Photos: First Look At English National Opera’s PARTENOPE

Check out brand-new production photos for English National Opera’s production of  Partenope, running 20 November–6 December 2025 at the London Coliseum.

Directed by Christopher Alden and conducted by Christian Curnyn, the production is a co-production with Opera Australia.

ENO’s award-winning staging of Handel’s love-quadrangle opera first premiered in 2008. The production won the Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production in 2009 and has since been presented at Opera Australia, San Francisco Opera, and Teatro Real de Madrid. Inspired by surrealist artists including Salvador Dalí and Man Ray, Alden’s concept relocates Handel’s 1730 work to a 1920s Parisian high-society setting.

Partenope traces a web of romantic complications among four rival suitors pursuing the queen Partenope. Handel’s first comic opera marked a stylistic shift from works such as Giulio Cesare, Alcina, and Rinaldo, blending wit with a score rich in arias and expressive ensembles. Although revived several times during Handel’s lifetime, the opera fell out of the repertory for generations before its 20th-century resurgence.

Director Christopher Alden has created opera productions internationally for more than five decades. His ENO credits include Turandot, The Makropulos Case, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Die Fledermaus, and Rigoletto. His staging of Partenope has been described as “a treat” (The Telegraph). Conductor Christian Curnyn returns to lead the revival, following his work on both the original 2008 staging and the 2017 revival. Curnyn is the music director of the Early Opera Company and has previously conducted ENO productions including Rodelinda, Julius Caesar, Castor and Pollux, and After Dido.

Soprano Nardus Williams will sing the title role. A former ENO Harewood Artist and Rising Talent award winner at the 2022 International Opera Awards, Williams made her ENO debut as Micaëla in the 2020 revival of Carmen, where her performance was noted as “one to listen out for” (The Guardian). Critics have praised her “superbly controlled, sensuous soprano” (Opera Today).

The roles of Arsace, Emilio, and Armindo will be performed by Hugh Cutting, Ru Charlesworth, and Jake Ingbar respectively. Cutting was recently named one of Bachtrack’s “Rising stars: ten to watch in 2025–26” and was recognized for his “beautiful tone and rapid-fire coloratura” in Garsington Opera’s Rodelinda. Charlesworth has been praised for their “stunning technique and musicality” (Planet Hugill) and previously appeared as Lord Darnley in Mary, Queen of Scots and Tamino in The Magic Flute, in addition to covering the role of Emilio in ENO’s 2017 Partenope. Ingbar, an American countertenor, has performed internationally, including with Dutch National Opera in Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Agrippina.

Katie Bray will return to ENO as Rosmira, portraying Arsace’s former fiancée. Bray, praised for her “soaring” performances (The Guardian), won the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2019 Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She previously appeared with ENO in the 2014 stage adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ The Way Back Home. Bass William Thomas will perform the role of Ormonte. A former Harewood Artist, Thomas has received several major awards, including the Kathleen Ferrier Competition and Glyndebourne’s John Christie Award.

The creative team includes Andrew Lieberman (set design), Jon Morrell (costume design), Adam Silverman (lighting design), Marc Rosette (revival lighting design), Claire Glaskin (movement director), and Elaine Brown (revival movement and intimacy director).

Photo Credit: Lloyd Winters