That sinking feeling: ENO’s Pirates of Penzance

By Mark Pullinger, 10 May 2015

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“Leigh’s direction bears all the traits of village hall Am-Dram at its worst”

Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 9 May 2015

Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance

English National Opera

David Parry, Conductor

Mike Leigh, Director

Alison Chitty, Costume Designer

Paul Pyant, Set Designer

Claudia Boyle, Mabel

Soraya Mafi, Edith

Angharad Lyddon, Kate

Rebecca de Pont Davies, Ruth

Robert Murray, Frederic

Andrew Shore, Major General Stanley

Alexander Robin-Baker, Samuel

Joshua Bloom, Pirate King

Jonathan Lemalu, Sergeant of Police

English National Opera Orchestra

English National Opera Chorus

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

More reviews...

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

That sinking feeling: ENO’s Pirates of Penzance scuppered at the Coliseum