The professional element in the orchestra was provided by the English Opera Group players, led by Emanuel Hurwitz, with Ralph Downes at the organ. The children players, billed as "An East Suffolk Children's Orchestra", included handbell ringers from the County Modern School, Leiston; a percussion group, whose instruments included the slung mugs, from Woolverstone Hall School; recorder players from Framlingham College; and bugle players from the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook. Graham, recalling the premiere some years later, wrote: "The large orchestra (originally 150 players) ... were massed around the font of Orford Church while the opera was played out on a stage erected at the end of the nave." Philip Hope-Wallace, writing for "The Manchester Guardian", observed that "Charles Mackerras conducted the widespread forces, actually moving round a pillar to be able to control all sections in turn." Martin Cooper of "The Daily Telegraph" noted: "The white walls of Orford Church furnished an ideal background to the gay colours of Ceri Richards's costumes and the fantastic head-dresses of the animals. In fact, the future of the work will lie in village churches such as this and with amateur musicians, for whom Britten has written something both wholly new and outstandingly original."