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Barry Millington's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Phyllida Lloyd.
Cast: Opera North, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (Peter Grimes), Giselle Allen (Ellen Orford), Rachel Hynes (Ellen Orford, Mar 5), Christopher Purves (Captain Balstrode), Jonathan Summers (Captain Balstrode, Feb 6, 13, 20, 26, 28), Andrew Rupp (Captain Balstrode, Mar 5), Yvonne Howard (Auntie), Amy Freston (Niece 1), Claire Booth (Niece 2), Alan Oke (Bob Boles), Ethna Robinson (Mrs Sedley), Roderick Williams (Ned Keene), Paul Gibson (Ned Keene, Feb 28), Richard Farnes (cond), James Holmes (cond, Feb 13, Mar 15), Anthony Ward (des)
Description: Acclaimed director Phyllida Lloyd (A Handmaid's Tale, The Carmelites) directs Britten's story of the outcast fisherman, with Welsh tenor Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as Grimes and soprano Giselle Allen as the widowed schoolmistress Ellen. Opera North's Music Director Richard Farnes takes the baton. Sung in English.
Trains: Tube: Angel 
Phone: 0844412 4300
Website: www.sadlerswells.com
Caught in a net of suspicion: Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts plays the surly loner Peter Grimes with inward tenderness
Though the opera was first performed more than 60 years ago, the contemporary resonances of Britten's Peter Grimes can still chill the heart of a modern audience.
With its theme of the Outsider, at best a nonconformist, at worst a child abuser, and the retribution exacted by society for that failure to conform, Peter Grimes is very much a story for today.
Phyllida Lloyd's production for Opera North, hugely successful on its first appearance in 2006 and now revived with most of the same cast, picks up those resonances to devastating effect.
The conventional staging elements of sea, shingle, moot hall and local pub are banished in favour of abstract representations that achieve tremendous power from the imagery deployed.
In Act I, for example, the suffocatingly close life of the fishing community is symbolised by the net-like marquee they pull over their heads: they, too, are caught in a trap.
Later, as the people take refuge from the storm inside the Boar Inn, the simple structure they have erected resembles a raft: again all are battling for survival.
But here, too, as Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts sings Grimes's "Now the Great Bear and Pleiades" aria, with the inward tenderness that characterises his delivery of the role, the folk, sharing the visionary moment, all gaze up into the heavens, their faces glowing (Paule Constable's lighting skilfully enhances the drama throughout).
If Lloyd-Roberts captures Grimes's mental instability through his interiority rather than by the histrionics of a great interpreter such as Vickers, Giselle Allen's Ellen is heartfelt rather than immaculate of tone.
Among a strong supporting cast, Yvonne Howard's Auntie and Roderick Williams's Ned Keene stand out, though all rise to the sharply original characterisations devised by Lloyd.
Richard Farnes brings a similar intelligence and deft touch to the score, evoking the glistening salt spray one minute and the terrifying drumbeat of persecution the next.
The chorus of Opera North is in fine voice, not least when roaring out Grimes's name as a grotesque effigy of the social outcast is tossed with a pitchfork. The revelation of this all too human heart of darkness freezes the blood.
• Repeat performance tomorrow night. Information: 0844 412 4300.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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Mostly, Opera North's Peter Grimes is a triumph. But compared with those for Trevor Nun's production at Glyndebourne the set designs did nothing for me. They seemed poverty stricken and unevocative. Lloyd-Roberts is believable Grimes, with superb acting ability but his upper register is a bit thin. "Now the Great Bear.."didn't thrill as it should. Jonathan Summers as Balstrode was the best singer in the performance and Giselle Allen as Ellen Orford got into fine form after a fairly timid first act. Excellent casting. The orchestra playing lacked subtlety at times.
- Angela, London
