Christine Rice and Jacques Imbrailo play the estranged siblings at the heart of Iphigénie en Tauride, as English National Opera stages Gluck’s opera for the first time in a new production by Lyndsey Turner at the London Coliseum this November.
Christine Rice takes the title role in English National Opera’s new staging of Iphigénie en Tauride, which plays four performances at the London Coliseum between 6 and 14 November 2026. The mezzo-soprano, who sang Sister Helen Prejean in the company’s Olivier Award-winning Dead Man Walking in 2025, was appointed MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to opera.
Opposite her as Oreste, the brother whose arrival overturns Iphigénie’s world, is baritone Jacques Imbrailo, who also returns to ENO after singing Owen Hart in that same Dead Man Walking. A former Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, he took the Audience Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2007.
Seldom staged, though often counted the finest thing Gluck wrote, the opera is receiving its ENO premiere. Iphigénie, rescued in secret from sacrifice by the goddess Diana, now serves as her priestess. When Oreste appears, hounded by his own torment and looking for release from it, brother and sister are drawn back towards each other and towards the mercy of the gods.
Tenor Nick Pritchard sings Pylade and baritone Morgan Pearse is Thoas. Mezzo-soprano Amy Holyland, a former Harewood Artist, plays the Second Priestess, while two current Harewood Artists, the sopranos Olivia Rose Tringham and Ava Dodd, take the First Priestess and A Greek Woman. Bass Robert Winslade Anderson, a member of the company’s chorus, is the Scythian Priest, and the Chorus of ENO fills out the stage.
Olivier Award winner Lyndsey Turner directs, back at ENO after her 2019 Noye’s Fludde, which itself went on to win an Olivier. Her latest success was 1536, which moved from the Almeida into the West End. In the pit, the Orchestra of ENO is conducted by David Bates, making his ENO debut; the Baroque specialist has built his career around reviving neglected repertoire, and Gramophone has called his performances “superbly engaging, theatrically thrilling”. Soutra Gilmour designs the set and costumes, with lighting by Tim Mitchell.
The opera is sung in its original French, to a libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard, with English surtitles. The running time is 2 hours 20 minutes, including one interval.
Performances are on 6, 9 and 11 November 2026 at 7.30pm, with the final one on 14 November 2026 at 6pm. Tickets start at £25 including fees; under-21s can sit anywhere in the house for free, and 21-35 year olds qualify for reduced prices. Iphigénie en Tauride is booking now at the London Coliseum.
