The Green Room

ENO is founded on the belief that opera of the highest quality should be accessible to everyone. We tell the world's most timeless stories, unforgettably.

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ENO Opera Works Class of 13/14

Opera Works is led by Martin Constantine, the course director, and Jane Robinson, the vocal director. Over the course, the singers will take part in various performances and events. The course culminates in a performance to ENO staff, friends, family and industry professionals, where the singers have the opportunity to put into practice everything they have learned in the year.

Let’s meet some of this year’s singers and see what they’re looking forward to about Opera Works as well as some of their favourite operas and arias!

William Morgan, Tenor

My Favourite opera is Pelléas et Mélisande - without a shadow of a doubt. I hope that Opera Works is as demanding as possible - I am here to be challenged!

Vivien Conacher, Mezzo-Soprano

I’m really looking forward to meeting all the singers, as well as working with some amazing industry professionals throughout the course. If I had to pick my dream opera role, I would say Octavian.

Laura Cheetham, Soprano

I plan to savour every opportunity and experience from my time with ENO. My favourite aria is ‘Un bel di vedremo’ from Madam Butterfly.

Pablo Strong, Tenor

My dream opera role is Nemorino. Opera Works is a chance to broaden my knowledge to incorporate more dramatic considerations, as well as musical.

Lucy Roberts, Soprano

My favourite opera is Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel for a fun evening at the opera, or Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande if I’m feeling more serious. I’m delighted to be on a course which is solely focused towards opera - my favourite art form, and dream job!

Clare Kavanagh, Soprano

My favourite opera has to be Carmen. The music is so fantastic and energetic. I love it! To have been given the opportunity to work with ENO and the other singers on the course is really exciting.

Natasha Best, Mezzo-Soprano/Soprano

My favourite aria is ‘Must the Winter Come So Soon?’ from Vanessa by Samuel Barber. And my dream role would beIsolde from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde!

Jan Capinski, Baritone

I’d love to play Don Giovanni. I’ve spend more years in music college than I care to admit, so Opera Works for me is the natural extension of my education as a singer.

Sarah Baillie, Mezzo-Soprano

I love Michaela's Aria from Carmen, although to sing, my favourite aria is probably 'Ah fuggi il traditor' from Don Giovanni. To me, Opera Works means getting a better understanding of exactly what it is to be a professional singer.

Danny Standing, Baritone

I'm looking forward to being in a training programme which is designed by a professional company, and a company which knows first hand what it expects from its performers. In the future I would like to play The Kaiser from The Kaiser of Atlantis.

Anna Jeffers, Mezzo-Soprano

My dream opera role would be Isabella or Rosina - something with lots of notes in it! I am hoping to concentrate specifically on discovering and learning new suitable repertoire for auditions and also to work on my ability as an actress.

Catharine Rogers, Soprano

My favourite aria is 'Ah, Mio Cor'from Alcina. Opera Works means an opportunity to spend time making music in one of the most exciting opera houses in the world

Hanna-Liisa Kirchin, Mezzo-Soprano

Charlotte in Werther would be my dream role, I am so excited to be able to move to London in the knowledge that I will be receiving such excellent training and support, and I am thrilled to be able to give all I can in order to gain as much as I can from Opera Works.

Eleanor Ross, Soprano

I’m looking forward tothe chance to make industry contacts, improve my stagecraft, work with people at the highest professional level, learn new things about my singing, make new friends and become a better overall performer.

Other artists taking part in this year's Opera Works are:

Rachael Brimley soprano

Gabriella Cassidy soprano

Matthew Durkan baritone

Rosanne Havel soprano

Monica McGhee soprano

Lila Palmer mezzo-soprano

You can follow the students' progress over on the dedicated Opera Works blog. You can find out more, including how to register your interest in the 14/15 course, over on our website.

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Richard Angas, 1942-2013

It was with deep sorrow that we learned of the death of Richard Angas yesterday. Richard was a man of great stature in every sense of the word: his imposing height, his magnificent voice and his warmth and strength of character. 

Richard will be remembered for his many outstanding vocal and dramatic performances. Richard’s first performance with the company was Ramphis in Aida in 1980. He will perhaps be most fondly remembered for originating the role of The Mikado in Jonathan Miller’s iconic production, giving over 150 performances in the role between 1986 and 2012. He is a part of our company history.

The opera world has lost a great talent and we have lost a loved and respected colleague and friend. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.

Richard Angas in 2012 production of The Mikado (c) ENO/Sarah Lee

Here's a film from 1987, taken behind-the-scenes during the rehearsals for The Mikado, featuring Richard Angas as he creates the title role in Jonathan Miller's iconic production. 

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Happy Birthday Dame Janet Baker!

Happy Birthday to Dame Janet Baker, 80 today! Here's a clip of Dame Janet from ENO's production of Julius Caesar, recorded in 1984.

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Welcome to the class of 13/14

In 1988 ENO launched the Harewood Artist programme, designed to enable talented, UK-trained, singers at an early stage in their careers to be part of a major opera company, whilst continuing their training. ENO trains up to 12 young artists each season in every aspect of being a professional opera singer whilst giving them the opportunity to perform small, medium and even lead roles with ENO.

Let’s meet the Harewood Artists of 2013/14:

MARY BEVAN

Sister of the ENO favourite Sophie Bevan and part of the musical dynasty of the Bevan family, Mary is already making a name for herself as an extraordinarily talented, young soprano. Mary studied at the Royal Academy Opera and made her ENO debut as Rebecca in the World Premier of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys in 2010. Since then, Mary has gone on to sing the roles of Barbarina in Fiona Shaw’s The Marriage of Figaro and Yum Yum in Jonathan Miller’s iconic production of The Mikado.

This season you’ll be able to see Mary as Papagena in, Simon McBurney’s The Magic Flute and as Second Niece in David Alden’s Peter Grimes. Mary will also be making her Royal Opera House début as Barabrina in Le nozze di Figaro.

