Welcome to English National Opera

For the first time in its history, ENO’s 2011/12 Season includes works by four living composers – from the iconic John Adams’s Death of Klinghoffer to pop legend Damon Albarn’s Doctor Dee – in a programme of rarities, popular productions and exciting singers, conductors and directors.

One of our opening productions of the season is one of those rarities: the UK premiere of Weinberg’s The Passenger, which explores the horrors of the Holocaust, written by a composer whose output has been neglected for decades and brought back to life by director David Pountney. Alongside this highly anticipated premiere is Jonathan Miller’s joyous 1950s American Mid-West take on Donizetti’s Elixir of Love, which proved such a hit with audiences and critics alike two seasons ago.

The diversity of our repertoire continues in October with two new productions. Following her acclaimed opera directing debut in 2008 with Riders to the Sea and the Olivier Award-nominated Elegy for Young Lovers at the Young Vic in 2010, Fiona Shaw returns to direct Mozart’s comic masterpiece, The Marriage of Figaro, with an outstanding cast led by Kate Valentine, Devon Guthrie, Roland Wood and Iain Paterson.

Australian director Barrie Kosky (Intendant-designate of the Komische Oper Berlin) makes his London debut with Rameau’s Castor and Pollux. Remarkably, this will be the  first occasion Rameau has been performed by ENO. Barrie Kosky is without question one of Europe’s leading directors, with a reputation for highly energised stagings and brilliant direction of singers. ENO baroque specialist Christian Curnyn conducts.

Our quartet of new shows is completed by Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Fresh from her triumph at Milan’s La Scala with ENO’s production of Death in Venice, Deborah Warner directs this staging of Tchaikovsky’s Pushkin-inspired lyric masterpiece, for which she is reunited with ENO Music Director Edward Gardner. Tatyana is sung by Amanada Echalaz who had such a wonderful success in ENO’s Tosca last year. Since then she has travelled the world and is in demand from New York’s Metropolitan Opera to Berlin and Brengenz.

To complete ENO’s autumn, we revive Puccini’s Tosca, one of the most popular operas in the entire repertoire. Director Catherine Malfitano was one of the leading Toscas of her generation, and her production of Puccini’s political and sexual thriller returns to ENO with Claire Rutter in the title role.

We look forward to welcoming you to ENO.

Loretta Tomasi 

Chief Executive

John Berry 

Artistic Director

Edward Gardner

Music Director

Behind the Scenes Articles

ENO Young Singers and Opera Works

ENO's Technical Team