Quaint houses, smokeries, shingle and fishing boats line Aldeburgh’s coastline. For anyone familiar with Britten’s opera Peter Grimes this is likely to be the setting with which the opera is viewed. That familiar ‘Benjamin Britten’ dark sea and skies. 

But for Netia Jones, who has herself worked extensively in the Suffolk town and with its connected festival, a chance to direct Britten's best known opera in Gothenburg, Sweden, gave the opportunity to look beyond the Britten operatic stereotype.  

'I really see skill': Director Netia Jones | Credit: Cordula Treml

‘It's a musical language that's really familiar – like a second language. But there's something really nice and liberating about looking at Benjamin Britten when you're not in the UK. I did it already with the Midsummer Night's Dream I did in Santa Fe.’ 

Jones’s 2021 production in Santa Fe was followed by another production of Midsummer last year at Garsington – a perspective that brought in the changing light of the evening, nature and estate surroundings inside the opera house. Embedding the surroundings into the production is something that’s also at the front of Jones’s mind when speaking about Grimes in Gothenburg. 

‘The sea is hugely important in this production because it’s site specific; you come out of the Opera House and you're surrounded by water. Opera doesn't start and finish just with the upbeat and the final curtain. I think the whole environment feeds into your experience and your reception of that piece.’ 

Netia Jones has worked for over two decades as an acclaimed director, designer and video artist with a career incorporating opera, theatre, concerts and immersive installation projects. Growing up in London, though learning the violin from age three, Jones went to study modern languages at Oxford and there immersed herself in music and theatre. Jones’s earliest professional productions were baroque operas, working with Christian Curnyn’s Early Opera Company.  

An element to Jones’s work that she has become known for is the use of projection and media. Her own creative studio, LIGHTMAP, was founded to bring together specialists in editing, digital technology, animation, 3D modelling, video mapping, theatre, installation and graphic design. This means that, from the beginning, all elements of the design and direction are very integrated. 

'I looked at the schedule and I thought “this is actually impossible”. But when I met this chorus, I realised they were very adept' 

‘I spent some time on the islands,’ She tells me about developing the visual element of the Grimes production. ‘As you can imagine, there's a lot of projection in this production. Every single one of the visual images that comes on the stage is from something either very local to here or in the Nordic countries as a general region.’ 

Though rehearsal time for Grimes has been especially limited, Jones is clearly struck by the quality of the Swedish chorus. ‘Here in Sweden, there's an amazing tradition of acting. It also relates to the "Scandi noir" thing. There's a kind of naturalism in the acting in these dramas which is very compelling. 

‘I looked at the schedule and I thought “this is actually impossible”. But when I met this chorus, I realised they were very adept. I really wanted the chorus to be human beings – real people with back stories. They did all of that work outside of the rehearsal room.’ 

Jones is also honest about the opera’s psychological impact on those working with its dark storyline constructing the explicit psychological downfall of the character of Grimes. ‘It really does take it out of you,' she pauses. 'I underestimated the emotional impact of working on Peter Grimes. It gets under your skin and it does for the whole of the cast. It's not just because the story is so bleak, but it's because it's so true. The truthfulness of it is where the pain lies.’ 

Much of this truthfulness of the story comes from the reality of communities and hostility. For Grimes himself, Jones was keen for him also to be viewed close to the reality of George Crabbe’s poem, and not in the forgiving light that some directors go for. ‘There's an incredibly strong description of that kind of violent personality in the poem that needed to inflict pain on others,’ Jones explains. ‘And so, whether or not our Peter Grimes is that or isn't, I wanted to leave that pathway open to explore. Because statistically it's likely that he would have been violent, especially in remote communities. Violence against children and women is absolutely a very major thing. I didn't not want to explore that.’ 

In late November last year it was announced that Jones would be joining the Royal Opera from January 2025 in a newly-created position of Associate Director. It combines Sarah Crabtree’s former role programming in the Linbury Theatre with driving the wider artistic output of The Royal Opera – especially its developments in innovation, global collaborations, and the commissioning of new work. 

Crucial collaboration: Jones with the creative team of Gothenburg's Peter Grimes | Credit: Lennart Sjöberg/Gothenburg Opera

I wanted to ask Jones about this new step and moving into a leadership position in this way. It’s something she suggests has been building for many years: ‘It's fairly new for me this kind of planning role,’ she begins to reflect. ‘However, it's not really, because these are the subjects I've been thinking about for 20 years.’ 

The culture of the opera house is something Jones has a unique view of, having worked across so many elements from design, lighting, projection and costumes: ‘I really do see skill,’ she tells me sincerely. ‘Because I've been very embedded in each part of the process. I absolutely appreciate the artistry of what happens, and that does have a bearing on what happens on stage. I’ve seen a beautiful costume being created over a period of months and then a director just cutting it without even thinking twice. Sometimes if the roles are very separate, there can be a slight disconnect. 

‘It's a very interesting moment to examine what opera is and what it can be,’ she continues. ‘It’s going to be very exciting to be involved in this broader, zoomed-out thinking in planning, in programming, in innovation – these are all my buzz words going in to the to this position.’ 

So what can we expect from Jones at the Linbury? ‘I am interested in exploring the multiplicity of voices, and, of course, the interplay of technology and live performance. I think the program in the Linbury has been very thrilling, so we're starting from a really terrific place.  

‘I’d like the Linbury to begin to have an identity that is recognisable in the cultural landscape of London. That it has an identity that can then build outwards. I’m hoping we can have a very broad spectrum of events because it's just the most perfect size, and it has the gift of  a tremendous team. I think it's a fantastic hub for exploration and to invite exchange.’ 

Jones says many of her decisions won’t take effect until the end of 2026, but it’s certain she wants her perspective of opera to have an impact right away. ‘It is hierarchical, opera, and it has a standard way of being made: the composer, the librettist, the director, the designer. These designated roles that are all very separate. Because I don't think like that and it’s not how I work, it allows for an openness; maybe operas can look and feel a little bit different. But i's not about creating a revolution or burning down opera – that's the last thing that I want to do. I think it's about exploring new pathways that can then have fantastic conversations.’ 

Peter Grimes directed by Netia Jones is at Gothenburg Opera from 8 March to 1 April. opera.se