That's true (Lucretia I never liked very much, and haven't listened to for ages, so don't have much to say on it). I suppose I do still see the Governess as one more overbearing mother figure though as you imply (and who has very little of any sense of sexual being - arguably Mrs Grose, when she 'takes the liberty' of kissing her, comes closer to that!), she is rather more complicated than others in this respect. The Turn of the Screw is one of the best of all the operas, in my opinion, and the characters of Miss Jessel and Flora are a major reason why (the last scene by the lake with Flora and Miss Jessel (and the other two women) is, to me, much more successful and subtle (and distressing) than the rather more obvious pathos in the final scene, with Miles's death). I suppose I wonder how a similarly able female composer might have dealt with the same libretto, how their musical characterisations might differ? Need to go back to it; I will post a bit more about some details of how the music relates to the characters at a later date.

Just quickly, I agree with Ian in general here (mother-figures or super-bitches for the most part), but I'm with Ron about the Governess. When you say, Ian, that she has "very little sense of sexual being", do you mean that it's there, but she doesn't realise it? One interpretation of TofS has it that the whole story is a figment of her sexually repressed imagination.

Like you I'm not aware of a study of Britten's women, though there's probably a PhD thesis or two. I do believe that up to a point life and art reflect each other, and the important women in his life were mostly mother-figures (or work colleagues, like Imogen Holst, who didn't really count as women). An exception perhaps was Galina Vishnevskaya, whom he had a real crush on. I just wish that he had managed to compose the proposed Anna Karenina for her. I simply can't begin to imagine what it might have been like.

The story seems to have turned to glue in the hands of more than one composer - Janacek also made sketches for an opera on Tolstoy's heroine, but abandoned the idea.  The book is so densely written that I can't readily imagine how you could mine a libretto out of it that wouldn't be a travesty,  but this didn't stop Rodion Schedrin blazing ahead with an opera (I've never heard this piece, and it fell from favour with extraordinary rapidity). The contemporary American composer David Carlson produced an operatic version last year too, at Santa Fe Opera if I remember correctly?

Can someone PLEASE change the title of this thread?

It's for Richard and not me to answer, of course, but your revision still doesn't get away from the allusion to the "baritone" which Peter Pears never was; but over to you for your view, Richard...

"Grimes is Hatto exorcised"? Nah - much worse...

Best,

Alistair

So am I although I'd like to emphasise the ambivalence inherent in the description 'interesting'.

"Tough on Grimes; tough on the causes of Grimes" - but let this whole thing Peter out, just as the person who first said that is about to do...

Why not just satisfy Richard's perfectly reasonable and understandable wish by continuing this thread with the simple title of "Peter Grimes", tout court?

By the way, while were talking of Britten's operas, does anyone here have any idea why Britten used the first four notes of Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum for Claggart's motif in Billy Budd? (not that I'm about to sue the Britten Estate for copyright infringement, mind...)

Best,

Alistair