KATHERINE BRODERICK

Katherine trained at the National Opera Studio London and was the 2008 winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award. Katherine was nominated for this year’s Cardiff Singer of the World along with fellow Harewood Artist Ben Johnson. Katherine’s recent roles include Ortlinde in Die Walküre for The Royal Opera House, Woglinde in Götterdämmerung for Opera North, whilst her recent roles at ENO have included Donna Anna in Rufus Norris’s Don Giovanni and Berta in Jonathan Miller’s The Barber of Seville.

ELEANOR DENNIS

New to the Harewood artist programme this year, Scottish Soprano Eleanor Dennis has recently graduated from the Royal College of Music; she made her professional début with ENO in 2012 in a new production of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress.

This season Eleanor will be back at ENO to sing the First Lady in Simon McBurney’s new production of The Magic Flute. Eleanor will also make her role début at Scottish Opera as Liù in Turandot for Scottish Opera.

ANTHONY GREGORY

Another new face to this year’s Harewood Artists programme is Anthony Gregory. Hereford-born tenor Anthony was the 2010 Independent Opera Vocal Scholar at the Royal College of Music International Opera School. In 2011 Anthony won the prestigious Lies Askonas Prize at the RCM. Last summer, Anthony sang the role of Edward Milfort in Rosini Il cambiale matrimonio for Aix-en-Provence Festival Acadèmie, which was performed at the main festival and on tour through France and Europe.

Anthony made his ENO début as the Young Sailor in the new production of Julietta. This season you can catch Anthony in Simon McBurney’s new production of The Magic Flute.

BEN JOHNSON

ENO regular Ben Johnson has had a very successful year representing England in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2013, winning this year’s Audience Prize. Ben studied at The Royal College Music. He won the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2008 and was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2010-2012. As well as being an ENO Harewood Artist he is also a Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent.

Ben’s recent engagements at ENO have included Nemorino in Jonathan Miller’s The Elixir of Love, Don Ottavio in Rufus Norris’s Don Giovanni and Alfredo in Peter Konvitchney’s production of La traviata.

Ben will sing Tamino in Simon McBurney’s The Magic Flute next season  at ENO and Don Ottavio at Glyndebourne.

RHIAN LOIS

Welsh Soprano Rhian studied at the National Opera Studio in London. Rhian became one of the first recipients of a career development award from the Bryn Terfel Foundation. Whilst still studying Rhian made her performance debut with ENO as Ivette in Weinberg’s The Passenger, since then she has performed at ENO a number of times. Her roles include Frasquita in Calixto Bieito’s Carmen, Papagena in The Magic Flute and Nerine in Medea.

In 2013/14 you will be able to see Rhian as Adele in Christopher Alden’s Die Fledermaus and as First Niece in David Alden’s Peter Grimes. In 2015 Rhian will be making her Royal Opera House début.

BARNABY REA

Barnaby Rea graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied on the highly acclaimed opera course under the guidance of John Evans.  He was generously supported by the Countess of Munster Musical, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Wingate Foundation, the Hope Chest, Serena Fenwick, Towergate and the Worshipful Company of Gold & Silver Wyre Drawers.  He has recently completed further studies at the National Opera Studio where he was supported by Scottish Opera and a Sybil Tutton Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund.  

DUNCAN ROCK

  A graduate of the Guildhall and National Opera Studio, Duncan won the prestigious Chilcott Award last year and was named as ‘One to Watch in 2013’ by Time Out Magazine. Duncan is fast establishing himself as an outstanding young singer, his recent roles at ENO have included Papageno in The Magic Flute and the role of Schaunard in Jonathan Miller’s La bohème.

Duncan’s up-coming roles include Tarquinius in Fiona Shaw’s new production of The Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne and his role début as Marcello La bohème for Opera North.  

NICKY SPENCE

He’s been described as having a voice of real distinction and as one of our finest young singers, but this season Nicky is about to go global. Nicky made his ENO début as Brian in The World Premier of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys and went on to sing the role of Novice in David Alden’s Billy Budd.

This season Nicky will be making his Metropolitan Opera début with the US Premier of Two Boys singing the role of Brian. Don’t worry, you can still catch Nicky at ENO this year – Nicky will be singing the role of Francesco in Terry Gilliam’s production of Benvenuto Cellini.

JULIA SPORSÉN

Swedish soprano Julia Sporsén graduated from the Royal Academy of Music Opera Course and was the winner of the Opera Rara Patric Schimdt Bel Canto Prize and the Flora Nielsen Song Prize. Julia made her ENO début in David Alden’s Jenufa as Iano.

Julia became a Harewood Artist last year where her roles at ENO included Livia in Benedict Andrew’s Caligula and the title role in Richard Jones production of Julietta. This season Julia is singing Rosalinde in Christopher Alden’s Die Fledermaus and as Antigone in the world premier of Julian Anderson’s new opera Thebans.   

KATE VALENTINE

Kate studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and then at the National Opera Studio. At ENO Kate has performed in a number of varied roles including Cathleen in Fiona Shaw’s Riders to the Sea and as Elisabeth Zimmer in Elegy for Young Lovers, Helena in Christopher Alden’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mimi in Jonathan Miller’s La bohème.

GEORGE VON BERGEN

A graduate of the Royal College of Music and The National Opera Studio, George made his ENO debut in last season’s The Pilgrim’s Progress directed by Yoshi Oïda. This season George will perform as Sharpless in Anthony Minghella's Madam Butterfly and Zurga in Penny Woolcock’s revival of The Pearl Fishers. George will also make his début at Danish National Opera signing Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor.

CATHERINE YOUNG

Originally from Oxford, Catherine trained at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, and currently studies under the direction of Tim Evans-Jones. She took part in ENO Opera Works in 2009/10, and in September 2010 joined the ENO Harewood Artists, covering the roles of Zenobia Radamisto, and Second squire and Third Flowermaiden Parsifal. She made her professional debut in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at ENO in May 2011 and sang Second Lady The Magic Flute and Kate Pinkerton Madam Butterfly, a role which she reprises in the 2013-14 season.

