Everything was going fine: the usual experience with Phi, rather slow to get started then, when once afloat, making steady progress so that it all seemed easy enough. And then I came up against 5dn. Having thought for a good while I abandoned myself to every variety of aids, still without success. After about half an hour I left it and returned about three hours later, when the answer was obvious. How often this happens. Of course ‘forbidding’ wasn’t a rather dodgy indicator of the omission of something; all perfectly sound.
The theme is Britten (27ac) and his opera Peter Grimes (5dn). There is a reference to the Four (11ac) Sea Interludes (12ac) and no doubt there are also others; I suspect that 16dn (nor’easter), 23ac (dawn), 26ac (morning) and probably more answers are connected to the opera, which I don’t really know except for the outline and the Four Sea Interludes.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEARCHING |
Children in main go round hunting (9)
sea r(ch)ing |
| 6 | MISER |
Money is, with little hesitation, near fellow (5)
m [= money] is er — a miser is a fellow who is near |
| 9 | INTROIT |
Hymn: keen on it when Rector enters (7)
int(R)o it |
| 10 | ISOTOPE |
Type of atom: is oxygen best to get energy? (7)
is O top e |
| 11 | FOUR |
Number good books, but not Good Book? (4)
f(AV)our — applying the substitution test to try to equate favour with good books I have difficulty: if you are in favour you are in someone’s good books, not in good books |
| 12 | INTERLUDES |
I note playing resulted in short pieces (10)
I n (resulted)* |
| 13 | RAIN TREE |
River’s course doing for South American plant (4,4)
r Aintree — this South American plant is so rare that it isn’t in my Chambers lists, although it is in Bradfords and Chambers itself — evidently the cicadas send down a drizzle of something |
| 15 | AGENDA |
Range about to be terminated – what’s to be done? (6)
ag(end)a — I had misgivings about end = to be terminated, but I suppose to end = to be terminated |
| 18 | SUNDAY |
Time at weekend for one to embrace a French date (6)
s(un d)ay — say = for one |
| 19 | ARCTURUS |
Not the Dog-Star – Cur-Star, second in luminosity, possibly (8)
(Cur-star {l}u{minosity})* |
| 21 | HALLELUJAH |
Auditorium and oratorio with one vocal change, God be praised (10)
hall Elijah with the i being replaced by u — ref. Mendelssohn’s Elijah — but why ‘vocal’? Is it some sort of indication that it’s a vowel that’s being changed? |
| 23 | DAWN |
Opening event tied, after runs discounted (4)
d{r}awn |
| 26 | MORNING |
Sound of complaint: right to block one out in early part of day (7)
moaning [= sound of complaint] with r instead of a |
| 27 | BRITTEN |
Composer put pen to paper, displaying book for women (7)
written with the w replaced by b — more misgivings, which perhaps were unfounded, about written = put pen to paper; the substitution test works OK here: he has written/ he has put pen to paper |
| 28 | STORM |
Eminence engaged in kinky sex, provoking outrage (5)
tor in S&M |
| 29 | SLENDERLY |
Slightly crafty about mortgage provider (9)
s(lender)ly |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SKIFF |
Boat‘s a runner (very loud) (5)
ski [= runner] ff |
| 2 | ARTHURIAN |
Skill leading German invader to adopt elevated attitude of British king (9)
Art hu(ria)n, the ria being (air)rev. — ref. King Arthur |
| 3 | CROP |
Get to bring in right stuff from fields (4)
c(r)op — I had corn for a while, thinking in some obtuse way that get = con, and this didn’t help with 9ac |
| 4 | INTENDED |
Likely spouse? Interest’s not continuing (8)
int. [= interest] ended |
| 5 | GRIMES |
Deranged fisherman forbidding even parts of nets (6)
grim [= forbidding] {n}e{t}s — this took me absolutely ages — it refers to Peter Grimes, the deranged fisherman in the poem by George Crabbe, made into a more famous opera by 27ac |
| 6 | MOONLIGHT |
Low luminance in the dark? (9)
I can’t see this: is it simply a rather weak cryptic definition (surely not) or is it an &lit. with the wordplay moo [= low] n [?] light [= luminance]? If so, then how does one explain the n? [Thanks Cyborg@1: it’s L for luminance and night for dark; indeed an excellent clue.] |
| 7 | SWORD |
Turned up nearly comatose with cut from weapon (5)
(drows{y})rev. — the ‘nearly’ tells you to remove the last letter of drowsy; it is not part of the definition of drowsy [No it doesn’t and yes it is, as pointed out below: it is indeed (drows{y})rev.] |
