English National Opera commissions and premieres

The London Coliseum, home of English National Opera

English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. 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, 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)
• Gaddafi: A Living Myth (Asian Dub Foundation, 2006)
• Two Boys (Nico Muhly, 2011, co-commissioned with the Metropolitan Opera, New York).^[1][2]

World premieres

Among the world premieres given by Sadler's Wells and ENO are:

• Peter Grimes (Benjamin Britten, 1945)
• The Mines of Sulphur (Richard Rodney Bennett, 1965)
• The Violins of St Jacques (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).^[1]

British premieres

British stage premieres include:

• Original Mussorgsky version of Boris Godunov (1935)
• Simon Boccanegra (1948)
• Káťa Kabanová (1951)
• Oedipus Rex (1960)
• The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1963)
• The Makropoulos Case (1964)
• War and Peace (1972)
• The Devils of Loudon (1973)
• The Bassarids (1974)
• Bomarzo (1976)
• The Adventures of Mr Brouček (1978)
• Osud (1984)
• Akhnaten (1985)
• Doctor Faust (1986)
• The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1988)
• Lear (1989)
• Satyagraha (2007)
• Doctor Atomic (2009)^[1]
• The Perfect American (2013)

Notes

1. Gilbert, Appendix 2, pp. 590–604
2. Service, Tom "Nico Muhly: Strings and stabbings", The Guardian, 31 May 2011

References

• Gilbert, Susie (2009). Opera for Everybody. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22493-7.

External links

• ENO website
• ENO history