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Booking for the ENO Community Choir autumn term is now open!

ENO Community Choir was formed in January 2011 and offers anyone in the community who enjoys singing the chance to meet on a regular basis with likeminded people in a fun and friendly environment.  No previous experience is required! The choir is non-auditioning; they rehearse and perform varied repertoire, from pop and world music to ENO seasonal classics. After performances at ENO’s home: the London Coliseum, the Natural History Museum, Covent Garden piazza, St Martin’s Courtyard and Westminster Cathedral Hall, the choir will be working towards an exciting performance at the end of the autumn term.

  Please click here to book your place for the Autumn term.

The ENO Community Choir is £25 per term, payable in advance. Alternatively, if you want to have a try ahead of joining next term, get in touch with us at [email protected] and we can arrange for you to come to a rehearsal.

  Visit http://www.eno.org/explore/eno-community-choir.php or email [email protected] for more information including how to join.

  ENO Community Choir is supported by Shaftesbury PLC.

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The ENO Community Choir & The Longmont Chorale present a joint concert and an evening of assorted works from Haydn and Vivaldi to Lady Gaga!

  The English National Opera Community Choir offers anyone who enjoys singing the opportunity to meet regularly with like-minded singers in a fun and friendly environment and no previous experience is required. Similarly, the Longmont Chorale is a non-auditioning community chorus that strives for excellence.

Held in the beautiful St Andrew Holborn Church, ENO Community Choir based at the London Coliseum, and the Colorado, USA based Longmont Chorale will be joining forces to showcase their talents performing their own and joint pieces, in a unique performance.

DATE: Saturday 29 June

TIME: 7:30 pm

VENUE: St Andrew Holborn 5-7 St Andrew St, EC4A 3AB

Free entry – retiring collection

How to get to there:

By Underground 

Central Line to Chancery Lane/ Circle & Metropolitan Lines to Farringdon/ Circle & District Lines to Blackfriars

By Rail 

Thameslink line to City Thameslink, Farringdon or Blackfriars.

By Bus

8, 17, 25, 45, 46, 242, 341, 521 

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Famous for more than fifteen minutes?

Let us now turn famous men into operas has seemed a particularly American thought over the past thirty years. Richard Nixon took a trip to China for John Adams, Sister Jean Prejean heard the murderer Joseph De Rocher’s confession in Jake Heggie’s Dead Men Walking and now Walt Disney lives and dies on stage at the London Coliseum. 

But beware of believing that staging our own world is something new, or indeed particularly American. Think no further than Verdi’s La traviata, literally ‘the fallen woman’. A dangerous project from the start with a libretto based upon a scandalous French play in which the dramatist, Alexandre Dumas fils, had turned the book of his love affair with the celebrated courtesan  Marie Duplessis into a drama for the stage. Then there was Verdi’s personal take on the tale. Biographical in that he was living with a woman who was not his wife and however pious she would become, Giuseppina Strepponi was a woman with a past, and a family! No wonder Verdi’s father-in-law bristled with moral outrage. Worse from everyone’s standpoint, Verdi took the courtesan’s side and insisted that the first production destined for Venice in 1853 should be in modern dress. The censors knew exactly what they were doing when they demanded that the production be safely set in 1700!

But whether it’s 1700 or 1850, be it Paris, Beijing or Los Angeles, opera always lives in a present political tense.  Wagner mines myths of gods and giants and dwarfs in The Ring of the Nibelung to puzzle out the problems of power and the possibility of revolution in the authoritarian and then industrial nineteenth century. In Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten turns a poem about a nineteenth century fisherman and his apprentices into an agonised plea for an understanding of the outcast, and the sexual outsider too perhaps. Verdi’s Don Carlos and Aida warn us about priestly tyranny. 

And The Perfect American? The public politics are there in Philip Glass’s opera. Disney, the right-winger who saw reds under every animator’s work bench. The ‘American patriot’ who coaxed Ronald Reagan out of the Democratic Party and back into the true Republican faith. Disney the boss who sacked workers when they dared to ask for rights. But it’s the cultural politics that are really interesting. How Disney, and the corporation that he and his brother Roy created, colonised the American imagination. Indeed in their movies and the entertainment parks they built made a version of America based on Walt’s boyhood in Marcelline Missouri that was never more than half of the real story. A Never-Never Land America that for so many Americans becomes America itself. It’s perhaps Glass’s own ambiguity as an American about this half-truth that gives his new opera its edge. Above all it’s there in the music which is not quite the Glass we usually hear. Sure the short repetitive phrases and the complex cross rhythms stride across the score, but there’s also American music, from Copland to Jazz, from Gershwin to the sweetly sentimental cocktail lounge ballad. An American collage that isn’t quite America. And that perhaps is Walt Disney’s principal legacy nearly half a century after his death in St Joseph’s Hospital Burbank California.

There are four more performances of The Perfect American (until 28 June). Tickets are available at http://bit.ly/PerfectAmerican

Christopher Cook gives pre-performance talks at English National Opera. Talks for next season will be available to book soon.

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ENO SINGERS NOMINATED FOR CARDIFF SINGER OF THE WORLD AWARD

A double dose of delight as not one, but two of ENO’s Harewood Artists are representing England in the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World 2013. Soprano Katherine Broderick and tenor Ben Johnson are among 20 singers competing for the title in this year’s 30th anniversary competition. Since joining the Harewood programme, both artists have gone on to perform a number of roles for ENO.  

Katherine most recently sang in Jonathan Miller’s production of The Barber of Seville, with The Guardian praising her as ‘a vibrant and well sung Berta’. She also reprised her role as Donna Anna in Rufus Norris's production of Don Giovanni. Before joining the Harewood programme Katherine completed her studies at the National Opera Studio, having won the Gold Medal at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She was the winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2007.  

