★★★★

The Independent

★★★★

Opera Britannia

★★★★    

whatsonstage.com

★★★★

Daily Telegraph

★★★★

Sunday Express

'For sheer fun, this is the best Figaro you will ever see'

Sunday Express

'It's classic Shaw ...clever, symbolic, funny'

theartsdesk.com

'Intelligent and buzzing with energy'

Daily Telegraph

'Peter McKintosh’s turntable set ...generates a wonderfully

fluid atmosphere'

Financial Times

'A magnificent no-jokes-barred free translation of the libretto by Jeremy Sams'

Sunday Express

'Iain Paterson presented a Figaro of irresistible verve

and musical elegance'

Daily Telegraph

'Guthrie is classy and beautiful'

The Guardian

'Kathryn Rudge’s Cherubino – chaotically sexy,

charismatic, totally compelling'

Financial Times

'Roland Wood was in excellently villainous comic form'

Sunday Express

'Sunny, bouncy conducting from Paul Daniel'

Daily Telegraph

AN OLIVIER-NOMINATED DIRECTOR

One of today’s finest actresses, Fiona Shaw made her opera directing debut at ENO in 2008 with what the Daily Telegraph called an ‘exquisitely staged and emotionally involving’ production of Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea. Her equally acclaimed 2010 production of Hans Werner Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers for ENO was later nominated for an Olivier Award. Her recent National Theatre appearance as the outrageous Lady Gay Spanker in Dion Boucicault’s London Assurance was hailed by the Telegraph as ‘blissful’ and ‘a sublime comic creation’. She now brings her comic mastery to bear on Mozart’s equally blissful and sublime creation.

REVIEWS FOR ENO’S ELEGY FOR YOUNG LOVERS, 2010

‘The beauty of Shaw’s approach is its intimacy, musicality and truthfulness.’

Financial Times

‘A terrifically full-on staging... funny and deeply poignant.’

The Independent

‘Fiona Shaw’s realisation is a triumph.’

Evening Standard

Sunday Telegraph

Times

A CONDUCTOR IN DEMAND

One of the UK’s most experienced operatic conductors, Paul Daniel served as Music Director of both Opera Factory (1987–90) and Opera North (1990–97) before his eight-year stint as Music Director of ENO (1997–2005). He has conducted performances at the New York Metropolitan Opera and in Munich, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva and Aix-en-Provence, as well as taking charge of the Last Night of the Proms in 2005. Since leaving ENO, he has returned to conduct acclaimed productions of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Lucrezia Borgia.

‘It’s Paul Daniel’s fervent conducting that gives the show its torrid energy.’
The Times on ENO’s Lucia di Lammermoor, 2008

‘Finely conducted by Paul Daniel.’
The Guardian on ENO’s Lucrezia Borgia, 2010

A COUNTESS IN DEMAND

Scottish soprano Kate Valentine made her ENO debut in 2008 as Cathleen in Fiona Shaw’s staging of Riders to the Sea and has since returned to sing First Lady in The Magic Flute, Elisabeth Zimmer in Elegy for Young Lovers and Helena in 2011’s new A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has previously sung Mozart’s Countess for Glyndebourne on Tour and Scottish Opera, where she not only attracted rave reviews for her ‘radiant timbre’ (Sunday Times) and ‘poise and dignity’ (Daily Telegraph) but also took advantage of her backstage access to film a six-part YouTube documentary, Furtive Figaro, on her iPhone.