Thanks to three outstanding performances, two onstage and one in the orchestra pit, this production of Jenůfa gloriously demonstrates the heights the ENO can reach as well as the magnificence of Janáček’s music. Let’s start with the music because the Czech composer Leos Janáček had a unique style, with the orchestra and the singers often seeming detached from each … Read more
After starting the year with atonal music and the grim story of The Handmaid’s Tale, the English National Opera has followed it up with the exact opposite. Rossini’s Barber of Seville is pure fun from start to finish, with great hummable music and a hilariously ridiculous plot. The story centres on two very different men fighting over the same woman: the … Read more
Ballet always loves a devastating ‘girl done wrong’ story and Giselle set the template long before the Manons, Swan Lakes and Onegins to come. It also gave its tragic heroine agency, even in her devastation, that resonates just as powerfully today. It’s a mark of the remarkable range of this company that the ENB can … Read more
