The further you get from infancy, the more chilling any story about missing children becomes. Think Boko Haram. Think Gaza. Think Ukraine. In childhood you may thrill to the murky tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, or of Hansel and Gretel. George Benjamin and his librettist, Martin Crimp, distilled the rat-catcher legend in their decidedly adult first opera, Into the Little Hill (2006). Engelbert Humperdinck’s operatic version of the children lost in the woods – on at the Royal Academy of Music in London next week and the Royal Opera House next month – has become a seasonal favourite, sweetened by a short-lived witch and gingerbread children. For The Monster in the Maze, Jonathan Dove (and his regular librettist, Alasdair Middleton) went further back: to ancient Greek myth, tyrannical King Minos of Crete, and the Minotaur who lives in a labyrinth and feeds on young human flesh.
Premiered in Berlin in 2015 by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, with follow-up performances in London and Aix-en-Provence, this opera “for children, young people and adults” was a centrepiece of Sheffield’s Music in the Round celebrations last weekend. For 40 years, this wide-ranging concert series, based at the Crucible theatre, has served the city, presenting musical events for all ages, with partnerships around the country, top soloists and a resident instrumental group, Ensemble 360.
