In the Belly of the Horse is a fully interactive new opera for Key Stage 2 pupils. The piece explores the fantastic story that leads the Greeks to build the wooden horse and is told in many different and engaging ways including acting, singing, instrumental music, dance, animated film and design. For further details click here.

The Feathered Ogre reinvents a famous Italian folktale, for Key Stage 1 pupils. The story is about a sick king whose illness can be cured only by the application of one of the feathers of the ogre in the mountains. The piece provides an introduction to some of the key instruments of the orchestra, along with great design, costumes, and lots of interactive elements, including songs for the children to sing. For further details click here.

RedBlueGreen is a new piece devised especially for children aged 18 months to 4 years, and also for children with special educational needs. The work is highly stimulating and interactive, using sound, imagery, smell, touch and colour to engage and delight mixed audiences. For further details click here.

In the Belly of the Horse is a fully interactive new opera for Key Stage 2 pupils, brought to your own school hall. With music by Rachel Leach the piece explores the fantastic story that leads the Greeks to build the wooden horse. As the Greeks wait in the horse to cause havoc in Troy they tell each other stories to calm their nerves. The story is told in many different and engaging ways including acting, singing, instrumental music, dance, animated film and design.

Performed by a multi-skilled cast of 4 professional singers and 4 professional players (violin, cello, clarinet, percussion), it is fully designed and costumed. The opera is the third of three new operas based on classical myths. The piece is extremely interactive and endeavours to engage with the children on every level. Lasting an hour and a quarter, the show can work with up to about 200 pupils.

Curriculum links
In the Belly of the Horse supports various areas of the curriculum, including literacy, history, maths and science, art and design, as well as drama and music. It is suitable for pupils aged 7 to 11.

The piece is accompanied by a comprehensive teachers’ pack including stories about the Greek myths and characters, and background material as well as classroom ideas, a CD (with sheet music) of 2 songs for the pupils to learn and a special black and white, colourable, 4-page cartoon for every child, telling the story of the opera.

Video trailer

How to book
Would you like to be involved with this project? We are currently looking for schools in Exeter, Poole, Crawley / Horsham, Buxton and Coventry. If you’re from one of these areas, and you would like us to come and perform In the Belly of the Horse at your school, please contact Alexa Carey on 020 7833 2555 or alexa.carey@englishtouringopera.org.uk.

A classic comedy, razor-sharp and musically opulent, this is an opera that is always bright and fresh. ETO’s new production is set in period Seville, but with a modern splash of colour that matches the cheek of Beaumarchais’ original play and Rossini’s vocal and orchestral brilliance.

The ever resourceful barber, Figaro (Grant Doyle/Cozmin Sime), lends a hand to an ardent young count (tenor Nicholas Sharratt) in his courtship of an intelligent beauty (Kitty Whately, winner of the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Award) who is being forced to marry her miserly guardian (Andrew Slater).

Though the weather – and the plotting – gets very stormy indeed, the youthful and cunning prevail; their victory is celebrated in music of pure joy, with ETO’s acclaimed orchestra conducted by Paul McGrath.

New production
Sung in English
Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes (including interval)

The story

Click here to read a plot summary of the opera.

The music

Click through to listen to a sample of music from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

• Act I Scene 1: Ecco ridente in cielo
• Act I Scene 9: Largo al factotum
• Act I Scene 2: Una voce poco fa
• Act I Scene 12: La calunnia
• Act I Scene 14: A un dottor della mia sorte

Or listen to the complete recording on Spotify. (Not on Spotify? Click here to join for free)

RedBlueGreen is a new piece devised especially for very young children (age 18 months to 4), and also for children with special educational needs. It is performed by 4 artists from ETO – 2 players and 2 singers – and is devised by a highly experienced creative team. It follows the success of the recent Midnight Moon, a work that toured the UK and travelled to Luxembourg in 2011.

The work is highly stimulating and interactive, using sound, imagery, smell, touch and colour to engage and delight mixed audiences. Lasting about 45 minutes the piece is a perfect introduction to both singing and theatre for very young children. It takes the audience on a journey through the primary colours, finding in them a story that links the different colourfields.

We celebrate the green, green grass on a summer’s day, only to be interrupted by the annoying buzzing of the yellow bee under the yellow sun. So begins a story that will bring the audience directly into a colourful world, with beautiful music, striking design and props, and lots of fun. Jonathan Kitchen (cello) arranges the music, design by Ruth Paton and devised by Tim Yealland.

RedBlueGreen is normally performed for very small audiences, with a maximum of about 30 per show, including adults.

Eugene Onegin is a powerful, nostalgic opera about youth, and the effect of youthful decisions and feelings. First love, lost love, jealousy and regret are all there – there is no opera more tender, more essential.

Exceptional young artists Sarah-Jane Davies, Nicholas Lester, Jaewoo Kim and Niamh Kelly play the quartet of young lovers, with Frances McCafferty watching their passions, and their mistakes.

ETO’s production was acclaimed in 2007, the Guardian’s critic stating that it “sheds more light on Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece than any recent UK production”. Joanna Parker and Guy Hoare’s period designs embody the poetry of Pushkin, from autumnal orchards to proud ballrooms. Conductor Michael Rosewell brings out each emotional nuance of the rich, romantic score, reflected in James Conway’s detailed production.

With its heartfelt arias and ensembles, its splendid choruses and ballroom scenes, and Tchaikovsky’s gift for melody, rich orchestration and drama, Eugene Onegin is a night at the opera for romantics of all ages.

