The first production photographs of English National Opera's Iphigénie en Tauride are out, taken by Helen Murray, with Christine Rice and Jacques Imbrailo leading the cast as the long-separated siblings at the centre of Gluck's opera, which plays just four performances at the London Coliseum from 6-14 November.
English National Opera has released the first production photographs of Iphigénie en Tauride, its new staging of Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera at the London Coliseum. The pictures, by Helen Murray, follow the rehearsal images the company issued in late October, and they arrive at the start of an unusually short run: four performances from 6-14 November, after which it is gone.
The run is a first for the company as well. Although it is widely held to be Gluck's finest work, Iphigénie en Tauride is rarely staged, and this is its ENO premiere. It is sung in the original French of Nicolas-François Guillard's libretto, with English surtitles.
The story finds Iphigénie long after the sacrifice she was meant to suffer. Spirited away in secret by the goddess Diana, she now serves as her priestess, until the arrival of her brother Oreste, tormented and desperate for release, upends her world. The evening draws the two of them towards reconciliation and, in the end, the mercy of the gods.
Director Lyndsey Turner, herself an Olivier Award winner, is back at ENO for the first time since her 2019 production of Noye's Fludde, which went on to win an Olivier of its own, and comes to it from her staging of 1536 at the Almeida, later seen in the West End. In the pit, the Orchestra of ENO is conducted by Baroque specialist David Bates, making his ENO debut after an international career spent largely on returning long-neglected repertoire to the stage.
Mezzo-soprano Christine Rice takes the title role, following her Sister Helen Prejean in the company's Olivier Award-winning Dead Man Walking (2025). Appointed MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to opera, she is reunited with another member of that cast, baritone Jacques Imbrailo, who played Owen Hart there and now sings Oreste. 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.
Tenor Nick Pritchard plays Pylade and baritone Morgan Pearse is Thoas. Mezzo-soprano Amy Holyland, a former Harewood Artist, is the Second Priestess and soprano Olivia Rose Tringham, a current Harewood Artist, the First Priestess; soprano Sarah Gilford plays A Greek Woman, and bass Robert Winslade Anderson, from the ENO chorus, is the Scythian Priest, with the Chorus of ENO around them. Soutra Gilmour designs the set and costumes, and Tim Mitchell the lighting.
Tickets start at £15 including fees. Under-21s can go free at every level of the theatre, and 21-35 year olds are offered discounted seats.
Iphigénie en Tauride plays the London Coliseum on 6, 9 and 11 November at 7.30pm, with the final performance at 6pm on 14 November.
