Peter Grimes it. Britten, being a native of Suffolk, strongly identified with the tragic story of the Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes. This opera was first conceived while Britten was in California. Happening to read E. M. Forster's article on the 18th-century Suffolk poet George Crabbe in the BBC's magazine "The Listener", he was straight away filled with nostalgic feelings about Suffolk. Pears found a copy of Crabbe's works in a second-hand bookshop and Britten read the poem "The Borough", which contained the tragic story of the Aldeburgh fisherman Peter Grimes. He said later: in a flash I realised two things: that I
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"