Review at a glance

Labelling an opera as being “for both adults and children” is tantamount to issuing an inverse trigger warning: “Some audience members may find this inoffensive. There will be no violence, no drugs, no strong language, no scenes of a sexual nature .” Where’s the fun in that?

Mark-Anthony Turnage has written half a dozen abrasive, occasionally foul-mouthed operas for grown-ups: when a recording of his first opera, Greek, appeared in 1994, the CD case carried a content advisory notice. But he also wrote Coraline, premiered in 2018, for children. Now comes The Railway Children, based on Edith Nesbit’s children’s novel.

Turnage and his librettist Rachael Hewer (also his partner) worked on the opera during Covid-imposed downtime. It premiered at Glyndebourne last month

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