Having quickly established himself as one of the most exciting tenors of his generation, Ben Johnson’s opera engagements for the ENO include: Nemorino inThe Elixir of Love, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Most recently played Alfredo in Peter Konwitschny's acclaimed production of La traviata, with The Times describing his performances as ‘a knock out’. Johnson studied with Neil Mackie and Tim Evans-Jones at the Royal College of Music and now continues as a student of Jeffrey Talbot. He won the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2008 and was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2010 – 2012.

The competition is being broadcast across BBC TV & Radio this week - see the full schedule. You can watch the first concert round, featuring Katherine, on BBC Four tonight at 7.30pm (18 June).

Best of luck to both of our singers!

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The Power to Hurt

Anyone who thinks that a night at the opera is like stepping into a warm bath needs to think again after Carrie Cracknell’s new production of Wozzeck.

Comfortable it certainly isn’t, being neither easy on the eye nor the ear. Although as Cracknell herself said at the pre-performance talk you could possibly hear something that might be considered redemptive in the heart-bending orchestral interlude with which Alban Berg links the two final scenes of his first opera:  Marie and Wozzeck dead in the penultimate scene and then after the musical interlude their son alone amongst a gang of taunting children at the edge of the rock bottom estate where this bleak ex-soldier’s tale has been played out. But hardly had the word ‘redemptive’ escaped then Cracknell was keen to recapture it.

Wozzeck, played by Leigh Melrose (c) ENO/Tristram Kenton

How can a mistress who has her throat cut by her soldier lover who then takes his own life leaving an abandoned child, offer any of us solace? Cracknell and her designer Tom Scutt tell their story in a world where better feelings and personal ambition have been squeezed out by economic necessity. In the grimy pub, the tawdry living room and on a concrete staircase that belongs to the meanest public housing, survival is the only imperative. And, for Wozzeck, surviving is also surviving what happened to him in uniform as a soldier, post-traumatic stress disorder to give his emotional dislocation a name.

This is a community haunted by dead comrades returning in flag draped coffins, a place where the principal currency is small plastic bags filled with white powder. So the persecuting Captain deals in cocaine, while his fellow officer the doctor performs terrible dietary experiments on Wozzeck in return for cash. Social control and the oppression of ordinary people; the themes you’ll find in Georg Büchner’s play Woyzeck from the beginning of the nineteenth century and in the opera that Berg made from that play.

However, at the heart of Cracknell’s Wozzeck is a loving relationship that is also in a state of shellshock. If Wozzeck the dislocated ex-soldier wanders the town often not returning home, then should we wonder that Marie strays with the Drum Major?

Marie, played by Sara Jakubiak and Drum Major, played by Bryan Regiater (c) ENO/Tristram Kenton

If art can take us to places that we’ve never been, Carrie Cracknell leads us to corners of Britain that are for most of us no more than flickering images on a television news programme. Home once to another child who’s disappeared; another father who’s killed his partner; another housing estate struggling under the weight of its ASBOs. This Wozzeck looks at a terrible place where men and women are constrained to be less than they could and should and ought to be and it never blinks.

And nor should we. Music theatre - opera if you will - like this Wozzeck can wound. And if it has the power to hurt, then hopefully we’re wiser when we leave the Coliseum. That quotation from John Donne came to mind as I walked home. No, not ‘Death be not proud …  but ‘No man is an island,/Entire of itself./Each is a piece of the continent,/A part of the main.’

What do you think about Carrie Cracknell's production of Wozzeck? Let us know either by commenting below, or tweet us using the #ENOBlog hashtag!

There are 2 further performances of Wozzeck remaining (until 25 May). Tickets are available here: bit.ly/ENOWozzeck

Christopher Cook gives pre-performance talks at English National Opera, for information about upcoming events vist: http://www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?&itemid=1356

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Dating up in La bohème

La bohème 90 years on from 1840s?  Can that be right?   When Henri Murger published his stories about Bohemian Paris, Scènes de la vie de bohème, they were set in a Latin Quarter that was  riding on the flood tide of French Romanticism when to be an artist was the only real choice for a young man who knew that deep personal feelings were the thing that mattered. 

So why transport this most perfect of operas to the 1930s, to a Paris whose oddest corners were being mapped by photographers like Pierre Brassaï and which was suffused with melancholy for a film-maker like Marcel Carné. Leave well alone, the purists will say. This is a Romantic and a romantic story of boys and girls falling in and out of love, of ‘golden lads and girls [who] all must…come to dust.’ So bustles and bonnets please, not Marcel waves and brilliantine.

Richard Burkhard, Gwyn Hughes Jones, Kate Valentine, Duncan Rock, Andrew Craig Brown (L-R) in La bohème

But wait …. The opera was written in the middle 1890s, so Puccini and his librettists Giacosa and Illica, who naturally were all Italian, were imagining a Paris that they had never experienced at first hand. In this sense the La bohème is doubly nostalgic. It looks back to a time that has passed and as it does so it indulges perhaps incipient middle age dreams of the agonies and ecstasies of young love from the men who created it. And we, the audience? We live over a century after the first performance of La bohème in Turin and almost two centuries after Murger’s poet first kissed a neighbouring seamstress. The time period in which you set a production of an opera is not as straightforward as it seems. And if the work is as popular as La bohème it’s all too easy for a producer to encourage his audience to wallow in a warm bath of nineteenth century sentiment rather than ask themselves about the questions about class and gender, and what Bohemia is and why we need it and where it is. Matters that are at the heart of Puccini’s masterpiece. This is more than the story of a pretty working-class girl who falls for a handsome poet and then dies absurdly young from TB. 

So what are the rules about updating a production? Jonathan Miller, who’s a master of moving a opera to a new time and a new place, will tell you that the most important thing is that the world in which you relocate the work must be the equivalent of that in which it was originally set and in every respect. It has to make complete sense. So his Tosca was relocated to a Rome in the closing days of the brutal German occupation of Italy, just as Sardou’s original play and Puccini’s opera had the Neapolitan Bourbons attempting to destroy those aspirations to political liberty associated first with the French Revolution and then the invading armies of Bonaparte. The famous mafioso Rigoletto and The Elixir of Love à la James Dean in the American South West. They are all perfect fits.