| 8 | RHEOSTATS |
They resist misrepresenting hero figures (9)
(hero)* stats — which I remember from my O-level physics, variable resistor things you put in an electrical circuit |
| 13 | REST HOMES |
Detective, losing student, tailing all others in certain establishments (4,5)
rest [= all others] Ho{L}mes |
| 14 | TRAPEZIUM |
I put maze in new arrangement, including hint of rectangular shape (9)
(I put maze)* including r{ectangular} |
| 16 | NOR-EASTER |
Blast affected tenor’s ear (3-6)
(tenor’s ear)* |
| 17 | PREAMBLE |
Power and energy within range for a start (8)
p r(e)amble |
| 20 | JUDGES |
Legal experts mostly fair about daughter, say, when had up (6)
ju(d ge)s{t}, the ge being (eg)rev. |
| 22 | LARGO |
No active movement participating in popular Government (5)
Hidden in popuLAR GOvernment |
| 24 | NINNY |
Bar in US city supplying dope (5)
N(inn)Y |
| 25 | WILD |
Angry author of plays on the radio (4)
“Wilde” |
Thanks, Phi and John. I escaped 5d by Googling for “four interludes” as soon as 11a and 12a went in – I correctly guessed that I was out of my depth with Phi on classical music. I enjoyed all the rest, and I’m sure someone can fill me in later on all the other bits which went over my head.
6d was my favourite – it’s L for luminance, so MOO + N{L}IGHT.
Thanks Cyborg, yes of course. Blog corrected.
Rather enjoyed this-and the very honest blog.Thanks to Cyborg for 6d.
I do have “War Requiem” in my collection but BB has not yet made it to my classical A list. So I was a bit stumped with 5d- I’ve heard OF Peter Grimes but dont know if I’ve actually heard it.Sound a bit Dickensian.Would have been nice if War and Requiem were in there- I guess this was a mini-theme.
I’m still getting to know Phi’s puzzles and I liked the cluing here- especially after the Graun puzzle which I was not too struck with.
And I’m a Graunophile.Not today though.
At 7d I took ‘nearly comatose’ as the def and ‘with cut’ as the deletion indicator
Thanks Phi and John
Yes indeed Euston. Again how silly of me. Blog amended.
Thanks John. There seems to be a bit of nod to Handel here too, with HALLELUJAH [chorus] and LARGO – and he wrote a few INTROITs too. More tenuously, his oratorio Jephthah is based on a story in the book of JUDGES.
21d: “vocal” can mean “relating to a vowel” – I mainly know this from the rubric of Azed’s Spoonerism puzzles, which says that the Spoonerisms can be “consonantal or vocalic”
5D defeated me due to my inability / refusal to see the wordplay for what it was. I was fooled fair and square and can have no complaints.
I spotted a theme!
I’ve seen Grimes many times, and I think there’s an aria that mentions Arcturus, too, but I haven’t got a libretto to hand. I like the story that when the opera was first performed, it caused such a stir that bus conductors would announce “Sadler’s Wells, home of Peter Grimes the sadistic fisherman.”
Couldn’t quite parse 18ac, so thanks for the final link. I knew it had to be SUNDAY once I’d got the them as one of the four interludes is called Sunday Morning.
The Four Sea Interludes are Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight and Storm. I guess the storm might well have been a NOR-EASTER as the opera is set on the Suffolk coast.
I spotted the theme, but only at the end when I twigged what was going on in 7dn (not quite my LOI) and that ‘forbidding’, as John says, was not an omission indicator. Then all the rest fell into place.
Thanks, Phi and John
It’s funny how we’re all different – I put in GRIMES straight away, and I’m no Britten buff, although I have casually listened to his music. I think the ‘fisherman’ bit just triggered a little switch in what passes for my brain. Of course the complete Nina passed me by as usual (but frankly, I didn’t spend much time looking for it).
Delightful puzzle, much enjoyed. Thank you to Phi and to John for the blog.
Good weekend to all.
The problem with including little words like SEA is that three-letter entries in grids are fairly rare. So I popped it in at the start of SEARCHING. As I’d been leaving 5d as __I_E_ since there were plenty of options with almost any first letter, I was suddenly presented with a thematic opportunity.
My own preference among Britten’s operas is Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I can’t now watch the play without the music being summoned up. But by any standard, Grimes is one of the greatest operas around.