BENJAMIN Britten 's majestic Peter Grimes, still an opera for our times, will be the subject of a day school in York on May 28.

First performed in June 1945, it "set the musical world alight", according to Workers' Educational Association day school tutor the Reverend Canon Dr Christopher Collingwood.

Performed widely both in Britain and internationally, the opera was first conceived while Britten was in California. Based on an 18th century Suffolk poem about an Aldeburgh fisherman, it became, in Britten's words, "a subject very close to my heart: the struggle of the individual against the masses".

The themes revealed then are even more pertinent in today's society, suggests Dr Collingwood, Canon Chancellor of York Minister, who points to "child abuse, scapegoating, the role of the loner and the misfit and religion and morality in general".

The half-day school will be held at the Quaker Meeting House, in Friargate, from 10am to 1pm on May 28 and costs £12; those wishing to go should phone 01904 627791.

The Workers' Educational Association is Britain's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education; the York branch provides nearly 40 courses a year covering local history, languages, literature and painting and drawing.