Britten’s worldwide reputation is enhanced in Lyon

One of the proudest boasts to come from Britten HQ in Aldeburgh during the composer’s anniversary last year was that performances of his works were proliferating across the globe — and not just in the UK — as never before. If the Opéra de Lyon might be a little late to the anniversary party in featuring Britten in its annual Eastertime opera festival only this year, the fact that it’s doing so at all certainly provides evidence of the composer’s worldwide reputation, as well as of the artistic adventurousness of Serge Dorny, reinstalled for the time being as the opera house’s boss after a short-lived stint at Dresden’s Semperoper came to an abrupt end in February. It also speaks volumes for the house’s excellent, unshowy Japanese music director, Kazushi Ono.

Here Ono was in charge of the two new productions, of Peter Grimes and The Turn of the Screw; the third work was Curlew River, the first of Britten’s Church Parables, in a production by Olivier Py that was seen in Edinburgh nearly a decade ago.