ENO announces 2026-27 plans – not much for Manchester yet

Relatively thinking - ENO's promotional picture for Einstein On The Beach. Photo by Karl Obert

English National Opera has announced its plans from the autumn (2026-27), with 57 performances of eight different productions at its London home, the Coliseum, but only one at Aviva Studios in Manchester, for which we will have to wait until June 2027.

Heady predictions by politicians and others of ENO “relocating” from London to Manchester have been replaced by the company’s present self-description as “a dual-centre opera company, presenting work in both London and Greater Manchester as part of its pioneering partnership with the city-region”.

There is, as yet, no news of the series of “signature classics” that were said to be coming here when the brief showings of Albert Herring at the Lowry last autumn and Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte at the Bridgewater Hall earlier this year were announced.

And Perfect Pitch, the participation programme exploring the impact of mass singing on team performance and spectator experience at football matches, co-created with our region's outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank, as well as community groups and local football teams, is to end – with a free performance during the We Invented the Weekend festival (one of 200 activities) at the MediaCity Piazza in Salford Quays this summer (June 6).

Singing along - the Perfect Pitch team as seen at last year's Manchester Day. Picture by James Speakman

But ENO’s Greater Manchester Youth Opera Company, for people aged 11-14, launches its pilot phase in July this year, with 30 participants from across Greater Manchester, and its partnership with the Royal Northern College of Music will begin a “creative Incubator” project in September, supporting the development of early-stage operatic ideas from artists based in the North West. Also launching in 2026-27 is The Artists’ Table, a panel of North West-based artists to help shape ENO’s work in the region.

The 2027 opera production at Aviva Studios was first announced in 2024: an “immersive” version of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach, presented in collaboration with Factory International, theatre company Improbable and Park Avenue Armoury New York, and directed by Improbable’s Phelim McDermott. It will come 13 months after Angel’s Bone, the contemporary opera to be presented at Aviva in collaboration with Factory International, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Kantos Chamber Choir, next month.

There has also been a separate announcement of a one-off performance at the Bridgewater Hall – on October 4 – of Offenbach’s Barkouf, led by the Halle and Opera Rara, with the ENO Chorus.

More info and tickets here