It’s been an intense week. Two operas, over two consecutive evenings, spent with two explosively dysfunctional onstage families. Time to decompress. If you keep an eye on London operantics, you’ll be aware of the world première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Festen’ (libretto by Lee Hall, directed by Richard Jones) at Royal Ballet & Opera. And if…
Tag: ENO
Thirst class: ‘The Elixir of Love’, English National Opera, London
ENO’s new production of ‘The Elixir of Love’ is a witty and affectionate take on Donizetti’s comic romance, beautifully realised and performed. On entering the auditorium of the Coliseum, you immediately notice something a little out of the ordinary. Instead of the normal safety curtain, a big screen spans the stage, showing a stylised drawing…
Going dark: ‘Duke Bluebeard’s Castle’, English National Opera, London
Just two performances at the Coliseum for this new ‘semi-staged concert performance’ of Bartók’s only opera. A masterpiece in miniature – two main characters, their entwined fates settled in a mere hour – its enigmatic spell both terrifies and enthrals. A horror story on the surface with layers of murky psychodrama underneath: whatever one’s interpretation,…
English National Opera brings comedy to the fore with The Barber of Seville
Rossini’s Barber of Seville doesn’t often get the attention it deserves. Perhaps because it has often been unfavourably compared to Mozart’s weightier opera, Marriage of Figaro. The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro started life as plays by eighteenth century playwright, Pierre Beaumarchais. Sharing the same main characters, the operas are often confused….
Dying inside: ‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’, English National Opera, London
‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’ is described as an “opera project”, the brainchild of performance artist Marina Abramović. The timing is ideal – English National Opera (ENO) describes the piece as “celebratory”, as we approach the centenary of Callas’s birth on 2 December; while Abramović is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the…
Sea change: ‘Peter Grimes’, English National Opera, London
I was already excited about this evening before a note had even been sung or played. The start of a new ENO season: a happy occasion in itself. But I was also new to this acclaimed David Alden production, which was last given in 2014, only a few months before I went to my very…
Philip Glass’s Akhnaten Still Shines Brightly at the Coliseum
As Glass read Oedipus and Akhnaten about the Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaten, who ruled Egypt in 1351-1334 BC, he knew he had found his final hero to his operatic trilogy of ‘portrait operas’ he had been formulating, dedicated to the great thinkers of this world. By then, Glass had composed two: Einstein on the beach (on Albert Einstein) in…
Seeing red: ‘Carmen’, English National Opera
This is a stunning production of an opera you might think you know – until this version starts stripping it down, peeling away the layers until you’re left with just a man, a woman… and darkness. English National Opera (ENO)’s current ‘Carmen’ is director Jamie Manton’s revival of Calixto Bieito’s 1999 staging, which updates the…
Elizabeth lines: ‘Gloriana’ at English National Opera
ENO’s one-off presentation of Britten’s coronation opera – originally programmed as a platinum jubilee-year special – was destined to become a powerfully significant evening. A double tribute: not only to the late monarch herself, but to the ENO company itself – still very much alive, defying its would-be executioners by putting its heart and soul…
Motion captures: William Kentridge at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
As I write, there is just under a fortnight left – including two weekends – to see the Royal Academy’s retrospective of South African artist William Kentridge. I urge you to go if you can. Kentridge also directs and stages opera, and it’s thanks to English National Opera (‘ENO’) that I first encountered his work….
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