English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in

St Martin's Lane St Martin's Lane is a street in the City of Westminster, which runs from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, after which it is named, near Trafalgar Square northwards to Long Acre. At its northern end, it becomes Monmouth Street. St Martin ...

. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera,

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. ENO's productions are sung in English. The company, formerly known as Sadler's Wells Opera, has long had a policy of commissioning new works, and has staged many world and British premieres.

Commissions

The company's commissions, some of them jointly with other organisations, include: *''The Story of Vasco'' (

Gordon Crosse Gordon Crosse (1 December 1937 – 21 November 2021) was an English composer. Biography Crosse was born in Bury, Lancashire on 1 December 1937, and in 1961 graduated from St Edmund Hall, Oxford with a first class honours degree in music, where h ...

, 1974) *''Anna Karenina'' ( Iain Hamilton, 1981) *''The Plumber's Gift'' ( David Blake, 1989) *''The Bacchae'' ( John Buller, 1992) *''Inquest of Love'' ( Jonathan Harvey, 1993) *'' Life with an Idiot'' ( Alfred Schnittke, 1995, co-commission) *'' Doctor Ox's Experiment'' ( Gavin Bryars, 1998, co-commissioned with the BBC) *''From Morning to Midnight'' ( David Sawer, 2001) *''A Better Place'' ( Martin Butler, 2001) *''The Early Earth Operas'' ( John Browne, 2004) *''The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant'' ( Gerald Barry, 2005, co-commissioned with

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

) *''Gaddafi: A Living Myth'' ( Asian Dub Foundation, 2006) *''The Duchess of Malfi'' (

Torsten Rasch Torsten Rasch (born 1965 in Dresden) is a German composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Berlin, but has found moderate success in the UK. Biography Torsten Rasch was born in Dresden in 1965 and began piano lessons at the age of s ...

, 2006) *'' Two Boys'' (

Nico Muhly Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras ...

, 2011, co-commissioned with the Metropolitan Opera, New York).Gilbert, Appendix 2, pp. 590–604Service, To
"Nico Muhly: Strings and stabbings"
''The Guardian'', 31 May 2011 *''Sunken Garden'' (

Michel van der Aa Michel van der Aa (; born 10 March 1970) is a Dutch composer of contemporary classical music. Early years Michel van der Aa was born 10 March 1970 in Oss. He trained as a recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and studie ...

, 2013, co-commissioned with the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

Luminato Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists fr ...

Opéra National de Lyon The Opéra National de Lyon, marketed as Opéra de Lyon during the last decade, is an opera company in Lyon, based and performing mostly at the Opéra Nouvel, an 1831 theater that was modernized and architecturally transformed in 1993. The inaugu ...

and the

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archite ...

) *''Between Worlds'' (

Tansy Davies Tansy Davies (born 29 May 1973, Bristol) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. She won the BBC Young Composers' Competition in 1996 and has written works for ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Or ...

, 2015, co-commissioned with the

) *'' The Winter's Tale'' (

Ryan Wigglesworth Ryan Wigglesworth (born 31 August 1979, Yorkshire) is a British composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Wigglesworth read music at Oxford University, where he held the position of Organ Scholar at New College, and continued his music studies ...

, 2017)

World premieres

Among the world premieres given by Sadler's Wells and ENO are: *'' Peter Grimes'' ( Benjamin Britten, 1945) *''

The Mines of Sulphur ''The Mines of Sulphur'' is an opera in three acts by Richard Rodney Bennett, his first full-length opera, composed in 1963. Beverley Cross wrote the libretto, based on his play ''Scarlet Ribbons'', at the suggestion of Colin Graham, who eventual ...

'' ( Richard Rodney Bennett, 1965) *''

The Violins of Saint-Jacques ''The Violins of Saint-Jacques'' is an opera in three acts by Malcolm Williamson to an English libretto by William Chappell after the 1953 novel by Patrick Leigh Fermor.Covell, R. The Violins of Saint-Jacques. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Op ...

'' ( Malcolm Williamson, 1966) *''Lucky Peter's Journey'' (Malcolm Williamson, 1969) *''The Royal Hunt of the Sun'' ( Iain Hamilton, 1977) *''Toussaint'' ( David Blake, 1977) *'' The Mask of Orpheus'', ( Harrison Birtwistle'', 1986) *''Clarissa'' ( Robin Holloway, 1990) *''Timon of Athens'' ( Stephen Oliver, 1991) *'' The Silver Tassie'' ( Mark-Anthony Turnage (1999) *'' Marnie'' (

, 2017)

British premieres

British stage premieres include: *Original

Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...

version of ''

Boris Godunov Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...

'' (1935) *'' Simon Boccanegra'' (1948) *''

Káťa Kabanová ''Káťa Kabanová'' (also known in various spellings including ''Katia'', ''Katja'', ''Katya'', and ''Kabanowa'') is an opera in three acts, with music by Leoš Janáček to a libretto by the composer based on '' The Storm'', a play by Alexander ...

'' (1951) *''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'' (1960) *''

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' (german: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, links=no) is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed on 9 March 1930 at the i ...

'' (1963) *''

The Makropoulos Case ''The Makropulos Affair'' (or ''The Makropoulos Case'', ''The Makropulos Secret'', or, literally, ''The Makropulos Thing''; Czech ''Věc Makropulos'') is a Czech opera in 3 acts, with music and libretto by Leoš Janáček. Janáček based his op ...

'' (1964) *'' War and Peace'' (1972) *''

The Devils of Loudon ''The Devils of Loudun'' is a 1952 non-fiction novel by Aldous Huxley. Premise It is a historical narrative of supposed demonic possession, religious fanaticism, sexual repression, and mass hysteria that occurred in 17th-century France surrou ...

'' (1973) *'' The Bassarids'' (1974) *'' Bomarzo'' (1976) *''

The Adventures of Mr Brouček ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

'' (1978) *'' Osud'' (1984) *'' Akhnaten'' (1985) *'' Doctor Faust'' (1986) *'' The Making of the Representative for Planet 8'' (1988) *''

Lear Lear or Leir may refer to: Acronyms * Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios, a Mexican association of revolutionary artists and writers * Low Energy Ion Ring, an ion pre-accelerator of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN ** Low Energy Antipr ...

'' (1989) *''

Satyagraha Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone w ...

'' (2007) *'' Doctor Atomic'' (2009) *''

The Perfect American ''The Perfect American'' is an opera in two acts composed in 2011–12 by Philip Glass. It is an adaptation of the Peter Stephan Jungk novel, ', a fictional work that re-imagines Walt Disney in his later years as a power-hungry racist. It was co ...

'' (2013) *'' Blue'' (2023)

Notes

References

External links

ENO website

ENO history
{{Use British English, date=August 2010 British opera companies Opera in London *