Britten-Pears DVD Collection highlights

[david87production]

pears is great!

[nicksum29]

Apparently, during the young bachelor song, Pears once replaced the word "woo" with "fuck". Much better, methinks.

[Sieglinde84]

Poor Glossop has a criminally bad wig, but the movie still looks awesome. I SO love this scene. Evil pwn'd. :D

And what a nice voice Pears had. Why is Grimes sung by big, bear-like Heldentenors so often? If he's fragile, both physically and vocally, you'll feel for him easier.

[CzarDodon]

Sieglinde84, it's hard work being a fisherman Peter Grimes couldn't be physically fragile and certainly not vocally fragile (his mind could be fragile). I have great admiration for Pears as Grimes, but at times he's a bit too much of an English gentleman, on the decca recording for example, when he sings "water, you had the last yesterday" he doesn't sound anything like a fisherman

[Sieglinde84]

I've tried Langridge, and loved him. He's also more of a gentleman type by default, but he can look whatever he wants. (Hell, he can even look an evil Witch...) You can believe he's a fisherman, and psychologically, he's perfect. (Not to mention vocally too.)

My problem with VIckers was the overplaying. He looked like a Tristan disguised as a fisherman, while everyone else played realistically.

[stevevandien]

Other lyric tenors have sung Grimes as well, like Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Anthony Dean Griffey (although granted, Griffey is a pretty big man:)). Jon Vickers demonstrated that given sufficient technique, dramatic tenors could sing Grimes. So other big-voiced guys followed him. Now the trend seems to be swinging back the other way. Whether you prefer a dramatic or lyric Grimes is a matter of taste. I've only heard Pears, Vickers and Johnson in the role. Each was splendid --

[pjdonagh]

Good point about Pears and Grimes however my comment is really to highlight the the late Peter Glossop...a sadly missed and all too often overlooked great British baritone.

Wig aside, very good here.

[Sieglinde84]

Got the movie meanwhile, and it's really good.

Any chance there's a recording with Langdon as Grand Inquisitor or Hagen?

[Liedliebhaber]

Very Impressive, but I just have to say it... Charlie Sheen at 4:00?

[inwoodliver]

@Liedliebhaber lol does look like Charlie

[adamhickox]

Where can i purchase these DVD's?

[Marmalade000000]

Lovely singing by Peter Pears!

[colenso05]

When I saw these DVDs in MDC in London I had not the slightest hesitation in buying all 4 at once. Thanks, Decca for re-uniting me with these, which I remember seeing years ago. I wonder if there are plans to release "Death in Venice" if the recording still exists?

[wbiro]

I came this way via "The Rest is Noise- Listening to the Twentieth Century" by the music critic Alex Ross, who wrote an intriguing summary of Britten's life and works, and an in-depth coverage of Peter Grimes... (the bus created a stop for the first run, "Next stop, Peter Grimes"!) too bad you couldn't weave in Avril Lavigne dancing and singing that "you need a new girlfriend" number- there would be 95 million views here rather than a thousand...! (albeit a completely different audience)