Rapturous praise for George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, when it was first heard in 2006 in Paris, caused it to be taken up by The Opera Group and given its UK premiere yesterday. A reworking by Martin Crimp of the Pied Piper tale, it has a contemporary political slant while remaining elusive and suggestive.

Benjamin’s imaginative tonal palette is responsible rather than any dramatic impulse. The work fatally lacks any theatrical spark, at least in this minimal production by John Fulljames (designer Soutra Gilmour). Not one of the libretto’s elements — the rats, the crowd, the minister, the stranger — was visualised, even emblematically.

Claire Booth battled both the taxing soprano role and a heavy cold, coming unstuck only in the occasional coloratura passage. Susan Bickley did her best with the one-dimensional mezzo role.

It was paired with Birtwistle’s 1969 Down by the Greenwood Side, everything Benjamin’s work is not. Shrill, rambunctious, pantomime-like, the Birtwistle was a fine early example of the genre of music theatre that was to blossom in the decades to come. Both works were superbly played by the London Sinfonietta under Benjamin.
Information: www.theoperagroup.co.uk