Montagu Slater new. Slater's original libretto, which he published himself (to the annoyance of Britten and Peter Pears, who had made a number of amendments to it before the opera was staged), is cast in three acts. It omits the repetitions necessary in the actual opera. Anthony Burgess, writing in The Listener (magazine) in 1964, stated: “The excellence of Peter Grimes has a great deal to do with Montagu Slater's libretto, the only libretto I know that can be read in its own right as a dramatic poem.” He also wrote the libretti for `Yerma’, composed by Denis Aplvor. Slater was involved,
W. F. Grimes W. F. Grimes William Francis Grimes (known as Peter; 31 October 1905 – 25 December 1988) was a Welsh archaeologist. He devoted his career to the archaeology of London and the prehistory of Wales. He was awarded a CBE in 1955. Grimes was born in Pembroke in Wales. His father was a draughtsman with the Pembroke docks board. He was educated at Pembroke county school and then at Bedford Modern School after his father moved to Bedford to work as a draughtsman on airships. Grimes returned to Wales in 1923 to study Latin at the University College of South Wales