Generously supported by the ETO Tatyana Syndicate

2007 ETO revival
Sung in English
Runnning time: 2 hours and 30 minutes (including interval)

The story

Click here to read a plot summary of the opera.

The music

Click through to listen to a sample of music from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

• Act I Scene 2: Letter Scene
• Act II Scene 2: Lensky’s Aria
• Act III Scene 1: Polonaise

Or listen to the complete recording on Spotify. (Not on Spotify? Click here to join for free)

The Feathered Ogre reinvents a famous Italian folktale, for Key Stage 1 pupils, with enchanting music by Russell Hepplewhite in your own school hall. The story is about a sick king whose illness can be cured only by the application of one of the feathers of the ogre in the mountains. To get the feather however you need to confront the man-eating habits of the monster. When a young man finally volunteers for the task everyone else also wants a feather…

In part an introduction to some of the key instruments of the orchestra, (including French horn, trumpet, bassoon, double bass and flute) the piece is performed by 5 players and 3 singers from English Touring Opera along with great design, costumes, and lots of interactive elements, including songs for the children to sing. The Feathered Ogre follows the success of ETO’s recent productions for younger children, including Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Starry Welkin. Lasting just under an hour, the piece can work with a large number of children, depending on the size of the hall.

Curriculum links
The Feathered Ogre is designed particularly to support the national curriculum for literacy, history, geography, and art and design, as well as drama and music.
The piece is complemented with resources for teachers; we will send you a simple pack and songs on CD ahead of the visit.

How to book
Would you like to be involved with this project? We are currently looking for schools in Poole, Sheffield, Guildford, Cheltenham, Coventry and Durham. If you’re from one of these areas, and you would like us to come and perform The Feathered Ogre at your school, please contact Alexa Carey on 020 7833 2555 or alexa.carey@englishtouringopera.org.uk.
Alternatively, places are still available at family performances at Hall for Cornwall, Truro and Warwick Arts Centre. Please use the links on the right-hand side of this page to book.

Tin is an exciting collaboration between English Touring Opera and Miracle Theatre, one of Cornwall’s most dynamic and respected theatre companies.

Set in the winter of 1890, Tin tells the tale of a windswept group of actors who turn up in a mining town determined to give a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio. The local tin mine is on its last legs, but when it unexpectedly yields up new treasures, the actors and townsfolk seize the opportunity to transform their lives.

In this play with music, ETO singers join professional actors from Miracle Theatre to tell a story of love and money, opera and mining. Famous Cornish baritone Ben Luxon returns to the stage in an acting role, while the score includes large sections of music from Fidelio.

This project is a continuation for ETO of its work with the Cornish community, and follows its award-winning community opera One Day Two Dawns with Hall for Cornwall in 2009.

Supported by a Youth Music award, English Touring Opera is working with a large number of young singers from eight secondary schools, as well as with Cornish male voice choirs, who will take part as the chorus in the production.

Music: Blaze of Glory, a new carol composed for Tin by Russell Pascoe

Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring has become a classic, comic depiction of English village life. Full of character, matching humour with psychological insight, it describes the election by village committee of a shy local lad in a grocer’s shop as May King – a title normally awarded as May Queen to a virtuous girl, but no one matches up to the exacting standards of virtue held by Lady Billows. Naturally, the crowning of the May King does not go quite as planned, and poor (or lucky) Albert Herring ends up straying rather far from the path of virtue.

A genuinely hilarious satire with undertones of melancholy, Albert Herring is a village masterpiece, with a score of great beauty. ETO’s new production is conducted by Michael Rosewell, a Britten expert, and directed by Christopher Rolls; the cast includes a splendid group of experienced singers and actors as Lady Billows (Jennifer Rhys-Davies) and her committee, with Mark Wilde in the title role as the youth they judge so severely.

New production
Sung in English
Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes

More dates to be announced. Please check the website for more information, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up to our mailing list.

Viktor Ullmann’s short opera The Emperor of Atlantis was written when the composer and writer were prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp, and it was first rehearsed by inmates of the camp, all of whom perished when transferred to Auschwitz before the premiere. The score was smuggled out of the camp, and it has been acclaimed in performances around the world as an extraordinary testament of wit and humanity in the face of barbarity.

It is not set in the camp – ironically, this black comedy reflects Ullmann’s experiences as an Austrian soldier in the WWI Italian campaign. In the story, Death, disgusted by war, resolves to go on strike (did someone mention Torchwood?), and drives a hard bargain with the Emperor Overall before going back to work.

Ullmann’s score, jazzy and expressive, is full of humour and pathos, and the opera is deeply moving. James Conway’s new production is paired with a poignant staging of Bach’s sublime cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds), arranged by Iain Farrington for Ullmann’s unusual orchestra.

New production
Sung in English
Running time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

More dates to be announced. Please check the website for more information, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up to our mailing list.

Peter Maxwell Davies’ most frequently performed opera, The Lighthouse, is based on a real-life account of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers on the island of Flannan (a story which also inspired a Genesis song and an episode of Doctor Who).

A very intense, suspenseful night of music theatre describes the cramped and foggy conditions at the lighthouse, and the claustrophobia of the court hearing at which the relief keepers give their account of the incident. Each of the keepers is depicted with penetrating insight, so that beneath their calm, blameless exteriors the audience senses a troubled past.

Davies’ theatrical score ratchets up the tension with consummate skill; moments of lyric beauty, banjo-accompanied ballads, and hymn-inspired movements lead to a powerful, percussive conclusion. This is modern English music at its most theatrically effective.

New production
Sung in English
Running time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

More dates to be announced. Please check the website for more information, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up to our mailing list.