Sensitive stagecraft and directorial rage: Suor Angelica at ENO

Sinéad Campbell-Wallace (Sister Angelica)

Christine Rice (The Baroness)

ENO's ensemble in Suor Angelica

By Mark Valencia, 29 September 2024

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“Miskimmon... challenged us to confront the truth even as we longed to look away”

Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 27 September 2024

Puccini, Suor Angelica

English National Opera

Corinna Niemeyer, Conductor

Annilese Miskimmon, Director

English National Opera Orchestra

English National Opera Chorus

Sinéad Campbell Wallace, Suor Angelica

Christine Rice, La zia principessa

Madeleine Shaw, La badessa

Lea Shaw, La suora zelatrice

Gaynor Keeble, La maestra delle novizie

Alexandra Oomens, Suor Genovieffa

Sarah-Jane Lewis, Suor Dolcina

Jane Read, Suor Osmina

Tanya Hurst, Prima cercatrice

Susanna Tudor-Thomas, Una cercatrice 2

Claire Pendleton, Una conversa 1

Annabella Vesela Ellis, Una novizia

Sophie Goldrick, La suora infermiera

Morag Boyle, Una conversa 2

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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

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**111

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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.

Sensitive stagecraft, directorial rage: Suor Angelica... for one night only at ENO