| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 55: ENO performs Britten's Peter Grimes on the concert stage | Julia Savage |
 With most of the original cast of English National Opera's critically acclaimed production returning to the Royal Albert Hall to perform Britten's Peter Grimes for the BBC Proms, this was a performance of which much of the audience had high expectations. For the most part, these were met and, on occasion, exceeded.
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| 26-Jun-2012 The London Coliseum | Dr Dee at ENO | Katy S Austin |
 Fact is, they say, stranger than fiction. Damon Albarn’s latest foray onto the operatic stage certainly makes strange the true-life story of Elizabethan intellectual and philosopher John Dee. With Albarn overseeing the altercations between Elizabethan realms and forbidden mystical realms, not to mention numerous giant expanding books, Dr Dee, his latest project from on high, shapes up as theatrically stunning but musically uneven.
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| 23-Jun-2012 The London Coliseum | Dark deeds on the high seas: Billy Budd at ENO | David Karlin |
 For a taut drama about the relationships between men thrown together in an enclosed space, it's hard to imagine a better setting than the claustrophobic environment of a warship in Nelson's navy. Sailors worked in atrocious conditions for little pay in a life that alternated between the excitement and mortal danger of battle and long periods of intense boredom, with an ensuing myriad of petty squabbles and hatreds. Herman Melville's unfinished novella Billy Budd overlays this with a tale of crime and judgement.
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| 25-May-2012 The London Coliseum | Caligula slain in the Coliseum: A triumph for ENO | Arthur Keegan-Bole |
 Where could be more appropriate to see the story of Caligula, Rome’s most notorious emperor/self-proclaimed God, than in the Coliseum! Its purple SPQR livery made the opening to this performance all the more striking as Caligula, dishevelled, unhinged and not a little scary, crept on stage through the curtain in dead silence. So the decidedly menacing tone of the opera was set before the curtain had even been raised or a sound heard. When the curtain rises we see his sister collapse, dead, and he releases a primal scream to spark up the orchestra.
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| 8-May-2012 The London Coliseum | Minghella's Butterfly returns to ENO | Paul Kilbey |
 Anthony Minghella's famous production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly debuted with ENO in 2005, and has been revived several times since at the Coliseum, as well as travelling to the Met in New York and the Lithuanian National Opera. ENO's latest revival confirms the classic status of this version, with a musical account which goes some way to matching the sumptuous and – yes – cinematic visuals.
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| 28-Apr-2012 The London Coliseum | An imaginary Flying Dutchman at ENO | David Karlin |
 Of the various possible ways of conducting Wagner's Flying Dutchman, ENO's Edward Gardner took the direct approach. From the first tremolo string notes, the orchestra launched into the main leitmotif at full tilt, followed by the sound of stormy seas swirling more furiously than you've ever heard them, leaving the audience breathless. It may not be the most refined and precise rendering of Wagner's music you'll ever hear, but it will certainly be one of the most exciting and muscular.
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| 25-Feb-2012 The London Coliseum | The Death of Klinghoffer at ENO | David Karlin |
 Hijacking, murder and terror on the high seas: you might expect that The Death of Klinghoffer, John Adams's 1991 opera about the Palestinian hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro has all the makings of a pot-boiling thriller. But you would be wrong: Adams and his librettist Alice Goodman have other fish to fry.
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| 10-Feb-2012 The London Coliseum | Tales of Hoffmann at the ENO | David Karlin |
 Sir, Madam, do you like your opera quirky? A singing mechanical doll? A giant shaving mirror? The Evil Eye itself in a piano? Then welcome to the inebriated, fantastical, phantasmagorical world of E.T.A. Hoffmann, brought to you by Mr. Richard Jones with a delightful musical accompaniment by M. Jacques Offenbach.
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| 28-Jan-2012 The London Coliseum | A stellar cast lights up ENO's Rosenkavalier | David Karlin |
 English National opera's first première of 2012 is a revival of David McVicar's 2008 production of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, in splendid rococo period setting. They pulled out all the stops in casting: the four lead roles were all sung and acted wonderfully by English singers at the very top of their game. There were some big stars even in the smaller roles: having just seen Gwyn Hughes-Jones as Cavaradossi in Tosca, it was a surprise to see him filling in the tiny cameo role of the Italian opera singer with plenty of brio.
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| 12-Nov-2011 The London Coliseum | True to the spirit of Pushkin: ENO's Eugene Onegin | David Karlin |
.jpg) Young man spurns the love of a good woman. Time passes. Man realises the error of his ways, but it is too late. It's not exactly the most taxing of plot lines, but in Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin turned it into a masterpiece. The genius is in the characterisation of the impetuosity of youth and its consequences, which turns this into a universal work: we have all had violent crushes, we have all had petulant quarrels, we have all been weary of life when it has maltreated us (or even if it has treated us too well), and we all have our regrets.
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| 28-Oct-2011 The London Coliseum | Barrie Kosky breathes life into Rameau's Castor et Pollux at the ENO | David Karlin |
 Rameau's Castor et Pollux, his take on the Greek myth of two brothers so close that Pollux is prepared to descend into hell in the place of Castor, isn't exactly one of the standards of the repertoire. But Barrie Kosky isn't exactly an ordinary director: he's an Australian who has made most of his opera career in Germany and is on his way to a new job as Intendant of the Komische Oper Berlin, something of a temple of the avant-garde. And to judge from the interview in the programme notes, Kosky knows his Rameau backwards, forwards and sideways.
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| 5-Oct-2011 The London Coliseum | A feminist Figaro | Intermezzo |
 What’s the connection between Harry Potter and Mozart? Fiona Shaw is perhaps best known these days as the boy wizard’s Aunt Petunia – or our greatest classical actress for those with longer memories. But for the past few years she’s been quietly building herself a reputation as an opera director, starting with the well-received but obscure Elegy for Young Lovers and Riders to the Sea for English National Opera. Now she’s tackling a cornerstone of the repertoire, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
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| 19-Sep-2011 The London Coliseum | Draining but rewarding - Weinberg's The Passenger at ENO | David Karlin |
 The glittering white of a luxury cruise liner above, the darkened hell of the concentration camp below. Johan Engels' set for Weinberg's The Passenger, first seen at the Bregenz festival in 2010 and now at the ENO in London, is one of the most striking and effective opera sets I've ever seen, both framing the action and adding colour. Many details add emotional resonance: the pervasive railway tracks, or the follow spotlights operated by camp guards on watchtowers.
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