Two traditional tales have been given a modern makeover, resulting in a pair of musical narratives that are dark and disturbing. A joint presentation by The Opera Group, ROH2 and the London Sinfonietta brings together George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, in its first UK production since its Paris premiere in 2006, and Harrison Birtwistle’s Down by the Greenwood Side, written exactly 40 years ago.

Into the Little Hill is a reworking of the Pied Piper story, but this is far from being a rehash of the children’s poem by Browning. This is a sinister and shocking tale for the 21st century, throwing the spotlight on the deviousness of politicians.

When a mysterious stranger arrives in town on the eve of an election, he agrees to exterminate the local rat population. But when the Mayor is returned to office, and refuses to pay for the stranger’s services, there are terrible consequences for the whole town.

“It’s not a children’s story – it’s a frightening and disturbing story,” says composer George Benjamin. “It’s terrible when the rats appear, and it’s much more terrible when the children disappear into the little hill. Martin Crimp, who wrote the text, discovered that when the story was first translated into English, at the end the children disappeared into a hill outside Hamelin, hence the title of the piece.”

George has scored the piece for a 15-strong ensemble, which is onstage throughout, and two singers – in this production, soprano Claire Booth and mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley – who take all the roles. “It’s not a conventional opera,” George explains. “The singers are not the characters; they’re the people telling the story, and they become the characters when it’s necessary. Martin and I wanted to tell the story simply and directly.

“Most of the time the music is a very smooth sound. There’s a beautiful type of big clarinet called a bassett horn – there’s two of those – and a bass flute, which represents the music of the Pied Piper. The Pied Piper’s music is often represented as very scrawny, very aggressive and very squeaky, but I wanted something more seductive, more Svengali-like. So I chose this bass flute, which has a gorgeous, hollow, deep sound.”

For director John Fulljames, it was important to emphasise the story’s resonances for a modern audience. “We tried to find contemporary parallels with the story, and to think about what it means to us, what the various meanings are of losing a child – and indeed a whole community losing its children – and the complexity of the compromises that politicians make, how that compromises politicians and how it feels to be compromised.

“I think the politics is in the mind of the audience – audiences are forced to ask questions. I think you have a complex relationship with politicians by the end of it, and a complex relationship with the music and the power of music, and how that power is not always a benign power.”

For both George and John, Harrison Birtwistle’s 1969 ‘dramatic pastoral’, Down by the Greenwood Side, was the perfect partner for Into the Little Hill. “His piece is very different from mine; his is funny, lively and bawdy, and the sound is completely different,” says George. “There’s some dark, tragic storytelling in his opera as well, but it’s more comic, more extrovert and more noisy. It’s also much more energetic in terms of the use of the stage.”

John Fulljames agrees. “I think the two pieces work very well together, because they’re both old stories, which are being retold, and they both have a sense of narration. The theatrical language of both pieces is totally different – the Birtwistle is exuberant, wild, violent, dangerous, full of action, and with a playful energy, whereas George’s energy is much more precise – it draws you in slowly.”

John has chosen to update the Birtwistle from its traditional rural setting to a modern urban one. “I was keen to explore the work’s two levels. There’s the mummer’s play, and there’s also the story about the mummers. I felt that to get those two levels it would be really clear if one of them was us, in our world, and one is the theatrical, medieval world of the mummers’ play.”

The Paris premiere of Into the Little Hill, and its subsequent international tour, drew generally favourable responses from audiences and critics, and George hopes to repeat its success in the UK. The addition of Down by the Greenwood Side should make this a very tasty feast indeed.

“I’m hoping it will be a very good complementary mixture – different flavours and different characters, but both dealing with ancient stories,” says George. “I hope it will make for an exciting and enjoyable double bill.”

The operas, presented by The Opera Group, ROH2 and the London Sinfonietta are at the Oxford Playhouse on Sunday. Box office: 01865 305305 (www.oxfordplayhouse.com).