Kate Valentine and Gwyn Hughes Jones in La bohème (c) Donald Cooper

So in this La bohème the bohemians are rich boys slumming it, pretending to be poets and painters and musicians. In time they’ll settle down to ‘real’ jobs as lawyers, bankers or in the family business; and they’ll remember sowing their wild oats when they lunch at the Club or meet for annual reunions. They will look at the photographs of the time when they were young, Brassaï’s bars, Doisneau’s street scenes and Cartier Bresson’s reimagined Paris as souvenirs of their salad days.  And that sense of relentless fate that haunts Mimi and Rodolfo – that’s surely the same fatalism you find in Marcel Carné’s work with Jacques Prévert, films like Le jour se lève and Le Quai des brumes. Ninety years on from Murger and almost another ninety years on from the 1930s this updated La bohème makes perfect sense.

  What do you think about updating performances? Let us know either by commenting below, or tweet us using the #ENOBlog hashtag!

There are 10 further performances of La bohème  remaining (until 29 June). Tickets are available here: bit.ly/ENOBoheme

Christopher Cook gives pre-performance talks at English National Opera, for information about upcoming events vist: http://www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?&itemid=1356

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English National Opera’s 2013/14 Season

We’re delighted to announce our 2013/14 season at English National Opera. Our forthcoming season features 12 international directors from the worlds of opera, theatre, film and visual arts, 10 new productions, 4 hit revivals and 4 works by living composers.

Highlights of the 2013/14 season include:

Terry Gilliam returns to English National Opera to direct Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini following his critically-acclaimed, sell-out production of The Damnation of Faust in 2011

The World Premiere of Julian Anderson’s first opera Thebans, with libretto by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness, directed by Pierre Audi

A site-specific production of Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face in Ambika P3, directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins

UK premiere of Matthew Barney’s and Jonathan Belper’s River of Fundament

Ten new productions, including Fidelio, Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, Rigoletto, Rodelinda and Cosí Fan Tutte

Four smash-hit revivals, including Satyagraha and Peter Grimes

John Berry, ENO's Artistic Director  said, ‘This season shows the power of loyal artists - singers, conductors, directors, composers and designers - who are prepared to put themselves on the line in a remarkably diverse and exciting range of work. Our international partners are also an important creative and supportive influence and it is wonderful that so many opera houses and festivals from around the world want to collaborate so closely with us.’

Let us know what you think of the 2013/14 season, and what you’re most looking forward to! Simply comment below, or tweet us using the #ENO1314 hashtag. 

Public booking opens for all productions from Fidelio to Rodelinda on 10th June.

Friends of ENO can book from 13th May.

2013/14 Season in full:

Fidelio

Ludwig van Beethoven

Directed by Calixto Bieito

Conducted by Edward Gardner

Opens: 25 September 2013 (7 performances)

25, 27 Sept, 01, 03, 12, 17 Oct, 7.30pm & 06 Oct, 3.00pm

A co-production with Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich

Cast includes: Emma Bell (Leonore), Stuart Skelton (Florestan) excluding selected performances, Philip Horst (Don Pizarro), James Creswell (Rocco), Sarah Tynan (Marzelline), Adrian Dwyer (Jaquino), Roland Wood (Don Fernando)

  Die Fledermaus

Johann Strauss II

Directed by Christopher Alden

Conducted by Eun Sun Kim

Opens: 30 September 2013 (11 performances)

30 Sept, 02, 05, 09, 11, 15, 18, 22, 24, 31 Oct, 06 Nov, 7.30pm

A co-production with Canadian Opera Company

New production supported by Lord and Lady Laidlaw

Cast includes: Tom Randle (Gabriel von Eisenstein), Julia Sporsén (Rosalinde), Jennifer Holloway (Prince Orlofsky, Rhian Lois (Adele), Richard Burkhard (Dr Falke), Edgaras Montvidas (Alfred), Simon Butteriss (Dr Blind), Andrew Shore (Frank), Jon Pohl (Frosch)

  Madam Butterfly

Giacomo Puccini

Originally directed by Anthony Minghella, Revival Director Sarah Tipple

Conducted by Gianluca Marciano / Martin Fitzpatrick

Opens: 14 October 2013 (14 performances)

14, 16, 21, 23 Oct, 02, 08, 13, 15, 21, 29 Nov, 7.30pm

19 Oct, 23 Nov, 6.30pm

26 Oct, 01 Dec, 3.00pm

A co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the Lithuanian National Opera

Original production supported by Lord and Lady Laidlaw

Cast includes: Dina Kuznetsova/Mary Plazas (Cio-Cio San), Timothy Richards/Gwyn Hughes Jones (F.B. Pinkerton), George von Bergen (Sharpless), Pamela Helen Stephen (Suzuki), Alun Rhys-Jenkins (Goro), Mark Richardson (The Bonze), Alexander Robin Baker (Prince Yamadori), Catherine Young (Kate Pinkerton)

  The Magic Flute

Wolfgang Mozart

Directed by Simon McBurney

Conducted by Gergely Madaras

Opens: 7 November 2013 (12 performances)

07, 12, 14, 22, 28 Nov, 03, 05 Dec, 7.30pm

09, 30 Nov, 6.30pm

07 Dec, 3.00pm

A co-production with De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam and International Festival of Lyric Art, Aix-en-Provence, and in collaboration with Complicite

Cast Includes: Ben Johnson (Tamino), Devon Guthrie (Pamina), Roland Wood (Papageno), Mary Bevan (Papagena), TBA (Queen of the Night), James Creswell (Sarastro), Brian Galliford (Monostatos), Eleanor Dennis (First Lady), Clare Presland (Second Lady), Rosie Aldridge (Third Lady), Anthony Gregory (First Priest/First Armed Man), Stephen Holloway (Second Priest/Second Armed Man)

