Peter Grimes review – WNO’s production of Britten’s masterwork seethes like a wild and cruel sea

Flash-points of volatility: Nicky Spence as Peter Grimes in Welsh National Opera’s staging of Britten's Peter Grimes at the Millennium Centre, Cardiff. Photograph: John Snelling/Getty Images

For Welsh National Opera to match the success of the stunning Death in Venice with their new Peter Grimes was always going to be difficult. And yet, musically, this compelling performance of Britten’s masterwork, premiered in 1945, shows the company in the strongest possible form. Music director Tomáš Hanus brought a real integrity to his reading of the score: detailed, passionate, and ensuring that the various orchestral interludes were part of an organically cohesive whole.

In adapting George Crabbe’s 1810 narrative poem, Britten had already softened the unruly ruffian that was Crabbe’s Grimes, and tenor Nicky Spence, debuting in the title role, made him a far more sympathetic individual again in Melly Still’s staging.