The English National Opera (ENO) will stage nine productions at the London Coliseum across its 2023/24 main stage season.
Titles will include the UK premiere of Marina Abramović’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas; a semi-staged concert of Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, the first ENO performance of the work in 15 years, with Martyn Brabbins conducting; and the return of David Alden’s production of Britten’s Peter Grimes.
One of the ENO’s most successful ever productions, Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe, will return for its first revival; Peter Konwitschny’s Olivier Award winning production of Verdi’s most famous opera La Traviata also returns, and Annilese Miskimmon’s The Handmaid’s Tale will have its first revival.
The season also includes Jonathan Miller’s The Barber of Seville; Simon McBurney’s accessible family favourite The Magic Flute and David Alden’s production of Janáček’s Jenůfa.
ENO’s opera season comes on the back of a “difficult” six months for the company following the the Arts Council’s removal of its National Portfolio status and a delay in the confirmation of future funding.
Annilese Miskimmon, Artistic Director of the ENO, said: “This past season has been challenging following the Arts Council’s removal of the ENO’s NPO status but also incredibly rewarding with sell out, critically acclaimed productions across a huge breadth of repertoire.
“This 2023/24 Season at the London Coliseum showcases some of the productions and repertoire that the company is most renowned for. We have curated this season to delight our ENO regulars and newcomers alike with the return of old and new favourites that highlight the drama, beauty and emotion of this fascinating art form.”
Here’s more information about each show:
7 Deaths of Maria Callas
November 3 – November 11, 2023
A UK premiere, performance artist Marina Abramović makes her ENO debut with her production of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Exploring the life, work and death of one of opera’s greatest stars, this staging marks 100 years since the American-born Greek soprano’s birth.
Callas – whose private life was never quite able to be separated from her performances – has fascinated Abramović for decades, and she has conceived this operatic project as a homage to the great prima donna. The production premiered in September 2020 at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper and has since toured to co-production partners: the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra national de Paris, and the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli.
Immortalised through her place in popular culture, Callas (sometimes referred to as ‘La Divina’ – the divine one) is invoked on stage through a series of her most famous arias from La traviata, Tosca, Madam Butterfly, Carmen, Otello, Lucia di Lammermoor and Norma. These arias are woven together with new music by Serbian composer Marko Nikodijevic. Abramović is the director and set designer, and the conductor is Yoel Gamzou who has conducted this work across Europe.
Accompanying each of these aria performances are a series of short films starring Abramović and actor Willem Dafoe. Present on stage throughout the performance, Abramović plays the sleeping Callas, haunted by her greatest roles, in a set that recreates the Paris apartment where Callas died.
The cast of singers playing Callas in her greatest roles includes soprano Eri Nakamura in the role of Violetta; and former ENO Harewood Artist Nadine Benjamin as Desdemona. Karah Son sings Cio-Cio San’s Un bel di, and Sarah Tynan sings Lucia from Lucia di Lammermoor.
They are joined by the critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina singing Carmen, a role that soprano Callas never played on stage, but whose arias she frequently performed in concert. Soprano Elbenita Kajtazi sings Tosca’s Vissi d’arte making her UK operatic debut, and soprano Sophie Bevan sings Norma.
Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
Closing the season at the London Coliseum is a new semi-staged concert of Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, the first ENO performance of the work in 15 years.
Martyn Brabbins (Gloriana) again leads the ENO Orchestra in this thrilling score. The one-act opera, based on Charles Perrault’s French folk-horror, sees the Duke introducing his new wife Judith to her foreboding new home where terrible secrets hide within.
Natalya Romaniw makes a role debut as Judith, reuniting with the ENO Orchestra following numerous roles with the ENO including Mimi in La bohème, the title role in Tosca, and Mary Kelly in Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel. Joining her on stage is renowned bass-baritone John Relyea as the fearsome Bluebeard, his second role with the company this season after The Magic Flute and 2023’s The Rhinegold.
Peter Grimes
September 21 – October 11, 2023
The opening of the ENO’s 2023/24 season is marked by the return of David Alden’s searing psychological drama, Peter Grimes. This production showcases the ENO Chorus, along with the ENO Orchestra, conducted by the ENO’s Music Director Martyn Brabbins.
Peter Grimes is the tale of an ostracised outsider turned upon by the community, set against the melodramatic and claustrophobic backdrop of a Suffolk fishing village. The opera received its premiere by the ENO (then Sadler’s Wells Opera) in 1945.
Gwyn Hughes Jones makes a role debut as Peter Grimes. Also making a long-awaited role debut is soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn as Ellen Orford. Returning to the ENO is bass-baritone Simon Bailey in the role of Balstrode.
Joining them are ENO favourites Christine Rice as Auntie, Clive Bayley as Swallow, David Soar Hobson, and former ENO Harewood Artist Alex Otterburn as Ned Keene.
Iolanthe
October 5 – October 25, 2023
One of the most popular productions in company history, Iolanthe was debuted by notable comedy director Cal McCrystal in 2018, and now gets its first revival.
