English National Opera’s 2018–2019 season will include the company’s first production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.
The staging, directed by James Robinson, is a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera and Dutch National Opera, and as previously reported, is expected to play the New York house in the 2019–2020 season (when originally announced, Bartlett Sher was attached as director).
Eric Greene and Nicole Cabell will lead a cast that also includes Latonia Mooren, Nmon Ford, and Nadine Benjamin. Performances will run October 11 through November 17.The season will first kick off September 28 with a new production of Strauss’ Salome, featuring Allison Cook in the title role alongside David Soar, Michael Colvin, and Susan Bickley.
Also included is the world premiere of Iain Bell and Emma Jenkins’ Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, a female-led exploration of the 19th-century serial killer focusing on his victims. Daniel Kramer will direct the production, running March 30 through April 12, 2019. The cast, under the baton of conductor Martyn Brabbins, will include Claudia Boyle, Josephine Barstrow, Janis Kelly, Marie McLaughlin, Susan Bullock, Lesley Garrett, William Morgan, Alex Otterburn, Alan Opie, Robert Hayward, Nicky Spence, and James Cleverton.
Rounding out the ENO season are new presentations of Britten’s War Requiem and Lehár’s The Merry Widow, plus revivals of Lucia di Lammermoor, La bohème, Akhnaten, and The Magic Flute.
