Peter Grimes, a fiery-tempered fisherman living on his own in a coastal hut, is advised not to take on another young apprentice after a boy in his charge dies at sea in what the coroner concludes are accidental circumstances.

Welsh National Opera’s new production, directed by Melly Still and performed for one night only at Birmingham Hippodrome as part of a UK tour, has moved the time frame from the 1830s to the 1980s with costumes to suit and uses a minimalist set with a large chorus and orchestra to show how guilt by association can lead to tragic consequences. The result is harrowingly brilliant.

A dark near-empty stage looks as bleak as the Suffolk coast that helped inspire the three-act opera which has a libretto by Montagu Slater and is based on a long narrative poem The Borough by George Crabbe. The fictional village partly resemble the town of Aldeburgh where Crabbe and later Britten lived.

The props consist of long white blocks resembling sea walls, chairs and ropes scattered around the stage, a capstan and – portentously – a mast looking like a crucifix and a boat that hangs and moves at different angles from the ceiling. The actors walk through door and window frames carried on to the stage by a team of young dancers in what seems a somewhat desperate attempt to represent a pub and other buildings – but understandable given the WNO’s loss of arts funding.

The dance quintet, Dance Ensemble Dawns – all girls dressed as boys – include Maya Marsh who plays the non-speaking role of John, Grimes’s replacement apprentice bought from the local workhouse on the recommendation of the apothecary Ned Keene and conveyed by carter Hobson, with Dominic Sedgwick and Callum Thorpe convincing in their cameos.

The outstanding quality of the singing and the acting from a company in top form overrides any scenic loss. The production is dominated by a towering performance by the tenor Nicky Spence as a brutal and yet sympathetic Grimes, the outsider who mistreats his apprentices but is driven by a desire to improve his lot and feel worthy enough to marry his beloved Ellen Orford.

The soprano Sally Matthews gives a tear-jerking performance as the widowed schoolmistress and love interest who also faces the wrath of the community in supporting Grimes. Her arias are beautifully sung but you feel her coloratura singing doesn’t quite suit a Britten opera of such searing dramatic intensity. Excellent too are Dame Sarah Connolly as the no-nonsense landlady Auntie and David Kempster as the seasoned retired seamen Captain Balstrode, who after a second apprentice is accidentally killed is unable to save Grimes from his fate.

Performing with typical small-minded nosiness and malevolence are the likes of busybody and drug addict Mrs Sedley (Catherine Wyn-Rogers), lawyer Swallow (Sion Goronwy) and Methodist preacher Bob Boles (Oliver Johnston), who stir up the mob. Fflur Wyn and Eiry Price as Auntie’s sluttish nieces also provide a sassy dark humour in exposing the hypocrisy of the village leaders.

Tomas Hanus conducted the superb WNO Orchestra in the Britten score with a driving force, bringing out all the intense emotion in the orchestral Sea Interludes which have also become famous as a concert suite. You could sense the evocative soundscapes in Dawn, Storm and Moonlight reflecting the opera’s coastal setting and the inner lives of its characters in the powerful music.

The excellent chorus took their curtain call wearing T-shirts proclaiming Don’t cut the Chorus – a protest that seemed to bring a note of approval in the rousing applause from a full-house audience. Welsh National Opera will return to Birmingham Hippodrome in 2026 performing Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman on May 7th and Blaze of Glory! – a tale set in in 1950s Welsh Valley community – on May 8th (wno.org.uk).