Flying fairies, quarrelsome lords, and an ensemble of quirky characters gather in this hilarious satire on British government, law and society.
McCrystal returns to the director’s chair to lend his characteristic slapstick panache to the production, with Chris Hopkins conducting after his success with The Yeomen of the Guard, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado.
Returning to their ‘roles are mezzo-soprano Samantha Price as titular Iolanthe, with soprano Ellie Laugharne as Phyllis and baritone Marcus Farnsworth as Strephon. Bass-baritone John Savournin performs the role of the Lord Chancellor. Mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers makes a role debut as the Queen of the Fairies.
La traviata
October 23 – November 12, 2023
Returning to the London Coliseum is Peter Konwitschny’s production of La traviata. Romantic and tragic in equal parts, Verdi’s most famous opera tells of heart-breakingly beautiful Violetta’s doomed love for Alfredo, for which she would sacrifice everything.
Soprano Nicole Chevalier sings the doomed courtesan. Her lover Alfredo is sung by tenor Jose Simerilla Romero . Alfredo’s father Giorgio is sung by baritone Roland Wood.
The Handmaid’s Tale
February 1 – February 15, 2024
Following its premiere in 2022, this is the first revival of the ENO’s Artistic Director Annilese Miskimmon’s production of The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood. Joana Carneiro returns to conduct.
Set in a totalitarian state in which women, stripped of their identities and rights, are subjected to the whims of a patriarchal republic, this thought-provoking work magnifies the issues of state control and the fragility of freedom as heroine Offred struggles against the nightmare she finds herself in.
Returning to lead the cast is mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Offred. Also returning to their roles are contralto Avery Amereau as Serena Joy, tenor John Findon as Luke and soprano Rhian Lois as Janine/Ofwarren. Joining the cast in role debuts are soprano Rachel Nicholls as Aunt Lydia, bass James Creswell as The Commander and soprano Nadine Benjamin as Moira.
The Barber of Seville
February 12 – February 29, 2024
Jonathan Miller’s production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, first staged in 1987 at the ENO, is back to entertain audiences in February 2024.
Set in 18th century Seville, Rossini’s comic masterpiece is the first in Beaumarchais’s ‘Figaro trilogy’, making it a prequel to the story of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The opera sees dashing Count Almaviva attempt to win the beautiful Rosina from the clutches of her guardian Dr Bartolo, enlisting the help of his barber Figaro and a series of cunning disguises along the way.
Leading this revival is director Peter Relton. Conductor Roderick Cox makes his ENO and UK opera debut.
Baritone Charles Rice is in the role of Figaro. The role of Rosina is performed by soprano Anna Devin, making her ENO and role debut.
Current Harewood Artist and tenor Innocent Masuku is performing the role of Count Almaviva. Antagonist Dr Bartolo is bass-baritone Simon Bailey in his second role of the season.
The Magic Flute
February 28 – March 30, 2024
Simon McBurney’s The Magic Flute is staged at the London Coliseum in collaboration with pioneering theatre company Complicité.
This unique rendition of one of Mozart’s most enduring operas combines singers and actors to evoke a magical world of monsters and mystery. Armed with only a magic flute, Prince Tamino is given a fantastical quest to rescue the Queen of The Night’s daughter Pamina from the High Priest Sarastro. A contemporary setting, with live sound effects, drawing, animation and the ENO Orchestra raised to stage level make this an accessible operatic event. Making her ENO debut conducting the ENO Orchestra is Erina Yashima.
Tenor Norman Reinhardt makes his ENO debut as Tamino. Rainelle Krause is The Queen of the Night.
Soprano and former ENO Harewood Artist Soraya Mafi makes her role debut as Pamina, with baritone David Stout singing Papageno, bass-baritone John Relyea as Sarastro, and tenor Peter Hoare as Monostatos.
Jenůfa
March 13 – March 27, 2024
David Alden’s production of Janáček’s Jenůfa returns to the London Coliseum, maintaining the ENO’s strong connection with the composer’s work, which began with Charles Mackerras’ championing it in the 1950s.
Based on the original late nineteenth century play by Gabriela Preissová, Jenůfa explores honour, love and sacrifice against the backdrop of a small, claustrophobic community and tangled family relationships. Premiering in Brno in 1904, the work launched Janácek’s operatic career.
Alden updates the opera’s original setting from a traditional Moravian village to an isolated twentieth century industrial estate in the Eastern Bloc.
Founding conductor and music director of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts.
Soprano Jennifer Davis makes a role debut as Jenůfa. Making welcome returns to the ENO are soprano Susan Bullock singing Kostelnička and mezzo-soprano Fiona Kimm as Grandmother. Tenor Richard Trey Smagur makes his UK debut as Laca, with tenor and current ENO Harewood Artist John Findon singing his second ENO role of the season as Števa.
Public booking opens on June 7.