The Railway Children: Henna Mun (Phyllis), Jessica Cale (Bobbie), Matthew McKinney (Peter). Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
After his visceral but wonderful Festen, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s operatic take on Edith Nisbet’s The Railway Children was likely to prove comfier fare. And so it proved in a one-off semi-staged performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall of the new opera produced at Glyndebourne. This cosy first-class ride is a love letter to the romance of rail in the 200th anniversary of George Stephenson’s first steam-powered 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton.
Thoroughly modern Turnage does not turn back to 1825, nor to Nisbet’s 1906 publication date, but sets his 90-minute opera against the backdrop of the 1980s rechilled cold war, making sense of the espionage backstory. The three children of the title, displaced by the wrongful arrest of their father, are knowingly real, with their squabbles, idealism and appetite for both food and adventure.
The mother (unnamed in the book) is fleshed out in Rachael Hewer‘s entertaining libretto as Cathy, sung here by mezzo-soprano Rachael Lloyd, who shields a political refugee while husband David is in prison (bass Edward Hawkins playing both roles). Mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett, as shifty friend Yolanda, is suspect from the minute she plies the children with ultra processed foods.
Rachael Lloyd as Cathy and Bethany Horak-Hallett as Yolanda in The Railway Children. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
But it is the three children and their unlikely friend, station master Mr Perks, who are still central to the tale. Jessica Cale sang anxious, responsible Bobbie and Matthew McKinney was by turns bullish and scared as mid-teen Peter. As the youngest, Phyllis, Henna Mun, locked to her pink soft toy, gave a wonderfully warm and funny performance. Stopping the train after a landslip relies on the discovery that overheated Phyllis is secretly wearing three red football shirts at once under the jumper.
Mun, an English National Opera Harewood artist, won the John Christie Award at Glyndebourne last year and was overall winner of this year’s 2025 Clonter Opera Prize. She sings Josephine in the revival of Cal McCrystal’s production of HMS Pinafore from 4 December.
The football merch is a gift from The Old Gentleman, here a far from old but most gentlemanly baritone James Cleverton as the retired soccer champ Sir Tommy Crawshaw, who comes to the children’s aid. Perks, in a performance by tenor Gavan Ring strongly reminiscent of Bernard Cribbins in the much-loved 1970 film, bristled with pride, order and humanity. (John Major’s 1990s privatisation of the railways is still a long way down the track.)
In praise of green. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Passengers and raincoated reporters, created by members of the Glyndebourne, sport the green and purple livery of serviceable upholstery, in Nicky Shaw’s witty, tartan-led design. Stephen Langridge, directing, favoured the high-speed route. Diction was largely terrific – there were no surtitles.
Railway rhythms chug under Turnage’s picturesque score, the Glyndebourne Sinfonia animating and commenting on the action, with a trombone groan when a policeman calls round and unnerving, percussive staccato jabs in the cellos and double bass as the landslip causes trees to fall. Under Tim Anderson the players produced both a full orchestral sound and the intimate introspection of chamber music. The music tells an unfolding story in a single, largely uninterrupted journey, but in Act Two characters reflect on the story so far, notably Bobbie’s nagging question – “What have you [Daddy] done?”
Most enjoyable is the hearty and ecstatic hymn to “traditional green” on the unveiling of a plaque to mark the children’s heroism in stopping the train before it hits the landslip, a hilarious excursion through unsuitable alternative colours: “Purple is too regal and orange doesn’t rhyme…”. There are more miles in this jovial journey. Put me down for an Anytime Return.