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Burning Grimes's house | Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Barbora Horáková Joly’s new production of Peter Grimes at the Dutch National Opera is not the only staging of Britten’s great opera to be seen this season. Along with productions at Gothenburg, Welsh National Opera and Opera National de Lyon, this had the luxury of the house’s tremendous stage and 60-strong chorus to bring the Aldeburgh-based terror to life.

Grimes is not Issachah Savage for the first night, as the tenor is sadly unwell with a throat infection. It is instead British tenor John Findon, who is not a stranger to Grimes stand-ins, having stepped in almost exactly a year ago at English National Opera. We won’t know entirely what he managed to retain of the desired production movements in the short time of 'slotting in', but what’s for sure is that his resonant voice and humble embodiment of this complex figure is one that makes its mark.

Grimes v The Borough is a terrific affair. The chorus’s power has a choke hold over the evening – protesting with torches, a church congregation behind wooden slats and fishermen – and led me to think, could this be his staged choral symphony? What’s certain is that Britten left nothing to chance when scoring the punches of this mob.

Horáková Joly’s production, alongside the grace of Eva Maria van Acker’s set and costume designs, leads the production to its highest points:As Grimes reflects on the deaths of his young assistants, a Christian connotation of the three crosses descends with two dead boys depicted, projected onto the boats. A third boat is empty, waiting for Peter Grimes, whose dying need for a caring woman is perhaps only fulfilled after the grave. 

We are also blessed with a spinning piano, emerging with a dim light until entering into a bustling pub space. The production’s lighting itself, poignantly designed by Sascha Zauner, has many shining moments. The storm approach in Act 1, saw a 'tick-tock' of swaying LED light poles, uneasily foreshadowing the descent to come. Also the end, as Grimes’s hut is burned, the lighting turns an intimate orange, complete with rising smoke.

John Findon as Peter Grimes | Photo: Monika Rittershaus

For timing and intonation, Edward Ananian-Cooper’s chorus is next level. Tight with the orchestra, the work behind bringing the mob to life did not go unnoticed. Neither did the shimmer of the orchestra itself. Led by conductor Lorenzo Viotti, the Netherlands Philharmonic were sometimes bewildered by some indecisive commands, but the situation moved throughout the evening to a reading of vibrant communion. An on-stage moving band brought an almost-too-perfect dimension to the raucous pub atmosphere in Act 3.

The chorus and main characters’ movement was sometimes either stiff or over-choreographed, with miming and jeering at Grimes veering on overdone, especially in Act 1. So too was the use of projection; used sometimes to provide a coastal atmosphere, it included some uneasy images and decaying maritime artefacts. It’s one way to overcome the issue of water in Grimes and certainly had its effective moments.

Grimes is an opera with many smaller vocal parts – easy to overlook when writing a synopsis. But characters such as Claire Barnett Jones’s Mrs Sedley and Helena Rasker’s Auntie were captivating in their drama. So too were Will Liverman as Ned Keene, whose voice and dramatic skill made him a focal point, as well as a terrific Leigh Melrose as the dependable Captain Balstrode.Then to the magic Ellen Orford played  by a tender Johanni van Oostrum – a sonorous soprano with an empathetic tenderness. Her care of the young boy John and complex connection to Peter Grimes was palpable throughout.

There’s always a lot on your mind after Peter Grimes, but what’s certain in Horakova Joly’s production is that little has been left to chance. It's a work with painstaking attention to detail and of tremendous style.

Until 22 October operaballet.nl