Peter Grimes or ambiguous the various characters are. Pears was certainly the intended Peter Grimes, and it is likely that Britten wrote the role of Ellen Orford for Joan Cross. The work has been called "a powerful allegory of homosexual oppression", and one of "the true operatic masterpieces of the 20th century", but the composer's own contemporary (1948) summation of the work was simpler: a subject very close to my heart — the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual. Though as the writing of the libretto progressed, certain versions showed Grimes'
Scottish Opera including the Barclays TMA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for "Macbeth" and "Der Rosenkavalier" (both in 1994) and for "Die Walküre" and "Siegfried" (both in 2002), as well as the South Bank Show Award for "Best Opera" for the "Ring Cycle" (2004) and a Herald Angel Award for "The Two Widows" at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2008. Scottish Opera has also staged many successful productions abroad, including "Albert Herring" in Florence, "Egisto (opera)" in Venice, tours in Germany, Austria, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Iceland and recent years including "Peter Grimes" and "Tristan und Isolde" in Lisbon; "Macbeth"