Opera, Dance & Ballet

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 Glassbergconducts 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

Disillusioned with life, the aged philosopher Faust calls upon Satan to help him. The devil Méphistophélès appears and strikes a bargain with the philosopher: he will give him youth and the love of the beautiful Marguerite, if Faust will hand over his soul. Faust agrees, and Méphistophélès arranges matters so that Marguerite loses interest in her suitor Siébel and becomes infatuated with Faust.        

Faust initially seems to love Marguerite in return, but soon abandons her. Her brother Valentin returns from the war and is furious to find his sister pregnant. Will Faust repent his destructive actions and can their souls be saved?

Following his success with The Encounter at the Barbican, Simon McBurney’s five-star production of The Magic Flute returns to ENO, concerning the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment.

Love and friendship triumph in Carlos Acosta's vibrant production of this dazzling ballet.

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 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.

The world premiere of Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, following his critically-acclaimed In Parenthesis. A disadvantaged group of working-class women are drawn together in their determination to survive the murderous terror that stalks London’s Whitechapel in 1888.

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.

The multi award-winning Spanish-based company dedicated to producing magical shows for family audiences, Aracaladanza, have been favourites at Sadler’s Wells since their Family Weekend debut in 2008.

Using costume design, music, light, rhythm and movement, they bring the audience into a dreamlike universe, filled with possibilities.