thing about these re- views is their tendency to begin enthusiastically and gradually to exert control, as though it would somehow threaten the critic’: masculinity if hhe—and they were all men—were to write in response to his spontaneous feelings. Nevertheless, what journalists actually write is never so impor- tant as the amount of attention they show: it was clear to everyone that Grimes wasa success from the start, and the sort of success that might have tempted a lesser composer to continue in the same vein. The Rape of Lit- creta, first performed a little more than a year after Grimes, represents a radical deparcure from the earlier work in more ways than one. ‘The chamber proportions and scoring of Lucretia can of course be ex- plained by practical considerations, which were always a challenge to cre- ativity for Britten. The path to further geand opera had been closed off for the moment asa result of a row between the Sadler's Wells company on the one hand and those associated with Britten (including Joan Cross, Eric Crozier and Peter Pears) on the other. Indeed, it led to the with- drawal of Peter Grimes from the repertory after a surprisingly small num- ber of performances. Moreover, Covent Garden’s new operatic venture, which was to include Peter Grimes in its very first year, did not get under way until 1947 (see Crozier, “Peter Grimes”; and Brett, Peter Grimes, 90-91). ‘The idea of chamber opera must long have been fomenting in Brit- ten’s mind, and with the encouragement of Crozier and Ronald Duncan, whom he chose as his librettist for the new work, he apparently went ahead before there was any question of commitment from John Christie at Glyndebourne, where Lucretia was first performed (see Duncan, Haw t0 Make Enemies, 54-53). The change in timbre that resulted from the new medium naturally enough involved a change in musical style, And with Lucretia Britten's distinctive seeco recitative first comes into its own. Grimes is not without good recitative, of course, most notably in the Pub scene, But the sheer bulk of information in the Lucretia libretto was a56 / Grimes and Lucretia challenge to Britten to develop a characterful approach. Take, for in- stance, the opening of the opera, where the treacherous climb to power of the elder Tarquinius, who never appears in the opera, is marvelously set out in a declamatory manner that can make vital music out of such leaden mouthfuls of syllables as and always he'd pay his way ‘With the prodigious liberality Of self-coin’d obsequious flattery. ‘The chief accompanying instrument is the piano, used in almost ex- actly the same way as it was used during this postwar period to accom- pany recitative in works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The punctuating ritornello from the full chamber band of single woodwind, horn, harp, percussion, string quartet and double bass hints by means of its reiterated chords at some of the tonal areas that will be important in the development of the musical argument, most notably C minor and E minor. With the entry of the Female Chorus, the background to the en suing scene of an army encampment and its mood of frustration is sug- gested by an accompaniment seemingly locked to a chord constructed over B-flat. The mention of Christ and redemption causes a shift to a unison G, the dominant of the whole work, over which the Choruses sing their expressive C-major arioso. Thisis all done deftly and with an econ- omy of means that is all the more striking after the expansiveness of the earlier opera. Another distinct development in Lucretia is the characterization of arias and scenes by means of particular instrumental combinations—the instrumentation of Grimesis by comparison fairly standard. Take, for ex- ample, the opening aria for the Male Chorus, in the which the seesaw- ing soft string chords, double bass punctuations (glissandi and pizzicati) and short falling pianissimo scales on the harp create the atmosphere of an oppressive summer night, complete with crickets and bull frogs—tone painting every bitas fine as, and rather more subtle than, anything in the Sea Interludes. The lullaby that portrays the sleeping Lucretia atthe be-