We saw it in Manchester. The performances were excellent, particularly Sean Cooney's singing and Paul Sartin's oboe. A highlight for me was the "Plymouth Mail" song - not the greatest song in the opera by any means, but the way it was staged we saw the entire company working flat-out, either singing or playing (or both).

I was sorry to lose the "ballad singer"'s songs, not least because they're the only element of the original which is set to traditional tunes. (Some of Bellamy's tunes are very good, but it's always nice to hear the Dolphin, the Gallant Frigate Amphitrite et al.) And I'm afraid Bellamy would have hated the narration and the contemporary links in general - I can imagine him saying "if you want to write an opera about refugees, you write one - this one's about people who were transported in the 18th century".

Matthew Crampton did make some vivid and illuminating connections - bringing out the value of each individual's life (refugee or transport) and the trauma they all experience(d) of forced separation from their home. But I think ultimately there's an odd mismatch between the two types of story. The contemporary 'refugee' story is about people who have no choice but to travel to strange and distant countries, and who should be cared for and welcomed when they get there (or indeed here). The 'transport' story is about people who had no choice but to travel to a strange and distant country... and who then colonised it, becoming rich and powerful by dispossessing the native inhabitants. It's not a parallel that people in favour of welcoming incomers usually draw!