Nicky Shaw

“Brilliant, grotesque, surreal and deeply disturbing in all the right Freudian corners, Richard Ayres’s operatic version of JM Barrie’s story is a triumph that will grip children and give adults plenty to think about. Ayres’s terrifyingly visceral score and Lavinia Greenlaw’s sparse yet cunning distillation of Barrie’s story uncover layer after layer of dark, sometimes painful subtexts that decades of sanitised films and stagings have buried. Yet at the same time they provide a rollicking two hours of entertainment. And Keith Warner’s gloriously inventive staging for Welsh National Opera compliments both aspects.”

“Keith Warner’s hugely inventive production, with designs by Jason Southgate, costumes by Nicky Shaw and choreography by Michael Barry, enables the social and psychological dimensions of the story to be touched on without any risk of overload.”

“Edwardian railway carriages allude to J M Barrie’s England, while a visible backstage crew serve to suggest that we’re watching a provincial dramatic society enactment of the drama, with pirates and Lost Boys alike played, fittingly, by adults in short trousers.”

“Inventive Pan flies high in a treat for the whole family”

“The virtuosity of the stagecraft matches that of the score”

“The two hours, like Peter Pan himself, flew by.”

“Be assured: Richard Ayres and Lavina Greenlaw’s new opera Peter Pan is most certainly still Peter Pan. A pirate ship; a plummy, moustache-twirling Captain Hook; a show-stealing crocodile / clockodile: they’re all present and correct, including the moment when Peter asks the audience to help save Tinkerbell’s life. It’s rare to hear an opera audience respond with such enthusiasm: with the orchestra, too, contributing a chorus of fantastical clicks, grunts and squeaks.”

“Not that this was panto, for all its exuberance. Ayres’s music and Greenlaw’s libretto managed to keep all the joy of the story while pointing up its more bizarre aspects. Ayres’ eclectic, energetic score - conducted with verve by Erik Nielsen - had something like the directness and pace of Janacek.”