#english-national-opera

#english-national-opera

Andre de Ridder is either brave or stupid. He has accepted the role as the music director of English National Opera its chief conductor and keeper of its musical flame. He will take up the role formally in 2027. The post has been empty for several anguished years, sparked by Arts Council England's 2022 announcement that the company would lose all its funding unless it moved out of London.

This November, English National Opera brings a defining work of modern American music drama to the London Coliseum. Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, first performed in 2000, has already entered the repertory as a contemporary classic, a rarity in the world of opera where even success often means a brief blaze before oblivion. Yet Heggie's opera endures: a work of moral courage and emotional immediacy that continues to challenge audiences wherever it is performed.