English National Opera

The Handmaid’s Tale returns to the English National Opera

The Handmaid’s Tale returns to the English National Opera 1 February – 15 February Following its premiere in April 2022, this production won the Broadway World Award for Best Classical/Opera Production, and was nominated for both the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in the Opera and Music Theatre Award category and the International Opera Awards in the…

Welsh singers make Royal Opera history

Operatic history has been made this week with two Welsh singers taking the leading roles in Puccini’s Tosca at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, for the first time. Gwyn Hughes Jones, from Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey and Natalya Romaniw, from Swansea, sang the doomed lovers Mario Cavaradossi and Floria Tosca in the ever popular opera. The run…

Rachel Nicholls Longborough role debut

Following the withdrawal of soprano Noa Danon due to illness, Longborough Festival Opera announces that soprano Rachel Nicholls will make her role debut as Marie / Marietta in the festival’s forthcoming production of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (21-27 June 2022). Nicholls stunned audiences in the role of Brünnhilde in Longborough’s 2013 Ring cycle and then…

Singers and orchestra save this show from being a ring of dire

I sometimes wonder whether Wagner sets some sort of challenge from beyond the grave on the Ring Cycle to test its strength. The challenge being: who can make such a pig’s ear of a production to destroy the magnificence of the music and the impact of the story on audiences. This time it was down…

A large tot of happiness from ENO’s Pinafore

HMS Pinafore at English National Opera is a joyous entertainment that revels in the humour while ensuring the highest standards of musicianship. It is, shock horror, enjoyable. Yet it is a mark of our strange times when performing Gilbert and Sullivan seems quite brave and some companies would fret themselves onto a woke apoplexy performing…

Satyagraha, certainly gorgeous but a little of its time

It may sound like sacrilege to make a negative comment about Philip Glass’ Satyagraha as it has achieved iconic status, but while this remains a glorious piece of music and stunning theatricality in the Phelim McDermott staging, the 40 plus year old opera seems dated. First staged by English National Opera back in 2007, this…

Elin Pritchard comes out fighting

Lockdown was intended to squash the COVID sombrero in early 2020 but it also flattened soprano Elin Pritchard’s rising career. Like many other singers the impact of the pandemic was sudden and dramatic. The North Wales-born, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduate was performing as Micaëla in Welsh National Opera’s touring production of…

South Facing Festival to include ENO Tosca

South Facing Festival at Crystal Palace Bowl in Crystal Palace Park, South London, includes two open-air performances of Tosca from English National Opera on Friday August 27 and Sunday August 29. British conductor Richard Farnes will lead the ENO Orchestra and Chorus. The young cast will include Natalya Romaniw in the title role and Cavaradossi…

ENO’s 2021-22 plans including Les Dennis in Pinafore

English National Opera’s 2021/22 season will include four new productions, including comedian Les Dennis performing in HMS Pinafore. Director Cal McCrystal returns to direct the first production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore in the company’s history; Richard Jones directs Wagner’s The Valkyrie, the first production in a new Ring Cycle to be staged at…