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 the scene changes. At the hut, Grimes impatiently drives the ever silent John into changing out of his Sunday clothes and into fisherman's gear, and then becomes lost in his memories of his previous, now dead apprentice, reliving the boy's death of thirst. When he hears the mob of villagers approaching, he quickly comes back to reality, stirred both by a paranoid belief that John has been "gossiping" with Ellen, so provoking the "odd procession", and at the same time feeling defiant. He gets ready to set out to sea, and he tells John to be careful climbing down the