"The work, Peter Grimes, established Benjamin Britten's stature as a composer once and for all, and went on to conquer operatic stages around the world." "Though its setting and music reflect the composer's great love for his native East Anglia, inspiration for the work was a chance encounter with the poetry of George Crabbe while Britten and the tenor Peter Pears were staying in California in 1941. The two made a number of draft scenarios while they waited for a passage to England, and after their return Montagu Slater was asked to write the libretto. In the event it was not until early 1944 that Britten began composing the music; by February 1945 the full score was completed." "A full-colour facsimile of the composition draft of Peter Grimes was published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the opera's first production. These studies, intended as a companion volume, offer a commentary on the work's history and its contemporary significance."--BOOK JACKET