In the week Timothée Chalamet made his ill-advised claim that “no one cares about ballet and opera anymore”, the 1,700 people gathered at the Lyric Theatre in Salford to watch Opera North’s revival of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes would strongly disagree. Chalamet might revise his opinion were he ever to see this production. Karolina Sofulak’s revival of the 2006 original presents Britten’s music in all its brooding glory while sharply revealing the paranoia and groupthink at the heart of the story.
The opera begins in silence. Peter Grimes (John Findon) stands in the dock before an inquest into the death of his young apprentice, William Spode. The townspeople of The Borough are deeply suspicious of Grimes, a loner and outcast in their close-knit and introspective society. His acquittal does little to mollify them; only Ellen Orford (Phillipa Boyle) and Captain Balstrode (Simon Bailey) stand against the perceived wisdom that Grimes is a “wrong ’un”. Orford attempts to kindle a romance with Grimes that is doomed from the start. Over the course of the three-hour-plus story (including two short intervals), we watch the townsfolk coalesce into a lynch mob intent on carrying out vigilante justice, less because Grimes is guilty of any crime than because he is perceived as different.
Britten chose to set his opera among the 19th-century isolated fishing communities of East Anglia. Phyllida Lloyd chose to update the setting for the 2006 production and, although this decision is retained by Sofulak, the scent of the original Victorian stultifying conformity remains strong. Indeed, it feels like something Henrik Ibsen might have written, with its emphasis on small-town hypocrisy, an individual isolated within society and the dark “outsider” status that strongly recalls An Enemy of the People in both theme and morality.
Opera North describe this as a “true company piece”, and the 19th-century Dickensian archetypes are beautifully drawn by the cast. Fanatical Methodist Bob Boles (Stuart Jackson) vies with Auntie (Hilary Summers) and her two nieces (Nazan Fikret and Ava Dodd) for the souls of The Borough, yet they themselves are mired in alcohol and sex. Mrs Sedley (Claire Pascoe) decries Grimes while secretly procuring laudanum from the crooked apothecary Ned Keene (Johannes Moore). All the human frailties and vices of lust, avarice and jealousy are on display; the thin veneer of civilised behaviour quickly disappears, culminating in Grimes being burned in effigy on stage to the howling approval of the townsfolk. My only reservation is that the medium of opera does not allow for deeper examination of the characters; they remain line drawings rather than fully fleshed-out figures.
The backdrop in the set design by Anthony Ward seems to take inspiration from seascapes by both J. M. W. Turner and, closer to home, L. S. Lowry, their bleak, pale emptiness perfectly complementing the deceptively simple nets and platforms assembled from pallets that form the props and set. Lit starkly by Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs, the shadows loom ominously across this barren landscape, mirroring the mood and tone of the drama. Above all there is the music of the orchestra, led by Gary Walker and conducted by Anthony Hermus: a constant evocation of the sea in its ever-changing moods, with bright flutes and clarinets juxtaposed against sonorous bassoons and brassy trumpets, underscored by a beating drum that holds the audience spellbound with its power and precision.
Peter Grimes is certainly not an easy watch and Findon, in the eponymous role, is not a sympathetic lead character. Both his portrayal and the wider production are harsh, brutal and uncompromising. Yet the grand sweep of Britten’s music and the beguilingly simple staging combine to create a compelling and memorable evening in the theatre.
Reviewer: Paul Wilcox
Reviewed: 13th March 2026
North West End UK Rating: