Benjamin Britten’s unrivalled position in 20th-century music is due in no small part to his operas, and Peter Grimes, set on the Suffolk coastline and first staged in 1945, heralded a new and fruitful era in English opera. Peter Grimes is an outsider who, suspected of cruelty to his apprentices, is hounded to death by his fellow townspeople. Now a staple of concert halls worldwide, the superbly evocative Four Sea Interludes begin peacefully with seagulls crying above the waves at dawn. Sunday Morning is characterised by church bells ringing out, in Moonlight the shore and village street are lit by a magical and majestic moon, and the suite climaxes with an almost unimaginably violent storm scene.