Published: 11 August, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR

AN intriguing programme of new and engaging music theatre and opera works is being presented in the fifth Grimeborn Festival opening at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston on Monday.

Performed over the following 12 days will be works by Philip Glass, Benjamin Britten, Leos Janacek, Handel, Gustav Holst and Viktor Ullmann, together with a new work, Demon Lover, by Jules Scott and Sue Curtiss, and performances by the theatre’s Youth Opera Cabaret.

Grimeborn’s name is a punning reference to Glyndebourne as the Dalston festival deliberately supports emerging performers and writers rather than the polished, costly output of the East Sussex opera house.

Ticket pricing is very different, too.

Grimeborn presents highly affordable opera at £15 (concessions £11) for all performances, except the Youth Opera Cabaret (which is free), compared with Glyndebourne’s tickets priced up to £250 each.

The Grimeborn opener on Monday involves the UK premieres of two Philip Glass chamber operas, The Sound of a Voice and Hotel of Dreams, adapted from a Japanese writer’s ghost stories.

Next, on Wednesday and Thursday, is a fully staged new production of Viktor Ullmann’s political satire on fascism, The Emperor of Atlantis, composed in  the Terezin concentration camp.

A rehearsal in Terezin was overheard by members of the SS, who recognised the satirical portrait of Adolf Hitler and immediately ordered the composer, librettist and musicians to be transported to Auschwitz.

The end of the week, Friday and Saturday, has performances of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

Elizabeth Llewellyn is the governess confronting the evil Peter Quint, performed by Nicky Spence.
Both are well-known to ENO regulars.

Elizabeth was an excellent Mimi in Jonathan Miller’s new La Boheme earlier this year and Nicky made a strong impression in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, recently premiered at the Coliseum.

Born to Jamaican parents in London, Elizabeth won the inaugural Voice of Black Opera competition two years ago.

Her Caribbean roots have prompted Max Key, director of The Turn of the Screw at Grimeborn, to update the opera to the 1950s Windrush era.

“In this way, the character of the governess takes on a new dimension – her displacement in a strange world, far from home, in a remote country house,” he says.