Opera North: history and repertoire, seasons 2004– "Peter Grimes". The latter production, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, was garlanded with awards from "The South Bank Show", the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Theatre Management Association. During 2007-8, a mini-festival of operas inspired by William Shakespeare was presented by Opera North. It comprised Verdi's "Falstaff" and "Macbeth", Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" and Bellini's "I Capuleti e i Montecchi". The latter saw the first appearance with the company by Sarah Connolly, who returned in 2010 for Donizetti's "Maria Stuarda". A second phase of "Transformation", completed in 2009, focused on restoring the former Assembly Rooms, which
Peter Grimes and Jonathan Summers. In 1967, the Metropolitan Opera mounted a "landmark" production directed by Tyrone Guthrie and starring Jon Vickers in the role of Grimes. In the summer of 2013, the Aldeburgh Festival staged a performance of "Peter Grimes" in its natural setting on the beach at Aldeburgh with tenor Alan Oke in the title role. A Suffolk coastal village, mid-19th century (The date is not specified, but the foghorn in Act III places it later than the date of Crabbe's poem) Peter Grimes is questioned at an inquest over the death at sea of his apprentice. The townsfolk, all