Gluck in French, Sullivan & a contemporary focus on Kaija Saariaho, Elena Langer, Missy Mazzoli, Du Yun & Philip Glass: ENO's 2026/27 season

English National Opera has announced its 2026/27 season and as with the last couple of seasons the miracle is that the season exists at all. As it is, there are nine operas with six new productions. Eight events in London (one a double bill) and two events in Manchester. At first this does not quite seem the mass migration that was promised, but the season's plans in the North-West include projects such as Creative Incubator and The Artists’ Table along with Greater Manchester Youth Opera Company and working with Factory Academy on vocational training 

It is an interesting season with a continuing focus on the new and the contemporary. Inevitably perhaps, large-scale romantic drama is missing, but there are works by Kaija Saariaho, Elena Langer, Missy Mazzoli, Du Yun and Philip Glass alongside Puccini, Gluck, Verdi and Sullivan. 

There is a certain focus on non-British singers with a French Tosca, German Adriana Mater, American Bess in Breaking the Waves and American Violetta; a trend that you can regard as worrying or exciting depending on your point of view. If you pair up the significant number of singers whose first language is not English (and whose hard-work I do credit in learning a role in English), allied to the introduction of a Gluck opera in French and you rather wonder whether 'Opera in English' is still at the forefront of the company's philosophy.

Artistic director Annilese Miskimmon is directing a pair of thematically and theatrically connected productions, Puccini's Tosca and Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater. 

Do we need another Tosca? Like previous ENO productions, the last one from Christoph Loy in 2022 [see my review] does not seem to have stuck. The cast features French soprano Axelle Fanyo and American tenor Chaz’men Williams-Ali along with Christopher Purves and Craig Colclough sharing the role of Scarpia. Ben Glassberg conducts.

Miskimmon is positing Saariaho's Adriana Mater as some sort of response to Tosca and ENO is performing both operas on the same day on one occasion. It remains to be seen whether the linking is anything more than a chance to reuse the same set, but it is a valuable opportunity to see Saariaho's second opera. The work sets a French libretto by Amin Maalouf and the work premiered at the Paris Opera in 2006, with its UK premiere in 2008 when Edward Gardner conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in concert. ENO perform in English in a translation by Maalouf's son. André de Ridder, music director designate, conducts with a cast including German mezzo-soprano Kristina Stanek in the title role with Lauren Fagan (in her ENO debut), Caspar Singh (who made such an impression last year as Albert Herring, see my review) and Leigh Melrose.

A further new production is raising all sorts of queries. Whilst any production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride is welcome the wide open spaces of the London Coliseum seem somewhat unsympathetic for the piece, and it is being entrusted to theatre director Lyndsey Turner. Turner is not known for her opera directing and Gluck's French operas are a challenge. What is also causing comment is that the company is singing the work in French. 

Really. Why?

David Bates conducts with a strong cast featuring Christine Rice in the title role, plus Nick Pritchard, Jacques Imbrailo and Morgan Pearse. Blackheath Halls Opera really leaned into the homoeroticism of the work in their production last year [see my review], so it will be interesting to see what direction Turner takes the piece.

Nederlandse Reisopera is currently performing Elena Langer's comedy To die for. The work was originally commissioned by the Stanislavski-Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre in Moscow, this comic opera was cancelled after the invasion of Ukraine. The piece was deemed insufficiently patriotic. Now the company is bringing the opera to the London Coliseum for a single date. Extravagant but most welcome. Directed by Sam Brown (Nederlandse Reisopera's artistic director) and conducted by Adrian Kelly (artistic director of the Buxton Festival) the cast features Paul Curievici, James Hall, and Idunnu Münch.

Missy Mazzoli's 2016 opera Breaking the Waves, based on Lars von Trier's film, was given its European premiere by Scottish Opera in 2019. Now a new production at ENO is bringing the work to London for the first time. Directed by Tinuke Craig, who returns to ENO following her Olivier Award-nominated production of Blue (2023), the conductor is Joana Carneiro who made strong impressions with her recent ENO performances of Thea Musgrave's Mary Queen of Scots [see my review] and Poul Rouders' The Handmaid's Tale [see my review]. American soprano Lauren Snouffer makes her ENO debut as Bess having sung the role at Houston Grand Opera, and Liam James Karai as Jan [we saw him as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Opera North, see my review].

