He's back. Opera’s infamous Don returns with an all-star cast headlined by Gordon Bintner, alongside Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Aigul Akhmetshina, Roberto Tagliavini and Bogdan Volkov. Stefano Montanari conducts.

Don Giovanni

Royal Opera House

Richard Jones’s Olivier Award-winning production of Handel's opera returns with many of the original cast, including Emily D’Angelo as the lovestruck Ruggiero and Lisette Oropesa as the glittering enchantress Alcina.

Alcina

The Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras’ groundbreaking exploration of Rossini on period instruments continues with the crowning achievement of the composer’s final creative years: the Petite messe solennelle.

Described by the composer as “the last of my péchés de vieillesse" (sins of old age), the Petite messe solennelle was originally scored for twelve singers, two pianos and harmonium. Rossini orchestrated the work the year before his death, but never heard this version in his lifetime; its Paris premiere by the Théâtre-Italien took place in 1869, just a few years before Alexandra Palace Theatre was completed in London.

Rossini joked about the ambiguity of the piece in his inscription at the end of the score: “Good Lord, is this sacred music or opera to a religious text?”. The Monteverdi Choir’s versatility from 17th-century sacred music to 19th-century opera make it the ideal vehicle for this choral showpiece, while the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique will draw on its deep experience of French Romantic repertoire to recreate the sound world of Rossini’s Paris. Together, with a cast of exceptional soloists and led by Rossini specialist Jakob Lehmann, they will illuminate a work poised between devotion and drama, liturgy and theatre.

Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle

Alexandra Palace

Praised by Mozart and beloved across Europe, André Grétry’s sparkling yet poignant opera was inspired by the charming tale of Beauty and the Beast. With its radiant score, lively drama and a joyful ending, Zemira e Azor is as touching as it is enchanting.

Zemira e Azor

Smith Square Hall

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ_ZQW5C2pw&amp;t=2s

The Artelize Podcast Presenting Will Shutes: 'Bring it down out of the clouds to human being level'

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFe6mW6x9pc

The Artelize Podcast: 'Amplifying What Makes Us Human'. A conversation with Zuly E. Inirio

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Can one man heal a broken society? A bold new production by Evgeny Titov features a stellar cast including Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Ekaterina Gubanova, Christian Gerhaher and Brindley Sherratt. Jakub Hrůša conducts.

Parsifal

Eternal love, with a price to pay.
The grief-stricken Orpheus strikes a deal with the Gods to rescue his lost love, Eurydice. But descending to the Underworld comes at a steep price - Orpheus must resist the temptation to look at Eurydice until they return to the surface, or risk an eternity without her.

Gluck: Orpheus and Eurydice

Hackney Empire

Care becomes contempt and love becomes loathing in this dark, unsettling parable. Breaking with operatic tradition, Angel’s Bone fuses multiple musical genres, spoken word and immersive staging in an uncompromising tale of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Angel’s Bone

London Coliseum

An unflinching portrait of fury and despair. Ted Huffman's stark and stripped-back staging of Philip Venables's opera makes its debut on the Linbury Stage. Conductor Naomi Woo draws out the moments of clarity, anguish and fleeting hope that colour the music, with the voices of six singers cutting to the heart of Sarah Kane’s text.

4.48 Psychosis

Elena Langer: Ariadne

You left for dead. I love you.

Ariadne wakes on the shore and finds Theseus gone. She helped him escape Crete, leaving her home, her family, and the life she once knew behind. Now she has been abandoned. King Minos' daughter writes to the lover who has abandoned her in a poignant one-act drama which explores how absence is defined by love. A powerful and intimate retelling of the myth of Ariadne, Elena Langer sets Glyn Maxwell’s Poem Ariadne to Theseus for the first half of English Touring Opera’s Autumn Double Bill.

Purcell: Dido & Aeneas

Queen Dido of Carthage prepares to wed the Trojan hero, Aeneas. But the rejected King Iarbas plans his revenge, threatening to drive the lovers apart. Based on Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid, Purcell’sDido and Aeneas recalls the tragedy of the Queen of Carthage in a masterpiece of Baroque music, theatricality and despair.