  Satyagraha

Philip Glass

Directed by Phelim McDermott

Conducted by TBA

Opens: 20 November 2013 (6 performances)

20, 25, 26 Nov, 04, 06 Dec, 7.00pm

08 Dec, 3.00pm

A co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and in collaboration with Improbable

Original production supported by ENO’s Contemporary Opera Group

Cast Includes: Alan Oke (M. K. Gandhi), Janis Kelly (Mrs Naidoo)

  Peter Grimes

Benjamin Britten

Directed by David Alden

Conducted by Edward Gardner

Opens: 29 January 2014 (8 performances)

29 Jan, 06, 14, 21, 27 Feb, 7.00pm

01, 08 Feb, 6.00pm

23 Feb, 3.00pm

A co-production with De Vlaamse Opera, Opera de Oviedo and Deutsche Oper Berlin

Original production supported by ENO’s English Opera Group

Cast Includes: Stuart Skelton (Peter Grimes), Elza van den Heever (Ellen Orford), Iain Paterson (Balstrode), Rebecca De Pont Davies (Auntie), Matthew Best (Swallow), Leigh Melrose (Ned Keene), Michael Colvin (Bob Boles), Felicity Palmer (Mrs Sedley), Rhian Lois (1st Niece), Mary Bevan (2nd Neice), Matthew Treviño (Hobson), Tim Robinson (Reverend Horace Adams)

  Rigoletto

Giuseppe Verdi

Directed by Christopher Alden

Conducted by Graeme Jenkins

Opens: 13 February 2014 (11 performances)

13, 20, 22, 25 Feb, 05, 07, 10, 12, 14 Mar, 7.30pm

15 Feb, 01 Mar, 6.30pm

A co-production with Canadian Opera Company

New production supported by a syndicate of individual donors

Cast Includes: Quinn Kelsey (Rigoletto), Barry Banks (Duke of Mantua), Anna Christy (Gilda), Peter Rose/Matthew Treviño (Sparafucile), Justina Gringyte (Maddalena), David Stout (Monterone), George Humphreys (Marullo), Anthony Gregory (Borsa), Barnaby Rea (Ceprano), Diana Montague (Giovanna)

  Rodelinda

George Frideric Handel

Directed by Richard Jones

Conducted by Christian Curnyn

Opens: 28 February 2014 (8 performances)

28 Feb, 04, 06, 11, 13 Mar, 7.00pm

02 Mar, 3.00pm

08, 15 Mar, 6.00pm

A co-production with the Bolshoi Opera, Russia

New production supported by Colwinston Charitable Trust and a syndicate of individual donors

Cast Includes: Rebecca Evans (Rodelinda), Iestyn Davies (Bertarido), John Mark Ainsley (Grimoaldo), Susan Bickley (Eduige), Christopher Ainslie (Unulfo), Richard Burkhard (Garibaldo)

  Booking for these shows opens later this year...

Powder Her Face

Thomas Adès

Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins

Conducted by TBA

Opens: 2 April 2014 (9 site-specific performances at Ambika P3)

2, 4, 8, 10, 14, 16 Apr, 7.30pm

5, 12 and 19 Apr, 6.30pm

Thebans

Julian Anderson

Librettist: Frank McGuinness

Directed by Pierre Audi

Conducted by Edward Gardner

Opens: 3 May 2014 (8 performances)

3, 8, 10, 15, 23, 31 May 7.30pm

17 May & 3 June, 6.30pm

A co-production with Bonn Oper

New production supported by The Boltini Trust, PRS for Music Foundation and ENO’s Contemporary Opera Group

Cast Includes: Roland Wood (Oedipus), Peter Hoare (Creon), Julia Sporsén (Antigone), Matthew Best (Tiresias), Susan Bickley (Jocasta), Christopher Ainslie (Messenger), Anthony Gregory (Haemon), Jonathan McGovern (Polynices)

  Cosí Fan Tutte

Wolfgang Mozart

Directed by Katie Mitchell

Conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth

Opens: 16 May 2014 (12 performances)

16, 22, 24, 30 May & 2, 4, 6, 13, 19 June, 2, 4, 6 July 7.00pm

A co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York

Cast Includes: Kate Valentine (Fiordiligi), Christine Rice (Dorabella), Norman Reinhardt (Ferrando), Marcus Farnsworth (Guglielmo), Roderick Williams (Don Alfonso), Mary Bevan (Despina)

  Benvenuto Cellini

Hector Berlioz

Directed by Terry Gilliam

Conducted by Edward Gardner

Opens: 5 June 2014 (8 performances)

5, 12, 14, 17, 20, 25, 27 June, 7.00pm

7 June, 6.00pm

A co-production with De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam

New production supported by the Peter Moores Foundation’s Swansong Project 2013–2015 and a syndicate of individual donors

Cast Includes: Michael Spyres (Benvenuto Cellini), Corinne Winters (Teresa), Pavlo Hunka (Balcucci), Nicky Spence (Francesco), Paula Murrihy (Ascanio), Willard White (Pope Clement VII), Richard Burkhard (Fieramosca)

  The Pearl Fishers

Georges Bizet

Directed by Penny Woolcock

Conductor: TBA

Opens: 16 June 2014 (9 performances)

16, 18, 23, 26 June & 1, 3 July, 7.30pm

21 June, 6.30pm

28 June & 6 July, 3.00pm

Cast Includes: Sophie Bevan (Leila), John Tessier (Nadir), George von Bergen (Zurga)

  River of Fundament

Composed by Jonathan Belper

Directed by Matthew Barney

Opens 29 June 2014 (3 viewings)

29 June 1pm & 6.30pm

30 June 7.00pm

River of Fundament is presented worldwide on behalf of the artist by Manchester International Festival

[englishnationalopera]

Behind the scenes of La bohème with Kate Valentine

Soprano Kate Valentine (Mimi in La Bohème), also goes by the name of 'Furtive Figaro' due to her habit of filming rehearsals. Over the last couple of weeks, our Furtive Figaro has been working on The Daily Miller, capturing her favourite moments from the La Bohème rehearsals to give us an exclusive look behind the scenes.

