Blue, Jeanine Tesori's new opera on urban violence, comes to ENO

Kenneth Kellogg (The Father) and Ronald Samm (The Reverend)

Nadine Benjamin (The Mother)

Zwakele Tshabalala (The Son) and Kenneth Kellogg (The Father)

Chanáe Curtis, Idunnu Münch, Nadine Benjamin and Sarah-Jane Lewis in a scene from Blue

By Mark Valencia, 23 April 2023

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“Kenneth Kellogg and Nadine Benjamin as the tragic parents lead a cast of faultless quality and class”

Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 20 April 2023

Tesori, Blue

English National Opera

Matthew Kofi Waldren, Conductor

Tinuke Craig, Director

Alex Lowde, Set Designer, Costume Designer

English National Opera Orchestra

English National Opera Chorus

Nadine Benjamin, The Mother

Kenneth Kellogg, The Father

Ronald Samm, The Reverend

Zwakele Tshabalala, The Son

Chanáe Curtis, Girlfriend 1, The Nurse

April Koyejo-Audiger, Girlfriend 2

Idunnu Münch, Girlfriend 3

John-Colyn Gyeantey, Policeman 1

Rheinaldt Tshepo Moagi, Policeman 2

Joshua Conyers, Policeman 3

ENO’s Mahagonny: biting, bleak, brilliantly executed satire

David Karlin, 16th February

Never has Brecht and Weill’s satire on the inhumanity of man to man been render with such utter darkness; Simon O’Neill heads up a superb cast.

*****

Taken for a ride: an energetic revival of Così fan tutte at ENO

Dominic Lowe, 6th February

English National Opera's revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular production is a blend of spectacle with some first-class singing, with Lucy Crowe emphasising her Mozartian credentials.

****1

Cocteau-esque camp: Alden’s Partenope returns to ENO

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Christopher Alden’s Olivier Award-winning production of Handel’s Partenope returns to the Coliseum, but it's the singing that earns the plaudits.

****1

Dead Man Walking at English National Opera: a superb execution

David Karlin, 1st November

Anneliese Miskimmon's ENO production of Jake Heggie and Terence McNally's tale of crime, repentance, compassion and redemption compels from start to finish.

*****

Comedy falls flat in ENO's season opening Cinderella

Mark Valencia, 27th September

Julia Burbach and her designer, Herbert Murauer, are defeated by the wide canyons of the Coliseum stage in their modern-dress Cinderella.

**111

ENO gives Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots a worthy performance

Nick Boston, 15th February

Musgrave's powerful depiction of a powerful woman at the mercy of male manipulation receives a strong staging from at ENO.

****1

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.