Phyllida Lloyd’s fantastic, stripped-back model of Britten’s Peter Grime revived at Opera North with a completely rounded efficiency from John Findon as Grimes

Britten: Peter Grimes, Act One, Scene One – Opera North, 2026 (Photograph: James Glossop)

Britten: Peter Grimes; John Findon, Philippa Boyle, Simon Bailey, Johannes Moore, Hilary Summers, Stuart Jackson, Nazan Fikret, Ava Dodd, Claire Pascoe, Daniel Norman, Blaise Malaba, director: Phyllida Lloyd/Karolina Sofulak/Tim Claydon, conductor: Garry Walker; Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre
Reviewed 13 February 2026

Phyllida Lloyd’s highly effective, stripped-back manufacturing revived with a robust ensemble forged and the corporate in terrific type, centred on terrific performances from John Findon and Philippa Boyle as Grimes and Ellen Orford. 

Phyllida Lloyd‘s manufacturing of Britten’s Peter Grimes debuted at Opera North in 2006 and although it was final seen again in round 2013 it has remained one of many productions members of the corporate most talked about reviving. Now it’s again within the care of revival administrators Karolina Sofulak [who directed Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at Opera Holland Park in 2019, see my review] and Tim Claydon, who can be the motion director. We caught the opening evening on Friday 13 February 2026 on the Leeds Grand Theatre carried out by Garry Walker, the corporate’s music director. Designs had been by Anthony Ward with lighting by Paule Constable/Ben Jacobs.

Peter Grimes was performed by John Findon with Philippa Boyle as Ellen Orford [who we last saw as Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre with London Opera Company in 2023, see my review]. Simon Bailey [seen recently in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at ENO, see my review, and a notable Wotan in Dresden Music Festival’s historically informed Die Walküre, see my review]. Hilary Summers was Auntie, Nazan Fikret and Ava Dodd had been the Nieces, Stuart Jackson was Bob Boles, James Creswell was Swallow, Claire Pascoe was Mrs Sedley, Daniel Norman was Rev Adams, Johannes Moore was Ned Keene and Blaise Malaba was Hobson.

Seeing Lloyd’s manufacturing for the primary time (I didn’t catch the earlier revival) it was fascinating to see how Lloyd caught most of the concepts and themes which have cropped up in more moderen productions of the opera. This was a really stripped-back staging with a concentrate on the performers.

Britten: Peter Grimes – John Findon, Philippa Boyle – Opera North, 2026 (Photograph: James Glossop)

Anthony Ward had created a easy area with a picture of the ocean on the again inside which all the pieces occurred. Costumes had been loosely Sixties. There was no bodily Borough, the main focus was on the refrain filling the stage and within the opening scene of Act One and the closing scene of the opera the visible focus was an enormous web which was being labored on but additionally created a putting picture. A lot use was fabricated from pallets which had been moved round by members of the corporate, may very well be stood on, stacked and even placed on edge to create boundaries such because the one which held the refrain again through the Prologue. Grimes’s hut was a posh development, the elevating of which, through the Passacaglia in Act Two, was the event for Grimes’s fantasy of a greater life.

The opera opened with the youngsters of the Borough discovering Grimes’a physique, and on the finish of Act Three, John Findon stripped and walked into the ocean, bringing issues full circle. All through the night, motion was taken into the Sea Interludes, making them a part of the dramatic motion fairly than interludes. This positioned much more on John Findon’s shoulders, as he was current on stage quite a bit. Maybe probably the most putting picture was on the opening of Act Three, when Findon’s Grimes was mourning the physique of the apprentice, a nice efficiency from Toby Dray. In an motion that will need to have taken plenty of belief creating between Findon and Dray, we noticed Grimes raise the boy’s physique excessive into the air.

Findon sang the position at Dutch Nationwide Opera and lined it for Deborah Warner’s manufacturing at Covent Backyard. He gave us a really full, totally rounded account of the character. He has the ability for a contemporary, post-Jon Vickers account of the position, however Findon additionally had the power to nice his voice down. ‘The Nice Bear’ featured some profoundly stunning singing, helped by being sung on to us, the viewers. Findon made Grimes one thing of a dreamer, however emphasised his sense of displacement: determined to suit into the Borough, but not doing so. Considerably self-absorbed fairly than strictly violent, like plenty of huge singers enjoying the position he used his bulk admirably: this was a personality whose quickness to anger might have tough penalties. Grimes’s closing scene, with Findon alone on stage, was transferring and mesmerizing.