First up, director Jonathan Miller offers some pearls of wisdom from W.H.Auden to the Chorus:

The men have a very funny dance rehearsal:

Jonathan Miller gives direction on dying...:

... and entrances and exits:

Jonathan talks about who we feel when faced with another's death:

Some more dancing lightens the mood:

Jonathan talks about the importance of hand gestures:

Kate takes us on a tour of the set:

Gwyn Hughes Jones talks about mascots:

Kate talks to the cast about their experiences so far, part 1...:

...part 2:

La bohème is at ENO from 29 April – 29 June 2013. #ENOBoheme

[englishnationalopera]

Sunken Garden. Or, how an opera which uses polarised images can polarise opinion...

Broadcaster Christopher Cook writes about how different people can have totally different experiences of the same work.

  It’s a strange thing. Two people sit in the theatre and watch the same performance and then fight like cats and dogs about how much they liked it and how much they hated it. (Friendships have foundered on such differences of opinion.) How can it happen? Certainly, Sunken Garden has sorted out … I’ve said it, the sheep from the goats, but that’s because I’m a sheep and think that Michel van der Aa’s opera does wonderful things; and literally so when we put on our special 3D glasses.

  Sunken Garden, Zenna Briggs (Katherine Manley) and the vertical pond (c) ENO/Mike Hoban

  However, back to that difference of opinion, Of course no one person sees the same performance as another person. We’re all the sum of our own particular beliefs and prejudices and as we sit in the dark watching and listening we often wear them on our sleeves and to a great extent they frame the performance we’re attending (I’ve been struggling to ‘like’ Schumann’s orchestral music for years and I’m going to give up the fight soon.) So it’s not much use telling us that we should leave our opinions in the cloakroom with the hats and coats. As someone once said ‘an open mind is often an empty mind’!

  To go back to Sunken Garden, I wonder if the often violent differences of opinion about this kind of music theatre have something to do with the idea that opera on stage has to be ‘opera’, that it ought to respect some agreed set of historical conventions and traditions. (Who exactly agreed them is never clear.) So if Strauss and Hofmannsthal set The Rosenkavalier in the reign of the Empress Maria Theresa, if Puccini wanted Cio-Cio San to wear a kimono and Norma and her tribe of ancient Gauls to have been conquered by the Romans, that’s how it has to be. The right sets and the proper frocks. We have to hold faith with the composer’s intentions and the way the work is always performed. So Tosca has to jump from the battlements of Castel Sant’Angelo and Gilda dies in a sack by the river in Mantua.

  Are there people, then, who think modern opera is an oxymoron, for whom contemporary music drama is a kind of blasphemy. Of course opera has always been contemporary. and usually political – that’s a topic for another time. But perhaps one man or woman’s ‘contemporary’ is another’s source of deep anxiety as we are launched into a world that we don’t really understand. Michel van der Aa is a very contemporary artist, a filmmaker and a composer and a theatre director. And once we’ve arrived with Toby in the sunken garden, not just the score – a mix of live music and pre-recorded on a laptop – but the place itself are anchored in a contemporary digital world. Indeed one way of reading the climax of the work in front of the pool in the secret garden that can only be reached in our dreams is to see it as a video game of the kind that flouts the laws of physics and pits power against morality. But how many opera goers play video games? Most of us are what Marc Prensky has called Digital Immigrants. Is this the explanation for why a work like Sunken Garden polarises opinion? 

  Sunken Garden is at the Barbican Centre until Saturday 20 April. Additional £16 tickets have just been released for the final two performances. Tickets available here: bit.ly/ENOGarden

  To find out what our twitter followers thought of Sunken Garden, check out this Storify post: http://storify.com/E_N_O/sunken-garden-eno-at-the-barbican

Christopher Cook gives pre-performance talks at English National Opera, for information about upcoming events vist: http://www.eno.org/see-whats-on/productions/production-page.php?&itemid=1356

[englishnationalopera]

Sir Colin Davis 1927-2013

It is with great sadness that ENO acknowledges the death of Sir Colin Davis.  A former Music Director of ENO’s precursor, The Sadler’s Wells Opera, Sir Colin was a conductor who enhanced and strengthened the reputation of the company, both in terms of the musical standards he achieved and the repertoire he introduced.  During his time at Sadler’s Wells he introduced Weill’s Mahagonny and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen to the repertoire and revived the then relatively unknown Mozart opera Idomeneo.  His wide range of influences is still reflected in ENO’s breadth of repertoire today.

ENO Music Director, Edward Gardner OBE said, “Sir Colin played an indelible part in the life of Sadler’s Wells.  He maintained a close link with the company through the transition into English National Opera, and many colleagues hold fond memories of a close working relationship with him.  Sir Colin brought Berlioz's music to life in a way few others could, convincing the musical world of the dramatic depth and range of his music. We have Sir Colin to thank that Berlioz is heard as part of the repertoire of all the major opera houses.  As a young conductor at the Royal Academy of Music, he was an invaluable support, whose knowledge and enthusiasm was of great importance during the formative years of my career.”

Messages of condolence can be posted on the LSO's website by clicking here: http://lso.co.uk/in-memory-of-sir-colin-davis

[englishnationalopera]

Martyn Rose appointed Chairman of English National Opera

Experienced UK business entrepreneur, philanthropist and arts supporter to chair Board  

  Martyn Rose, one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs and business figures, has today been appointed as the chairman of English National Opera, a role he will take up on 1 May 2013.

  Martyn Rose (c) Scott Collier

Commenting on the appointment, Sir Vernon Ellis, President of ENO said, “Martyn Rose has brought his entrepreneurial flair not only to the successful companies he has built but also to the major charities and arts organisations he has chaired.  A common theme has been the creation of a shared vision for the organisation and the drive and inspiration to deliver it.  I am confident that he will provide the Board with the leadership to work alongside the ENO Executive to ensure that ENO will grow, develop and flourish.”

