Peter Grimes relations with his apprentice to be bordering on paederastic, Pears persuaded Slater to cut the questionable stanzas from the final version. The opera was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundations and is "dedicated to the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky", wife of the Russian-born American conductor Serge Koussevitzky. When Joan Cross, who was then manager of the Sadler's Wells company, announced her intention to re-open Sadler's Wells Theatre with "Peter Grimes" with herself and Peter Pears in the leading roles, there were many complaints from company members about supposed favouritism and the "" of Britten's score. Yet when "Peter Grimes" opened
Grimes Poznikov lost what scraps remained of his life. He died on October 27, 2005, on a sidewalk near Cesar Chavez and Bayshore Freeway, of alcohol poisoning. Poznikov was survived by his sister, Jenny Predpelski of Overland Park, KS; girlfriend, Susan "Harmony" Tanner; and two brothers, Greg Poznik of Madison, Wis., and Sam Silver of Aurora, Colo. "Broken Jukebox: a short opera about Grimes Poznikov" for soprano, baritone, chorus, string quintet, trumpet and piano premiered January 2008 at College of Marin. Grimes Poznikov Grimes Poznikov (August 5, 1946 – October 27, 2005), known as "The Human Jukebox," was a fixture of San