One of my favorite things about Park Slope, Brooklyn, is the Chip Shop, which serves a menu revolving around a deep fryer that turns out what I’d argue is the best fish and chips in New York. Call me sentimental, but I’ve been heading there a lot lately — certainly more than the American Heart Association would advise — as something of a pre-opera ritual. Perhaps the perspicacious, the Bobby-capped, the Union-Jacked or the mere chavs among you have noted the confluence of musical events over the past few weeks that might put one in the mood, as it were, for all things British. Manhattanites have been privy, of late, to a number of musical offerings that ostensibly represent touchstones of the entire British classical-music tradition, in — what we’re meant to believe — all its stunted glory.

Those of you who had a chance to see the musically thrilling new production of Peter Grimes at the Met witnessed what can unequivocally be called the most important operatic work to come out … read more