Rose brings to ENO his boardroom leadership skills and management experience drawn from more than 30 years of working in business and the arts. He has been Chairman of a range of companies, both public and privately owned. Rose is currently chairman of DanceEast, the Arts Council England-funded world-class performing arts complex based in Ipswich. He also chairs the Big Society Network, which supports and develops talent, innovation and social enterprise and rewards those who have made a positive contribution to society through the Big Society Awards. 

Rose said, “I am honoured to take on the Chairmanship of one of the country’s leading arts institutions and look forward to ensuring that ENO continues to maintain its world-class reputation for distinctive, contemporary and highly theatrical opera. ENO is rightly proud of its commitment to developing both new audiences and the very best British talent and I want to help maintain that tradition so that this renowned institution can continue as a standard-bearer for excellence within the arts world and more broadly for the UK’s creative industries. ENO produces exciting, original and innovative work and is the largest employer of British opera talent. I hope my enthusiasm and commercial experience within the business  and arts world will complement the outstanding artistic achievements of this committed, hard-working and passionate organisation and help further enhance its outstanding reputation and success in the UK and internationally.”

Rose comes to Chair the Board of ENO as the Company continues to deliver award-winning productions and international collaborative partnerships. In 2012, ENO won every available award for opera, including the Olivier Award for ‘the breadth and diversity of the artistic programme’. This year, ENO has been nominated in five Olivier Opera Award categories. Internationally, ENO works with a huge range of co-producers, including the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Netherlands Opera, and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, whose new season will feature two co-productions already premiered at ENO; Two Boys and Eugene Onegin. Rose will take up the post of Chair on 1 May, when ENO announces its 2013-14 season of new work.

CEO of ENO, Loretta Tomasi, said “We are delighted that Martyn is joining us as our Chairman. His passion for ENO’s work, its creativity and international artistic standing, combined with his impressive leadership record and commercial success, will bring the skills, enthusiasm and drive required to this important role.”

Artistic Director of ENO, John Berry, said, “During these exciting and challenging times Martyn's arrival at ENO is a coup for the Company. ENO’s artistic identity is stronger than ever and we look forward to benefiting from his wealth of business experience to strengthen and grow the Company.” 

Ffion Hague and Glyn Barker, current ENO Deputy Chairs, will continue to act as Interim Chairs until Rose takes up his position.

About Martyn Rose:

Martyn Rose was called to the Bar in his early 20s, but subsequently decided to pursue a career in business. He acquired his first company at the age of 29 and over the next three decades he created, built and developed a wide range of businesses from manufacturing to software, financial services and property. At the age of 34 he became Chairman of his first publicly listed company and has, since that time, been Chairman of over twenty five public and private companies. In the 1990s he co-founded and was the Chair of Macaw, a start-up soft drinks business, which became one of the leading manufacturers within the sector, as well as co-founding and chairing a portfolio of commercial radio stations.

Among the companies he chairs today are Dentons Pension Management, one of the UK’s leading pension administrators, and AIM-listed software group Publishing Technology plc, a world leading content solutions provider focused on the publishing industry.

Since becoming more focused on his charitable and philanthropic work, he has reduced the range of his commercial activities, and the remaining businesses with which he is involved are all companies that he established and continues to chair.

As Chairman of DanceEast, he was actively involved in the organisation’s capital fundraising campaign for its new premises. He is a long-standing Trustee of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, a school governor, and co-chaired the National Citizen Service with Michael Gove prior to the general election. This has now developed into a Government policy, running a programme for 16 year olds. He also co-chaired the Get Britain Working campaign with Theresa May, and co-founded and was appointed Chair of the Big Society Network, which encourages, develops and showcases social enterprise. 

[englishnationalopera]

English National Opera nominated for 5 Olivier Awards

We're delighted to announce that English National Opera has been nominated for 5 of the 8 available awards for opera at the Olivier Awards 2013. 

The nominations in full are:

Best New Opera Production

Billy Budd, English National Opera at the London Coliseum

Caligula, English National Opera at the London Coliseum

Einstein On The Beach at the Barbican theatre

La Traviata, English National Opera at the London Coliseum

Outstanding Achievement in Opera

Edward Gardner for his conducting of The Flying Dutchman and Billy Budd at the English National Opera, London Coliseum

Bryan Hymel for his performances in Les Troyens, Robert Le Diable and Rusalka at the Royal Opera House

Music Theatre Wales for In the Locked Room/Ghost Patrol at the Linbury Theatre, the Royal Opera House

The Stage Management teams at English National Opera, London Coliseum and the Royal Opera House

The Olivier Awards will be presented at the Royal Opera House on 28 April. You can listen LIVE on BBC Radio 2, or watch the highlights on ITV. 

[englishnationalopera]

Mauricio Kagel Music Prize for Michel van der Aa

English National Opera would like to congratulate Dutch composer, film-maker and director Michel van der Aa on winning the Maurico Kagel Music Prize. The North Rhine-Westphalia Arts Foundation has announced that the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize for 2013 will be awarded, by unanimous vote, to Michel van der Aa. The award will be presented on 28 April during the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik.

The Mauricio Kagel Music Prize is given to internationally renowned musicians whose work, like Kagel’s own, experiments with interdisciplinary concepts and techniques. It was established in 2011 and is awarded every two years; its first recipient was the French-Greek composer Georges Aperghis. 

The prize is worth a total of €50,000, of which €20,000 is to be used to fund a new project for the North Rhine-Westphalia region. It is the second major international prize to have been won by Van der Aa in just a few months, following his receipt of the University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Award for Up-Close in November.

Van der Aa’s own combination of visuals, theatre and music may be seen and heard in his forthcoming opera Sunken Garden, which will have its premiere at English National Opera on 12 April.

Watch a teaser of the opera below:

First teaser of Sunken Garden from English National Opera on Vimeo.