Gluck’s most admired opera reaches English National Opera for the first time, with Christine Rice as Iphigénie and Lyndsey Turner directing, for four performances only. Here is everything you need to know about Iphigénie en Tauride before you book.
Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride is the opera that historians of the form reach for when they want to show what his reforms achieved, and yet it is so seldom staged that English National Opera has never produced it until now. The company’s new staging, directed by Lyndsey Turner with Christine Rice in the title role, plays just four performances at the London Coliseum, from Friday 6 November 2026.
Who is starring in Iphigénie en Tauride?
The mezzo-soprano Christine Rice sings Iphigénie, returning to ENO after singing Sister Helen Prejean in the company’s Olivier Award-winning Dead Man Walking in 2025. The baritone Jacques Imbrailo, who was Owen Hart in that same production, sings Oreste, Iphigénie’s brother; a former Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, Imbrailo won the Audience Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2007.
The tenor Nick Pritchard sings Pylade, the friend who will not leave Oreste’s side, and the baritone Morgan Pearse is Thoas, the ruler of the island. Olivia Rose Tringham and Amy Holyland are the First and Second Priestess, Ava Dodd is A Greek Woman and Robert Winslade Anderson is the Scythian Priest, with the Chorus of ENO completing the company.
What is Iphigénie en Tauride about?
Iphigénie belongs to the house of Atreus, the most violent family in Greek myth. Spared at the last moment from being sacrificed by her own father, she has been carried off by the goddess Diana to Tauris, a bleak island at the edge of the known world, where she now serves as a priestess under a ruler who demands the blood of any stranger who lands there. Her brother Oreste, meanwhile, has avenged their father by killing their mother, and is pursued to the brink of madness by what he has done. Neither knows whether the other is still alive.
When two shipwrecked Greeks are brought before her for sacrifice, Iphigénie hears news of her family’s ruin from a man she does not recognise. How long that recognition can be delayed, and what it costs everyone on stage, is the engine of the evening. The opera was first heard in Paris in 1779, and it remains one of the most direct and concentrated tragedies of its century, with no subplot to soften it.
Who is behind the production?
Lyndsey Turner directs, back at ENO after Noye’s Fludde in 2019, which won an Olivier Award; Turner’s production of 1536 moved from the Almeida into the West End. The Baroque specialist David Bates makes his ENO debut conducting the Orchestra of ENO, and the set and costumes are designed by Soutra Gilmour, with lighting by Tim Mitchell.
The opera is sung in its original French, to a libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard, with English surtitles projected above the stage.
When and where can I see it?
There are four performances only: Friday 6, Monday 9 and Wednesday 11 November 2026 at 7.30pm, and a final performance on Saturday 14 November 2026 at 6pm. The running time is 2 hours 20 minutes, with one interval. ENO recommends the production for ages 15 and over; it includes depictions of violence, including murder.
Tickets currently start at £26. Under-21s can see it for free, and there are reduced prices for 21-34 year olds. Our earlier report on the casting has more on the company. Iphigénie en Tauride is booking now at the London Coliseum.
What else should I book if I like it?
Tosca shares the Coliseum stage with it this autumn: ENO’s revival of Puccini’s political thriller, another drama in which a woman faces a tyrant alone. Our guide to Tosca has the details.
Adriana Mater, by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Maalouf, follows at the end of November, a modern opera that turns on war, inheritance and whether violence passes from one generation to the next.
Breaking the Waves, by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, arrives in February 2027, for anyone drawn to a heroine whose devotion is tested past the point of reason.
