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Peter Grimes

Published Monday 21 January 2008 at 10:15 by Kevin Berry

Revived less than 18 months after it was last performed, Opera North’s Peter Grimes shows why it was garlanded with awards and critical superlatives.

Fresh and sharp edged, superbly coloured and shaped, it is a perfect interpretation of what must be the perfect English opera.

Phyllida Lloyd’s radical interpretation makes it a story for now, for today and for tomorrow. Fisherman Grimes, an awkward, lumbering loner is suspected of ill treating his young apprentice. Then the boy’s body is found. It is the stuff of headlines.

The Opera North chorus, clothed in dark blues and sandy yellows, creates a living, feeling, angry community. The way the townsfolk seize on rumour is chilling. There is little in the way of scenery but more is not needed. Pallets create a pub floor, decking and fencing. At other times a huge fishing net is hoisted. Lighting and colours and an ever moving, ever shifting chorus do the rest.

In the title role Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts gives a towering performance. Powerful, quick of temper and yet capable of surprising physical tenderness, he is bewildered by life - and tragedy beckons.

Grimes has his sympathisers. Giselle Allen as good-natured widow Ellen Orford is beautifully poignant rather than merely sad. Christopher Purves makes a deep impression as the sensible Captain Balstrode.

The sea is a significant character in the story and it is the sea in unremitting mood. Opera North’s orchestra, conducted by Richard Farnes, gives Benjamin Britten’s orchestral interludes stirring treatment, most especially with Storm.

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