Opera, Dance & Ballet

Dvořák’s best-loved opera, Rusalka is inspired by myths and folk-tales about a water-nymph that chooses to become human to win her Prince.

The opera displays Dvořák’s exceptional gift for melody and orchestration and features the beautiful aria ‘Song to the Moon’.

Hairspray is a musical from the USA, inspired by the 1988 smash hit film. The music is by Marc Shaiman, and the lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. It's a magical feast of 1960s-style music and rhythm and blues tunes, and it's guaranteed to get your feet tapping at the magnificent London Coliseum. It's on from April 2020, and the anticipation is mounting fast!

Following last season's production of The Turn of the Screw, we continue our collaboration with English National Opera, with Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. 

In the unique environment of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, experience the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale anew in this operatic retelling, sung in English.

Ben Glassberg conducts members of the ENO Orchestra, with direction by Open Air Theatre Artistic director Timothy Sheader. 

Translation by David Pountney |Orchestral reduction by Derek J Clark

She creates a hunger in men.
But will it now consume her?

Carmen is a searing depiction of a woman who craves love, but creates obsession and jealousy. One of the most popular operas ever written, Bizet’s score is bursting with passionate melodies and includes such famous numbers as the ‘Habanera’, ‘Toreador’s Song’ and ‘Flower Song’.

A tender kiss can conceal the hardest of hearts.

Anthony Minghella’s Olivier Award-winning production returns to the London Coliseum. His staging combines cinematic images and traditional Japanese theatre.

Over 100 dancers and musicians bring Nutcracker to life with exquisite dancing, beautiful sets and Tchaikovsky’s popular score played live.

On a sparkling Christmas Eve in a frost-dusted Edwardian London, Clara and her enchanted Nutcracker doll discover a magical world, where she battles with the Mouse King and meets a handsome stranger. As the air grows colder, Clara and her valiant Nutcracker take a hot air balloon ride across London to the glistening Land of Snow where her adventure really begins.

From the sound of the orchestra tuning up, to the final bows and cheers, a trip to see the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum is an unforgettable Christmas treat.

Travel to a faraway land for the adventures of a dashing pirate, Conrad, and his feisty girlfriend Medora. Will they outfox villainous schemers and find happiness on the high seas?

English National Ballet’s Le Corsaire is “hugely enjoyable entertainment” (The Daily Telegraph). Expect a swashbuckling romp, full of thrilling dancing by an extraordinary cast of performers, with gorgeous decors and costumes created by Hollywood’s Bob Ringwood, all set to a romantic score played live by English National Ballet Philharmonic.

English National Ballet is the only UK company to perform this classic story ballet. Their extravagant production, staged by Anna-Marie Holmes, has enthralled audiences and received rave reviews worldwide, including Paris and Tokyo. It returns to the London Coliseum following glorious performances in 2016.

Carmen is the best-known work by French composer Georges Bizet, and one of the most famous operas in the entire art form – numbers such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song have permeated the popular consciousness as little else has. The opera’s heady combination of passion, sensuality and violence initially proved too much for the stage, and it was a critical failure on its 1875 premiere. Bizet died shortly after, and never learned of the spectacular success his Carmen would achieve: the opera has been performed more than five hundred times at Covent Garden alone.

Rome in 1800 is in political chaos. Cesare Angelotti, a former consul of the short-lived Roman Republic, has escaped imprisonment, and seeks refuge in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. The painter and republican sympathizer Mario Cavaradossi promises to hide him at his country villa. Baron Scarpia, Rome's tyrannical Chief of Police, suspects that Cavaradossi has helped Angelotti to escape. He persuades the painter's opera singer lover Floria Tosca, whom he himself desires, that Cavaradossi has betrayed her. She leaves to confront Cavaradossi at his villa and Scarpia orders his men to follow her, in the hope they'll find Angelotti.

Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi, and tortures him in Tosca's presence until she reveals Angelotti's hiding place. Scarpia subsequently condemns Cavaradossi to death. Alone with Tosca, Scarpia tells her that he will save Cavaradossi - but only if Tosca spends the night with him. Will Tosca yield to the man she hates to save the man she loves?

Kenneth MacMillan poignant setting of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic score draws out the emotional and psychological intensity of the tale. Romeo and Juliet contains three passionate pas de deux: the lovers’ first meeting, the famous balcony scene and the devastating final tragedy, in which Romeo dances desperately with the lifeless Juliet.

Master of minimalist movement Tao Ye founded TAO in 2008. Now famous for their stripped-down forms, the company brings two pieces from its Numerical Series, both featuring music from Tao’s regular collaborator, the avant-garde composer Xiao He.

In 4, a quartet move together in perfectly coordinated formation, without ever touching, as if drawn by a magnetic wave.

Tao’s latest work, 9, signifies a departure from the previous seven works in the series. A significant number in Chinese culture, representing a cycle of hardship and renewal, nine dancers hide connections within chaos.

Gilbert & Sullivan’s topsy-turvy story focuses on the unfolding love between Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum and the absurdity of laws and law-makers.
Nanki-Poo loves Yum-Yum but she’s betrothed to Ko-Ko, the new Lord High Executioner. When the Mikado orders a beheading, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko try to come to an arrangement that doesn’t involve anyone losing their head!

Mozart’s comedy is a whirlwind of mistaken identities and twists and turns, taking place on a single crazy day – the wedding day of Figaro and Susanna.

When their philandering master, Count Almaviva, is determined to bed Susanna before she is wed, Figaro and Susanna conspire with the rejected Countess to outwit him. General mayhem ensues, ending with the Count receiving a lesson in marital fidelity he’ll never forget. 

From the first notes of the bustling Overture, Mozart’s psychologically complex story portrays the women as wiser, shrewder and more civilised than the men.

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet is a passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic love story.

SOMNIUM: A Dancer’s Dream, is the explosive dance show starring World Latin Showdance Champions and Strictly professionals Neil and Katya Jones.

Returning to London with their West End premiere, BalletBoyz presents its two new works set to original scores for 16 performances only.

Don’t hide within yourself. Let love save you.

Following Satyagraha and the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, ENO’s association with Philip Glass continues with a new production of Orphée.

Shattering childhood dreams can break a life.

Verdi’s Luisa Miller is a complex web of love, intrigue and oppressive familial relationships, centred on the doomed love between Luisa and Rodolfo.