We here at New Palace Opera are very happy to have Pauls Putnins back working with us after a little – OK – long break. He last sang Dr Bartolo in our tour of The Marriage of Figaro in 2001 and 2002.

And now the British-Latvian bass-baritone is joining us to sing Balstrode in our concert performance of Peter Grimes.

Right out of college, I was accepted into the Glyndebourne chorus for Trevor Nunn’s production of Peter Grimes, the 2000 revival, where I also sang First Fisherman and covered Hobson. Because I was freshly arrived in Britain, being part of this important piece about English society in that particular era was very interesting and exotic to me.

The piece was so dark and so, I must say, depressing, that it was good to get outside and see the sunlight because this piece itself does not have a lot of light within it. One of my memories is leaving the rehearsal and performance spaces for fresh air and sunlight, taking deep breaths because I felt I was suffocating – I think the piece is meant to make you feel like that.

So coming to Balstrode, he is a guy who is probably the most experienced and cosmopolitan man in the Borough. As a retired captain of a merchant ship, he’s travelled the world and seen a lot of things in his life, and he’s taken care of many people. He is practical, pragmatic and, at the same time, very fair.

But he also realises the powerlessness of everybody in the Borough because of the way society there works.

Early on, Balstrode tells Grimes that he can see that Ellen Orford would take him as he is, they could probably build a good life together, without him having to become rich. And he also suggests to Grimes that he could leave, go on a merchant ship somewhere, go abroad. But he knows Peter is set in his ways.

Balstrode tries telling Peter the right things to do, but he also knows that he won’t do them.

But by the end, Balstrode knows that there is no kind of way out for Peter and he tells him to take out his boat and sink it, because otherwise he’ll be lynched by the crowd or go to prison forever.

Balstrode’s part is fantastic to sing and the opera is phenomenal, it’s just absolutely wonderful. I’ve always thought that it’s one of the pinnacles of operatic drama.