Britten: Peter Grimes – Johannes Moore, Hilary Summers, Nazan Fikret, Ava Dodd – Opera North, 2026 (Photograph: James Glossop)

In Act Two, Findon’s Grimes and Philippa Boyle’s Ellen made their lengthy scene appear as if we had been eavesdropping on a long-married couple’s difficulties, the connection coming aside. This constructed on the sense developed in Act One, that this relationship was long-established. Boyle minimize a considerably dowdy, old school determine as Ellen, dressed very in another way to the with-it outfits of the nieces. She came visiting as one thing of a quiet mouse, but one with a core of bravery: she dared to go the place others dare not with Grimes. Boyle introduced out Ellen’s sense of ethical daring, one thing related that the very best Micaelas give to Act Three of Bizet’s Carmen. She made the solo in Act Two and the Embroidery Aria in At Three each profoundly transferring and fairly stunning.

Simon Bailey’s command of the position of Bulstrode was admirable, there was not a hint of hectoring in his tone. As an alternative, Bailey used his voice lyrically but by no means wanted to push. This was a sympathetic Bulstrode, nonetheless one thing of an outsider, somebody you felt may need had related difficulties to Grimes with the folks of the Borough however who had come to a extra passable lodging. Hilary Summers introduced an analogous sense of fence-sitting to Auntie. Summers minimize a glamorous determine, usually smiling and welcoming but additionally in a position to see her clientele clearly. Although this was a consummate account of the position, there have been moments when Summers felt slightly underpowered for it to be ultimate. Nazan Fikret and Ava Dodd made the nieces into clear contributors within the drama fairly than reactive nonentities. They had been each stuffed with character, in a position to give pretty much as good as they obtained.

The benefit of this was that the quartet of girls in Act Two, all the time one in all my highlights within the opera, had an underlying sense of drama to it which appeared to make the music extra profound.

Britten: Peter Grimes – Claire Pascoe, Johannes Moore – Opera North, 2026 (Photograph: James Glossop)

Johannes Moore, whom we’ve got seen with British Youth Opera, made a terrific Ned Keene. Moore’s assumption of the position appeared easy, a wide-boy, eager for the women but additionally sympathetic to Grimes. Clarie Pascoe was a terrific Mrs Sedley together with having the ability to cope admirably with the position’s low tessitura. Pascoe introduced out the character’s obsessiveness, and there have been moments in Act Three when she appeared a first-rate candidate for residing in Royston Vasey. Maybe higher recognized for singing Mozart, Handel and Monteverdi, Stuart Jackson made a splendidly unsavoury Bob Boles full with lengthy, greasy hair and obsessive method. Jackson sang vividly and effortlessly, commanding the stage.

James Creswell was a robust Swallow, simply in a position to command a room but letting his hair down splendidly within the opening scene of Act Three. Daniel Norman was suitably oily as Revd Adams but not a lot to render the character unbelievable. Blaise Malaba made a robust, but sympathetic Hobson. Dean Robinson from the refrain performed Dr Crabbe.

Fielding almost 50 singers, the refrain was on terrific type, filling the stage each vocally and dramatically. The manufacturing positioned plenty of emphasis on them as residents of the Borough. Although the tip of Act Two, Scene One, was profoundly disturbing, the power of the manufacturing was in the best way that the members of the Borough gave the impression to be odd nonentities fairly than oddities. Within the opening scene of Act One and different locations, there was plenty of bodily motion too, making a musico-dramatic complete. The residents of the Borough had been right here very positively a personality in their very own proper, and mirrored within the commanding vocal performances.

Britten: Peter Grimes – Opera North, 2026 (Photograph: James Glossop)

Garry Walker appeared to take a fluid view of the opera, generally taking speeds at tempos which had been on the quicker aspect. The end result was undoubtedly a dramatic account of the opera, one which drew you into the drama. The orchestra was on nice type, and there was lots to get pleasure from within the interludes however Walker made certain these had been woven into the entire.

The manufacturing was devoted to the reminiscence of the corporate’s first normal administrator Graham Marchant (1945-2024), fairly appropriately because the opera featured in Opera North’s first season in 1978/79.

The power of the manufacturing was the best way it mined the best way that odd life might have a vein of anger and violence and be disturbing, the sense of informal nastiness. There was one thing profoundly uncomfortable about the best way Lloyd/Sofulak/Claydon introduced out the difficulties of the drama with out ever making the people dislikable. This was the ability of odd folks. Towering over this was Findon’s Grimes, one thing of a visionary but in addition uncomfortable in his personal pores and skin and inclined to lash out, and finally heartbreaking.