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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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BBC Proms

Music: Classical

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

The world's greatest classical music festival. Stunning performances, unique collaborations and the sheer joy of live music. Relive 2023's highlights before the new season begins.

2012

BBC Proms: 2012 Season: Prom 55

BBC Proms: 2012: Prom 55: Part 2: Britten - Peter Grimes (Act 2)

Performances & Events

Part 2 Part 2: Britten - Peter Grimes (Act 2)

Britten - Peter Grimes (Act 2)

BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, 2012, Prom 55, Britten - Peter Grimes (Act 2)

Martin Handley presents a concert performance of Act 2 of Britten's opera Peter Grimes.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall. Martin Handley presents a concert performance of Act 2 of Britten's opera Peter Grimes. Edward Gardner conducts the ENO Chorus and Orchestra.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

English National Opera, conducted by Edward Gardner, performs one of the greatest of all English operas. Australian tenor Stuart Skelton sings the title role of the unpredictable fisherman, Peter Grimes, an outsider in a closed Suffolk community. Only the schoolteacher Ellen Orford and the old sea captain Balstrode treat Grimes like a normal human being. But will their friendship be enough to defend him when local hostility boils over into virtual mob rule?

English National Opera's revolutionary 2009 production of Britten's Peter Grimes revealed a side of the opera few had suspected. Not just one of the greatest of all English operas, but a masterpiece in a great European tradition - with musical echoes of Berg and German Expressionism. As the conductor, ENO's Music Director Edward Gardner, puts it: 'Grimes has a freedom, a strength and an emotionally connected, visceral quality that I don't think Britten ever quite recaptured - it's a piece that, at its best, feels unshackled and dangerous, and very un-English. That's why I rate it so highly.' 

Tonight at the Royal Albert Hall you can hear precisely what he means - as ENO reunite their cast for one night only at the BBC Proms. 

Britten: Peter Grimes - Act 2

Stuart Skelton .... Peter Grimes (tenor)
Amanda Roocroft .... Ellen Orford (soprano)
Iain Paterson .... Balstrode (bass-baritone)
Rebecca de Pont Davies .... Auntie (mezzo-soprano)
Mark Richardson .... Swallow (baritone)
Leigh Melrose .... Ned Keene (baritone)
Michael Colvin .... Bob Boles (tenor)
Felicity Palmer .... Mrs Sedley (mezzo-soprano)
Gillian Ramm .... 1st Niece (soprano)
Mairead Buicke .... 2nd Niece (soprano)
Darren Jeffery .... Hobson (bass-baritone)
Stuart Kale .... Revd Horace Adams (tenor)
Jacob Mason-White .... John (apprentice)
ENO Chorus and Orchestra
Edward Gardner (conductor).

BBC Proms: 2012

BBC Proms: 2012: Prom 55

Prom 55

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

All broadcasts from the 118th season of the BBC Proms.

A concert performance of Britten's celebrated opera Peter Grimes

Martin Handley presents a concert performance of what is considered one of the greatest of all English operas, Britten's Peter Grimes. Edward Gardner conducts the ENO Chorus and Orchestra

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Part 2: Britten - Peter Grimes (Act 2)

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