Details

As with Britten's more better-known opera The Turn of the Screw, this story was taken from Henry James and has ghostly overtones. Its two acts follow the impact on a family with a proud military history when their son as 'heir to the Wingrave flag of glory' rejects what the history represents. Gazing at the ancestral portraits he finds his own image not in them, but 'in peace', yet his innately violent nature proves a challenge that can only be defeated through one final terrible action. Sung in English. Approx. running time 2 hours. New Production

Cast/Performers

Jacques Imbrailo (Owen Wingrave), Steven Page (Spencer Coyle), Thomas Walker (Lechmere), Vivian Tierney (Miss Wingrave), Elizabeth Woolett (Mrs Coyle), Allison Cook (Kate), Richard Berkeley Steele (General Sir Philip Wingrave), Jennifer Rhys-Davies (Mrs Julian)

Creatives/Company

Music: Benjamin Britten
Lyrics: Myfanwy Piper (after Henry James's short story Opera in two acts)
Producer: Royal Opera
Conductor: Rory Macdonald
Director: Tim Hopkins
Design: Tim Hopkins
Costume: Gideon Davey
Lighting: Wolfgang Goebbel