Opera

16 October 2009 to 12 December 2009

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

A new production of Puccini's operatic swansong, directed by dynamic young theatre director Rupert Goold. German soprano Kirsten Blanck makes her UK stage debut as the man-hating 'ice princess'; Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones makes his role debut as the unknown prince whose death-defying passion solves the riddle of her tortured heart. Featuring the aria 'Nessun Dorma', Puccini's most iridescently exotic score is conducted by Edward Gardner.

12 February 2010 to 23 March 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

Donizetti's The Elixir of Love is still the most popular operatic 'rom com' of all. Jonathan Miller's staging affectionately relocates the action from 19th century rural Italy to small-town '50s America. One of today's highest-flying young lyric tenors, John Tessier made a sensational ENO debut in the 2008 revival of Rossini's The Barber of Seville; he now returns as Nemorino, the lovesick young mechanic who believes that a travelling salesman (played by comic maestro Andrew Shore) really can cure his broken heart.

18 June 2010 to 9 July 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

Mozart's first mature masterpiece took a stock mythological plot and transformed it into a life-and-death drama of real characters confronted by the personal and political consequences of choices made in a time of war. Following her 2009 adaptation of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas which sold-out at the Young Vic, and is also set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, Katie Mitchell brings her unique directorial style to bear on what is now widely seen as Mozart's most deeply felt piece. Full of virtuosic yet often intimately lyrical vocal writing, grand public processions and stirring choruses, Idomeneo is conducted by ENO's Olivier Award-winning Music Director, Edward Gardner.

15 March 2010 to 27 March 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

David Alden follows his double Olivier Award-winning production of Janáček's Jenůfa with a new staging of the Czech composer's later lyrical masterpiece, Katya Kabanova. A claustrophobically intense yet heart-rending study of sexual morality within a close-knit community, it was inspired by Janáček's erotic obsession with a younger married woman. Stunning singing actress Patricia Racette makes her ENO debut as the passionate soul trapped in a loveless marriage, with Stuart Skelton (a sensational Peter Grimes in another Alden staging in 2009) as the stranger who offers her a brief hope of happiness. Janáček's most lyrically emotional score is conducted by Mark Wigglesworth with an outstanding cast also featuring Susan Bickley, Clive Bayley, John Graham-Hall, Anna Grevelius and Alfie Boe.

4 February 2010 to 26 February 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

The most dramatic of all Donizetti's operas - loosely based on Sir Walter Scott's darkly brooding tragedy - returns to ENO in a revival of award-winning director David Alden's electrifying production from 2008. Dazzling soprano Anna Christy stars as the childlike bride, tricked into a politically advantageous marriage by her abusive older brother, with bel canto tenor Barry Banks as the Byronic outcast with whom she falls desperately, madly, murderously, in love. Antony Walker, Music Director of Pittsburgh Opera and the first recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Award, makes his Company debut in one of the most richly lyrical, yet psychologically acute operas in the entire Italian romantic repertoire.

1 June 2010 to 8 July 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

A thrilling tale of friendship tested by love, set on an exotic isle in an eastern sea, Bizet's early masterpiece is a gem of 19th-century French opera, full of fabulous tunes, colourful orchestration and evocative choruses.

18 May 2010 to 10 July 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

Among the great dramatic sopranos of our time, Catherine Malfitano made an unforgettable ENO debut in 2006 as the tortured Kostelnicka in David Alden's Olivier Award-winning production of Jenufa. Famed as one of the foremost Toscas of recent decades, she now returns to direct Puccini's ever popular opera with rising star Amanda Echalaz - already heralded as 'the leading Tosca of her generation' (The Independent) - making her ENO debut in the role that Ms Malfitano once made her own. With one Tosca on stage and another behind the scenes, a radical new design approach and the proven Puccinian passion of Edward Gardner, ENO's Olivier Award-winning Music Director, in the pit, this new production promises to be a thrilling new take on Puccini's most powerfully theatrical opera.

27 November 2009 to 11 December 2009

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

A performance of 'Messiah' featuring top tenor John Mark Ainsley, and the incomparable ENO chorus. To mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, ENO says 'Hallelujah' to Handel by welcoming his greatest and most popular oratorio on to the London Coliseum stage.

29 January 2010 to 17 February 2010

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

An opera that explores the frailty of human relationships, examining the questions of trust and fidelity with funny, touching and sometime painful consequences. The opera begins with Don Alfonso challenging two young officers to test the fidelity of their fiancées, the men agree to a wager and in return try to seduce each other's partners which leads to unexpected consequences resulting in Don Alfonso winning the bet.

7 December 2009 to 22 December 2009

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

Russian Kirill Petrenko conducts the orchestra of the Royal opera house and the Royal opera chorus in Strauss's 'Der Rosenkavalier'.

11 February 2010 to 27 February 2010

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

The Gambler, tells the story of addiction and social dysfunction in a mythical German casino spa called Roulettenburg. The main protagonist Alexei, a tutor of the General's family, becomes besotted with his daughter Polina and gets into trouble by obeying her every capricious whim. He is drawn into a spiralling world of desire and debt which leads to his downfall, ending the opera a gambling addict and losing Polina.

19 December 2009 to 11 January 2010

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

An opera that tells the tragic love story between the impoverished poet Rodolfo and the charming but fragile seamstress Mim, unfolding against the background of Bohemian life in Paris.

22 January 2010 to 3 February 2010

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

An opera that charts the rise and fall of an ambitious young man and is derived loosely from a series of eight satirical paintings and engravings by Hogarth with Stravinsky's score paying homage to classic traditions of 18th-century opera.

5 March 2010 to 20 March 2010

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

The opera revolves around the conflict between the Tartar warlord Tamerlano and his captive, the proud Turkish sultan, Bajazet. His hatred of Tamerlano burning inside him, Bajazet nevertheless has to temper his anger out of concern for his daughter Asteria, whom Tamerlano wishes to marry though she is pledged to the Greek prince Andronico.

25 February 2010 to 26 March 2010

London Coliseum WC2N 4ES[map]

One of the most visually spectacular opera stagings of recent decades, ENO's London premiere production of Philip Glass's Satyagraha broke all Company box-office records for contemporary opera when it was first seen in 2007. Instilled with breath-taking theatrical flair by Improbable's award-winning director-designer partnership of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, it went on to enjoy equal success at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. A mesmerisingly hypnotic musical meditation upon Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa, and his spiritual progress towards the concept of non-violent protest, Glass's operatic masterpiece now returns to the London Coliseum. Alan Oke repeats his compelling central performance as the young political activist taking the first tentative steps in his lifelong search for truth.

20 November 2009 to 8 December 2009

Royal Opera House WC2E 9DD[map]

Francesca Zambello directs the charming tale, in a production which sees the Royal opera and the Royal ballet share the stage. Based on a Christmas tale by Gogol, which mixes realistic village comedy with fairy-tale fantasy, the plot recounts how Vakula the blacksmith flies on the Devil's back to St Petersburg to find a pair of slippers worn by the tsarina herself in order to win the hand of his beloved Oxana.

Every Sun 8:00 PM - 12:30 AM

The Peacock Bar and Club SW11 2LW[map]

Let our staff in white tie and 30s cocktail dresses cater to your every whim with a performance from one of our aspiring opera singers who will soothe your ears with classic arias from Puccini to Queen.