Elena Langer: Ariadne & Purcell: Dido & Aeneas

Back by popular demand, the London Opera Company revives its critically acclaimed production of Wagner’s romantic tragedy, Tristan und Isolde. Featuring a full orchestra of professionals and the crème de la crème of London’s music graduates, alongside a stellar cast of singers with world-renowned expertise in Wagner, this promises to be an unmissable event for Wagner fans.

Tristan und Isolde

Experience operatic highlights without committing to a full performance. Enjoy a selection of opera scenes performed by exceptional emerging talent, with singers from Royal Academy Opera and the Preparatory Opera course along with Opera Repetiteur Fellows and students from the Conducting Department.

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Royal Academy Opera Scenes

Susie Sainsbury Theatre

An all-star cast brings Damiano Michieletto’s white-hot production to life, with Ginger Costa-Jackson and Ramona Zaharia in the fiery title role, alongside Russell Thomas and Valentyn Dytiuk as the jealous and despairing Don José. Sesto Quatrini conducts Bizet’s electrifying and sensual score.

Carmen

Puccini’s classic opera Tosca unfolds in a world of desire, fear and resistance, where nothing feels safe and every choice has consequences.

Tosca

Gluck’s rarely performed opera, Iphigénie en Tauride makes its ENO debut in a new staging by Olivier award-winning director Lyndsey Turner.

Iphigénie en Tauride

Monteverdi’s most sensuous – and scandalous – opera, performed in concert by Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music and a stellar cast.
Sex, death, and the most dangerous appetite of all – power. The misdeeds of the Emperor Nero and the rise of his mistress Poppea are supposed to be a cautionary tale. But Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea tells the story in music of such drama, such style and such pure, sensuous beauty that it’s hard not to be seduced.

L'incoronazione di Poppea

Barbican Centre

Opera Forge, the newly established London-based opera company, presents a semi-staged concert performance of Wagner’s opera Die Walküre with Kelvin Lim conducting the Orpheus Sinfonia and a starry cast of soloists. Sir John Tomlinson CBE, England’s legendary operatic bass, directs this production of Die Walküre.

Wagner’s Die Walküre

Royal Academy of Music

A countess faces a romantic and artistic dilemma as a composer and poet debate the merits of their artforms and vie for her love. 

Premiered at the height of the Second World War, Strauss’ introspective and poignant final opera contemplates the creation of art, and how theatre and music ultimately mirror the ‘mystery of reality’. 

Capriccio

A king, a queen; his favourite and her lover.

Power and sex are a dangerous combination, and when the rulers of medieval England played the game of thrones, they either won or they died. The life of King Edward II inspired Marlowe’s classic tragedy, but Sir George Benjamin and Martin Crimp turn it inside out, in an opera that exposes the raw emotions of four characters locked in a deadly embrace. This is Lessons in Love and Violence, and it caused a sensation when it opened at the Royal Opera in 2018. Edward Gardner has assembled a world-beating cast for this one-off concert performance.

Lessons in Love and Violence

Southbank Centre

In a world shaped by war, Kaija Saariaho’s opera, Adriana Mater finds hope where it seems impossible.

Adriana Mater

A murderous affair. Director Philipp Stölzl makes his Royal Opera debut with a playfully surreal new production, featuring costumes by Antony McDonald. Charles Castronovo, Malin Byström, Aleksei Isaev, Anita Rachvelishvili and Kseniia Nikolaieva star, with Jakub Hrůša conducting.

Opera events in London

Don Giovanni

Royal Opera House

Alcina

Royal Opera House

Rossini: Petite Messe Sol...

Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras

Zemira e Azor

Sinfonia Smith Square

The Artelize Podcast Pres...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: 'Am...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

Parsifal

Royal Opera House

Gluck: Orpheus and Eurydi...

Hackney Empire

Angel’s Bone

London Coliseum

4.48 Psychosis

Royal Opera House

Elena Langer: Ariadne & P...

Hackney Empire

Tristan und Isolde

Sinfonia Smith Square

Royal Academy Opera Scene...

Royal Academy of Music

Carmen

Royal Opera House

Tosca

London Coliseum

Iphigénie en Tauride

London Coliseum

L'incoronazione di Poppea...

Academy of Ancient Music

Wagner’s Die Walküre

Royal Academy of Music

Capriccio

Royal Academy of Music

Lessons in Love and Viole...

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Adriana Mater

London Coliseum

Un ballo in maschera

Royal Opera House