THIS collaboration between English National Opera and Theatre Royal Stratford East, with Lyndsey Turner directing, has a magnificent cast of both professional and amateur performers and musicians who bring Benjamin Britten’s opera vibrantly to life.

The cast includes 60 children from two local primary schools who, thanks to simple but effective outfits by Oliver Jeffers, make up a colourful menagerie.

Intended as a sort of pop-up opera, to be performed in church halls and community centres on a shoe-string budget with ample audience participation, its simplicity — reflected in a clever set design from Soutra Gilmour — remains true to Britten’s ideals.