Everything you need to know about To Die For [A Comedy] at the London Coliseum

Most operas come to London after a run somewhere else. To Die For [A Comedy] comes after a cancellation, a Dutch tour and rather more history than a comedy usually carries. Commissioned by the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow and dropped in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Elena Langer's opera was finally staged in April 2026 by Nederlandse Reisopera, the Dutch national touring company. On Sunday 29 November 2026 that production gives its UK premiere at the London Coliseum, hosted by English National Opera, for one performance only, as we reported when the visit was announced.

The story has been stopped in Russia before. Nikolai Erdman's 1928 play The Suicide, on which the libretto is based, was banned before its first performance, so the same tale has now been halted twice, almost a century apart. The notices from the Dutch tour were warm: The European Arts Desk called it "an absolute masterclass in pitch-black comedy and musical brilliance", and The Opera Journal "an exuberant and highly subversive black farce".

Who is starring in To Die For [A Comedy]?

Most of the principals return from the Dutch tour. Tenor Paul Curievici takes the central role of Semyon Podsekayev, the desperate tenant whose death becomes a television event, and countertenor James Hall plays Ivan Vane, the monstrous presenter of the show that intends to broadcast it. Mezzo-soprano Idunnu Münch reprises the writer Kukoleva, soprano Jenny Stafford sings Maria, and baritone Richard Burkhard is Kalabushkin, Semyon's shifty neighbour.

Regular ENO audiences will know most of the company. Curievici, a former winner of Scottish Opera's John Scott Award who has sung at the Royal Opera House and New York's Lincoln Center, made an ENO debut in Philip Glass's Akhnaten. Münch is a former ENO Harewood Artist whose credits include It's A Wonderful Life, The Rhinegold and Blue. Stafford first sang with the company in 2025, as Mary Seton in Mary, Queen of Scots, covering the title role as well. Burkhard's many ENO roles include Marcello in La bohème and Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus. Hall works across the UK and Europe in repertoire running from the Renaissance and Baroque to the present day, and The Stage has praised a "voice of exceptional quality".

What is To Die For [A Comedy] about?

The librettist, Arkady Zastyrets, moves Erdman's story out of the 1920s and into the riotous, money-mad Russia of the 1990s. It begins in a grimy communal flat, where Semyon has run out of reasons to carry on, and ends in the glossy emptiness of reality television, where his suicide has been booked to go out live on a vulgar variety programme. The targets are materialism, celebrity and the cheerful business of selling other people's misery as entertainment, although the conclusion turns out a good deal more hopeful than the premise would suggest.

Langer's score mixes contemporary opera with cabaret, folk and music theatre. In the composer's own words, the aim was "to make fun of celebrity, materialism, exploitation and the absurdity of human behaviour", and the piece "may contain surprises!"

Who is behind the production?

Sam Brown, artistic director of Nederlandse Reisopera since 2024, directs. Brown began as an assistant director at Opera North, won the Ring Award and the European Opera Directing Prize in 2011, and has staged more than 30 operas across Europe, among them The Queen of Spades at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Parsifal for Opera North and The Barber of Seville for Welsh National Opera. The designer is Grace Smart, whose sets include Cyrano De Bergerac for the RSC and in the West End, Susanna at the Royal Opera House and The World's Wife for Welsh National Opera, as well as several productions at Shakespeare's Globe and the National Theatre.

Adrian Kelly conducts, making a London Coliseum debut. A former member of the Royal Opera House's Young Artists' Programme, Kelly has worked at the Hamburg State Opera and the Salzburg State Theatre, and has been artistic director of the Buxton International Festival since 2018.

Langer was born in Russia, trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow and the Royal Academy of Music in London, has lived in the UK since 2000 and was the Almeida Theatre's first composer in residence. The earlier operas include Figaro Gets a Divorce and Rhondda Rips It Up!, both for Welsh National Opera, Ariadne, The Lion's Face and Four Sisters, whose revival at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre the Guardian found "effortlessly witty".

When and where can I see it?

To Die For [A Comedy] is at the London Coliseum on St Martin's Lane for a single performance at 7pm on Sunday 29 November 2026, and no other UK dates have been announced. The evening runs for about 2 hours 30 minutes, including one interval, and is sung in English with English surtitles.

Tickets currently start at £56. ENO also offers free tickets to under-21s for its opera productions at the Coliseum, and reduced prices for 21-35 year olds.

What else should I book if I like it?

• Adriana Mater at the London Coliseum, 28 November - 12 December: ENO's first staging of Kaija Saariaho's opera opens the night before, so the same weekend offers two modern scores on the same stage. Our guide to Adriana Mater has the detail.
• Tosca at the London Coliseum, until 11 December: the repertoire end of ENO's autumn, with Axelle Fanyo in the title role, for anyone who wants the classic alongside the new. See our guide to the Tosca staging.
• Iphigénie en Tauride at the London Coliseum, 6-14 November: Lyndsey Turner's new staging of Gluck, and a chance to catch the company earlier in the month. Our guide has more.