Conductor Peter Whelan takes a break from Handel and Vivaldi operas [see my review of Handel's Rodelinda at Garsington last year which Whelan conducted] and conducts a double bill of operas by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Scottish Opera's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury directed by John Savournin [seen at Opera Holland Park last year, see my review] is joined by Savournin's new production of the early Sullivan opera The Zoo (libretto by Bolton Rowe). Mary Bevan and Robert Murray are the protagonists in both operas with Neal Davies, and Madeleine Shaw.

New in Manchester is Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach in an 'experiential production' created by English National Opera, Factory International, Park Avenue Armory, and Improbable at Aviva Studios, with the BBC Philharmonic, directed by Phelim McDermott.

Du Yun's opera Angel's Bone, which has a libretto by Royce Vavrek who also wrote Breaking the Waves for Missy Mazzoli, comes to London having debuted in Manchester in May 2026. Australian director Kip Williams makes his UK operatic debut, with Baldur Brönnimann conducting with Allison Cook as Mrs X.E., Rodney Earl Clarke as Mr X.E., Mariam Wallentin as Girl Angel, Matthew McKinney as Boy Angel, and Keith Pun as Male Soprano, plus Kantos Chamber Choir.

Peter Konwitschny’s stripped back production of Verdi's La Traviata returns with American soprano Heidi Stober [who made a big impression in the title role of Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots] and Alison Langer [who returned to Opera Holland Park in the role last year, see my review] and Russian-Ukrainian tenor Egor Zhuravskii, and baritone David Stout.

Spanish conductor Néstor Bayona is the 2026-28 Mackerras Fellow. He will be the first to be mentored by ENO’s Music Director Designate, André de Ridder. Soprano Olivia Rose Tringham and baritone Steffan Lloyd Owen are new Harewood Artists for the 2026/27 season with sopranos Madeline Boreham, Ava Dodd and Henna Mun, mezzo-soprano Anna Elizabeth Cooper, tenors Osian Wyn Bowen and Samuel Downes, baritone Dan D'Souza, and bass-baritone Alaric Green continuing.

In September, ENO in partnership with the Royal Northern College of Music will begin delivery of its new Creative Incubator project, supporting the development of early-stage operatic ideas from artists based in the North West, with priority given to Greater Manchester. Also launching in 2026/27 is The Artists’ Table, a new initiative bringing together a panel of North West-based artists to help shape ENO’s work in the region, ensuring it remains relevant, inclusive and representative.

ENO’s Greater Manchester Youth Opera Company, for young people aged 11-14, launches its pilot phase in July 2026, bringing together 30 participants from across Greater Manchester. Delivered in partnership with the Greater Manchester and Blackburn with Darwen Music Hub and the Royal Northern College of Music, the programme offers hands-on experience of opera-making, from performance to design and composition, with a focus on engaging young people currently underrepresented in the sector. 

ENO and Factory International will work together to extend Factory Academy’s vocational training offer into opera, with a particular focus on technical and backstage roles. Factory Academy, which was launched by Factory International in 2018, will offer paid placements on Angel’s Bone (2026) and Einstein on the Beach (2027) at Aviva Studios, creating new pathways into opera production for people living in Greater Manchester, particularly those from backgrounds underrepresented in the arts. 

Perfect Pitch, co-created with Walk the Plank, concludes this summer with a large-scale performance at We Invented the Weekend in Salford. Bringing together community choirs, football fans and ENO artists, including tenor Luis Gomes, the project celebrates the unexpected connections between football and opera 

In 2026/27, ENO’s free national schools programme Finish This… continues in primary, secondary and SEND settings, delivered in partnership with ONE Education Music Hub in Greater Manchester, alongside Bolton, Blackburn with Darwen, Wigan, Luton and Southampton Music Hubs. Finish This… supports high-quality music-making in classrooms across England, with more than 18,500 students taking part during the 2025/26 academic year. Applications for the next academic year open in May 2026, with the ambition of reaching 25,000 pupils. 

 Full details from the ENO website.