Baroque opera has been absent from the City Opera repertory for too long, and the Britten operas would certainly be welcome.

With this particular Britten opera, there is the added weight of current affairs.

One is reminded of another Britten opera, "Death in Venice," in which the young object of love dances, soundless, throughout the evening.

Paradoxically, this places the focus of the work on the crowd, the common people, anticipating a theme that will run through many later Britten operas.

This was the Chinese premiere of the work, and the first full performance of a Britten opera in China.

Britten's ambiguous music takes us below the comic surface, exposing a recurring theme of the Britten operas: the individual who does not fit in.

Like several Britten operas, "Miss Havisham's Fire" offers the curious and troubling experience of observing 19th-century characters expressing themselves in 20th-century music.

No subsequent Britten opera quite matched the fearless dramatic assurance of "Grimes," and a degree of disappointment set in.

The most overlooked Britten opera may be "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Although there are stretches of the sort of dry declamation and conversation that run through any Britten opera, "Albert Herring" frequently breaks into genuine song.