The power of the ordinary: Phyllida Lloyd’s wonderful, stripped-back version of Britten’s Peter Grime revived at Opera North with a fully rounded performance from John Findon as Grimes

Britten: Peter Grimes, Act One, Scene One – Opera North, 2026 (Photo: 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 powerful, stripped-back production revived with a strong ensemble cast and the company in terrific form, centred on terrific performances from John Findon and Philippa Boyle as Grimes and Ellen Orford. 

Phyllida Lloyd‘s production of Britten’s Peter Grimes debuted at Opera North in 2006 and though it was last seen back in around 2013 it has remained one of the productions members of the company most talked about reviving. Now it is back in the care of revival directors Karolina Sofulak [who directed Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at Opera Holland Park in 2019, see my review] and Tim Claydon, who is also the movement director. We caught the opening night on Friday 13 February 2026 at the Leeds Grand Theatre conducted by Garry Walker, the company’s music director. Designs were by Anthony Ward with lighting by Paule Constable/Ben Jacobs.

Peter Grimes was played 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 were 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 production for the first time (I did not catch the previous revival) it was fascinating to see how Lloyd caught many of the ideas and themes which have cropped up in more recent productions of the opera. This was a very stripped-back staging with a focus on the performers.

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

Anthony Ward had created a simple space with an image of the sea at the back within which everything happened. Costumes were loosely 1960s. There was no physical Borough, the focus was on the chorus filling the stage and in the opening scene of Act One and the closing scene of the opera the visual focus was a huge net which was being worked on yet also created a striking image. Much use was made of pallets which were moved around by members of the company, could be stood on, stacked and even put on edge to create barriers such as the one that held the chorus back during the Prologue. Grimes’s hut was a complex construction, the raising of which, during the Passacaglia in Act Two, was the occasion for Grimes’s fantasy of a better life.

The opera opened with the children of the Borough discovering Grimes’a body, and at the end of Act Three, John Findon stripped and walked into the sea, bringing things full circle. Throughout the evening, action was taken into the Sea Interludes, making them part of the dramatic action rather than interludes. This placed a lot more on John Findon’s shoulders, as he was present on stage a lot. Perhaps the most striking image was at the opening of Act Three, when Findon’s Grimes was mourning the body of the apprentice, a fine performance from Toby Dray. In an action that must have taken a lot of trust developing between Findon and Dray, we saw Grimes lift the boy’s body high into the air.

Findon sang the role at Dutch National Opera and covered it for Deborah Warner’s production at Covent Garden. He gave us a very complete, fully rounded account of the character. He has the power for a modern, post-Jon Vickers account of the role, but Findon also had the ability to fine his voice down. ‘The Great Bear’ featured some profoundly beautiful singing, helped by being sung directly to us, the audience. Findon made Grimes something of a dreamer, but emphasised his sense of displacement: desperate to fit into the Borough, yet not doing so. Somewhat self-absorbed rather than strictly violent, like a lot of big singers playing the role he used his bulk admirably: this was a character whose quickness to anger could have difficult consequences. Grimes’s final scene, with Findon alone on stage, was moving and mesmerizing.

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

In Act Two, Findon’s Grimes and Philippa Boyle’s Ellen made their long scene seem as if we were eavesdropping on a long-married couple’s difficulties, the relationship coming apart. This built on the sense developed in Act One, that this relationship was long-established. Boyle cut a somewhat dowdy, old-fashioned figure as Ellen, dressed very differently to the with-it outfits of the nieces. She came over as something of a quiet mouse, yet one with a core of bravery: she dared to go where others dare not with Grimes. Boyle brought out Ellen’s sense of moral daring, something similar that the best Micaelas give to Act Three of Bizet’s Carmen. She made the solo in Act Two and the Embroidery Aria in At Three both profoundly moving and rather beautiful.

Simon Bailey’s command of the role of Bulstrode was admirable, there was not a trace of hectoring in his tone. Instead, Bailey used his voice lyrically yet never needed to push. This was a sympathetic Bulstrode, still something of an outsider, someone you felt might have had similar difficulties to Grimes with the people of the Borough but who had come to a more satisfactory accommodation. Hilary Summers brought a similar sense of fence-sitting to Auntie. Summers cut a glamorous figure, often smiling and welcoming yet also able to see her clientele clearly. Though this was a consummate account of the role, there were moments when Summers felt a little underpowered for it to be ideal. Nazan Fikret and Ava Dodd made the nieces into clear participants in the drama rather than reactive nonentities. They were both full of personality, able to give as good as they got.

The advantage of this was that the quartet of women in Act Two, always one of my highlights in the opera, had an underlying sense of drama to it which seemed to make the music more profound.

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

Johannes Moore, whom we have seen with British Youth Opera, made a terrific Ned Keene. Moore’s assumption of the role seemed effortless, a wide-boy, keen for the girls yet also sympathetic to Grimes. Clarie Pascoe was a terrific Mrs Sedley including being able to cope admirably with the role’s low tessitura. Pascoe brought out the character’s obsessiveness, and there were moments in Act Three when she seemed a prime candidate for living in Royston Vasey. Perhaps better known for singing Mozart, Handel and Monteverdi, Stuart Jackson made a wonderfully unsavoury Bob Boles complete with long, greasy hair and obsessive manner. Jackson sang vividly and effortlessly, commanding the stage.

James Creswell was a strong Swallow, easily able to command a room yet letting his hair down wonderfully in the opening scene of Act Three. Daniel Norman was suitably oily as Revd Adams yet not so much to render the character unbelievable. Blaise Malaba made a strong, yet sympathetic Hobson. Dean Robinson from the chorus played Dr Crabbe.

Fielding nearly 50 singers, the chorus was on terrific form, filling the stage both vocally and dramatically. The production placed a lot of emphasis on them as citizens of the Borough. Though the end of Act Two, Scene One, was profoundly disturbing, the strength of the production was in the way that the members of the Borough seemed to be ordinary nonentities rather than oddities. In the opening scene of Act One and other places, there was a lot of physical movement too, creating a musico-dramatic whole. The citizens of the Borough were here very definitely a character in their own right, and reflected in the commanding vocal performances.

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

Garry Walker seemed to take a fluid view of the opera, sometimes taking speeds at tempos which were on the faster side. The result was undoubtedly a dramatic account of the opera, one that drew you into the drama. The orchestra was on fine form, and there was plenty to enjoy in the interludes but Walker made sure these were woven into the whole.

The production was dedicated to the memory of the company’s first general administrator Graham Marchant (1945-2024), rather appropriately as the opera featured in Opera North’s first season in 1978/79.

The strength of the production was the way it mined the way that ordinary life could have a vein of anger and violence and be disturbing, the sense of casual nastiness. There was something profoundly uncomfortable about the way Lloyd/Sofulak/Claydon brought out the difficulties of the drama without ever making the individuals dislikable. This was the power of ordinary people. Towering over this was Findon’s Grimes, something of a visionary but also uncomfortable in his own skin and inclined to lash out, and ultimately heartbreaking.