ENO's new season opens with Bieito's contradictory Fidelio

By Sam Wigglesworth, 30 September 2013

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Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 25 September 2013

Beethoven, Fidelio (New production)

English National Opera

Edward Gardner, Conductor

Calixto Bieito, Director

Emma Bell, Leonore

Sarah Tynan, Marzelline

Stuart Skelton, Florestan

Adrian Dwyer, Jaquino

Philip Horst, Don Pizarro

Roland Wood, Don Fernando

James Creswell, Rocco

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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Sam Wigglesworth

Sam Wigglesworth contributed reviews to Bachtrack from 2012 to 2014. He studied at King's College London and, after a brief period producing concerts at St John's Smith Square, began working at Faber Music in 2014. He was Artistic Director of the Principal Sound Festival in 2016 and 2018.