Dramatic intrigue and heart-warming nostalgia are perfectly matched in E. Nesbit‘s The Railway Children – the author’s enduring tale that first appeared in serialised form in 1905. Over five decades later the 1970 film version (who can ever forget Jenny Agutter and Bernard Cribbins?) was to become part of our mental furniture, embedded in our collective consciousness. Despite never seeing the film, Stephen Langridge the director of this Glyndebourne premiere, believed the story was “ripe for retelling in music and theatre”.
Happily, this new operatic venture conceived during the 2020 lockdown as a collaboration between Mark Anthony Turnage and Rachael Hewer retains the essence of the original narrative. Inevitably, it’s not without change with some compression here and inflation there, yet the focus remains on the children. Gone is the schoolboy paperchase, Perks’s birthday celebration and the canal boat fire, while the mother (now called Cathy and very much a working parent) is given a friend Yolanda both of whom are undercover agents for British Intelligence. Together, they seek to discover why the children’s father has been wrongly arrested for treason. For these tensions to resolve Hewer removes much of the nostalgia and transplants the original Edwardian setting to the 1980s, where echoes of John Le Carré-style espionage are implicit in this spy thriller interpretation, including a moment with a poisoned umbrella.
Elsewhere, the Old Gentleman on the train is now an English footballing legend known as Sir Tommy Crawshaw (evidently much renowned in the 1890s) whose gift of football shirts to the children later become a substitute for the girl’s red flannel petticoats used to warn the train driver of a landslide blocking the line. This scene certainly works musically where pulsating rhythms allied to jazz elements inject a raw excitement – Turnage admits to the influence of Richard Rodney Bennett’s soundtrack to Murder on the Orient Express. Those with sharp ears will have spotted a reference to Stravinsky with the appearance of the Russian émigré. There’s a lovely waltz for Cathy as she and the children drive off to northern England, a Purcellian lament for an ensemble of train commuters and an engaging paean to railway travel – “This network to me is a work of art” – given to Perks, the stationmaster. Only the Broadway style chorus number celebrating the colour green feels incongruous. Altogether, an eclectic score that suits the page-turning momentum of ever-changing scenes – designed by Nicky Shaw and beautifully lit by Mark Jonathan – family cottage, train station and railway embankment framed in a cinematic manner as if to convey a probing camera.
It’s a production where excitement abounds but tensions linked to the disappearance of the father are intermittent and the big reveal near the end feels a little contrived. At least those unforgettable words “Daddy, my Daddy” are there in the closing scene, even if the anticipated emotional tug is missing. That said, there’s some fine singing and well-judged characterisations especially from those as children: Jessica Cale nicely traversing Bobbie’s growing maturity and sensibility, Matthew McKinney believable as a gawky, Rubik’s Cube-obsessed Peter and a smiling Henna Mun engaging as the teddy bear hugging Phyllis. Their mother, Cathy, is finely drawn by Rachael Lloyd, who deftly balances the role as an anxious, though never doting mum and spook. Gavan Ring makes a chirpy Mr Perks, James Cleverton brings a certain swagger to Sir Tommy Crawshaw, while Bethany Horak-Hallett is a treacherous confidant, Yolanda. Edward Hawkins brings dignity and vulnerability doubling as David and Mr Tarpolski.
Turnage’s new opera is a far cry from his more challenging stage works such as Greek and Festen, which recently premiered at the Royal Opera House. Yet The Railway Children feels somewhere between a children’s opera suitable for all the family and a work for grown-ups. But it’s all very entertaining, and the train evocations are vividly produced by the Glyndebourne Sinfonia under the energising baton of Tim Anderson. If a work like this can encourage a younger generation of opera lovers as the attendance at this matinée indicated, then Turnage and Hewer’s collaboration can be considered a magnificent achievement.
David Truslove
The Railway Children
Music: Mark-Anthony Turnage
Libretto: Rachael Hewer
Cast and production staff:
Bobbie – Jessica Cale; Peter – Matthew McKinney; Phyllis – Henna Mun; Cathy – Rachael Lloyd; Mr Perks – Gavan Ring; David/Mr Tarpolski – Edward Hawkins; Sir Tommy Crawshaw – James Cleverton; Yolanda – Bethany Horak-Hallett
Conductor – Tim Anderson; Director – Stephen Langridge; Designer – Nicky Shaw; Lighting Designer – Mark Jonathan; Video Designer – Max White; Sound Designer – Lydia Coomes;
Glyndebourne Sinfonia; Glyndebourne Chorus
Glyndebourne Opera, Lewes, East Sussex Saturday, 2nd November 2025
Top image: Mr Perks (Gavan Ring) and members of The Glyndebourne Chorus
All photos © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photography by Richard Hubert Smith