English National Opera is down to six new productions
mainIt’s about half as many as pre-crisis, but pretty good in strapped circumstances and still more new shows than Vienna or the Met.
The season, just announced, looks strong.
Met-watchers will be please to see that they are sharing a Calixto Bieito Verdi Forza.
Artist Anish Kapoor gets a crack at Tristan.
Norma comes down from the North.
Karen Kamensek, Generalmusikdirektor of Staatsoper Hannover, makes her London conducting debut. Rinat Shaham makes her ENO debut.
And much more.
Read the press summary below.
- ENO’s 2015/16 season includes six new productions and five revivals, with over 60,000 tickets available for £20 or under
- Mark Wigglesworth begins his first season as ENO Music Director, conducting four productions (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Force of Destiny, The Magic Flute and Jenůfa)
- Anish Kapoor designs a new production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, directed by Daniel Kramer with Stuart Skelton andHeidi Melton in the title roles and British bass Matthew Rose as King Mark. Outgoing Music Director, Edward Gardnerconducts
- Director Benedict Andrews returns to ENO to direct a new production of La bohème, starring Corinne Winters in the role of Mimi
- Artistic Director of Improbable, Phelim McDermott directs a new production of Philip Glass’s iconic Akhnaten
- The 2015/16 season opens with a new production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Mark Wigglesworth
- Calixto Bieito returns to the London Coliseum with Verdi’s The Force of Destiny, a major new co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York
- Christopher Alden’s critically-acclaimed production of Norma (originally created by Opera North), premieres at ENO withMarjorie Owens taking the title role
- A world-class roster of conductors including Xian Zhang, Stephen Lord, Karen Kamensek, Sir Richard Armstrong and Edward Gardner
- Revivals of audience favourites The Barber of Seville, The Mikado, The Magic Flute, Madam Butterfly and Jenůfa
- A new artistic partnership has been formed between ENO and Streetwise Opera, as part of the Company’s commitment to widening access to our work and working closely with vulnerable adults and community groups
- 88% of singers and conductors at ENO are British, British-trained or resident
Well if they can share productions and the costs, that’s one way forward in this dodgy economic climate. If something is going down from Opera North, even better! And for ENO to work with the Met and vice-versa I think can only be for the good of both companies – financially and artistically. Others may disagree.
A great and exciting season from an exemplary company and, to boot, one in the eye for the negative Arts Council of England, no longer their chosen advocate and sadly the soon to be redundant doomsayer of great artistic institutions such as ENO!
yes, sir!!
How many times is the Mikado coming back? It has had more comebacks than Dame Nellie Melba!
They announce (as the ROH did with the Copley Boheme and ENO did with Hytner’s Flute) that this is positively its last appearance so book now… only to find that it has been kept on the life support machine and turned out once more.
Saw it on the last revival and it was gorgeously sung, sharply acted, hit all the right comedic beats and still looked absolutely gorgeous. Audiences still want to see it so why not revive it? Other shows in the West End run for decades at a stretch with a fraction of the charm and style.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it and have seen it countless times… BUT they are engaging in sharp practice in the marketing.
At least there is a new Mikado in the casting though in Robert Lloyd – in the role that in this production Richard Angas made his own… RIP