Latest news with #ENO
Telegraph
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
English National Opera's new director takes job share in New Zealand
English National Opera is facing calls to cancel the contract of its incoming music director after it emerged that he has also accepted another music directorship in New Zealand. ENO announced in May that André de Ridder, a German conductor, would be its music director designate from September, taking up the post in Autumn 2027. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) announced this week that Mr de Ridder would be its music director designate, formally starting in September 2027. 'I am very excited and feel truly honoured to have been chosen to become this orchestra's next music director and to learn about and contribute to New Zealand's unique musical and cultural scenery,' he said in a statement posted on the NZSO's Facebook page. But Norman Lebrecht, a leading music expert and former Telegraph columnist, dismissed the dual appointments as 'absurd' because of the huge distance and an 11-hour time difference. He told The Telegraph: 'New Zealand is the other side of the clock. Basically, you can't communicate. 'With a company in crisis, as ENO is, you absolutely need a firm hand on the tiller. You've got to have a decision-maker there.' If the second job was in the same time zone, ENO could call its music director, Mr Lebrecht said, adding: 'But if he's in New Zealand they can't actually have proper discussions because it'll be 11 o'clock at night there or 11 o'clock at night our time. 'The whole position is absurd.' Writing on his Slipped Disc website, Mr Lebrecht said: 'This ought to be an easy commute, right? And if something goes wrong in London or Auckland, Ridder will be right there to put it right… ENO should terminate his contract before they look like a total shambles.' 'Unmitigated piffle' Observers argued that although international conductors take different posts, an opera company leaves little time for a second job. ENO has lurched from one crisis to another, despite the award-winning excellence of many of its productions. Years of turmoil have seen strikes and protests over cutbacks, while fears for its survival were sparked by Arts Council England 's plan to pull its funding unless the company found a base beyond the capital. ENO's forthcoming season, beginning in September, will feature 12 productions and concerts in London and Manchester, both new productions and revivals. Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's political satire, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, will be staged in 2026, marking Mr de Ridder's first engagement as music director designate. He is currently general music director of Theater Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He previously conducted for ENO the premieres of Gerald Barry's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant in 2005, described by The Telegraph as 'a repellent opera', and Michel van der Aa's Sunken Garden in 2013, dismissed by this newspaper as 'unmitigated piffle'. Mr de Ridder's representative, Anna Wetherell of HarrisonParrott, the classical music agency, said the two jobs 'don't really coincide'. She added: 'New Zealand have their winter festival, which is in August each year, when ENO is not operating. 'With New Zealand, he has signed up to three seasons - [from] March to December 2027, 2028 and 2029 - so he probably will do… two weeks at the start of the year, three in the middle and three at the end.' Asked where his home will be, she said: 'It's unclear for now. He might move somewhere in the UK.' Mr Lebrecht described ENO as 'a shadow of its former self' and noted that the previous music director had said the job is untenable: 'This is the music director of English National Opera. English. 'Yet ENO had to go to Germany because we don't have any conductors who are unemployed and rather good.' John Allison, the editor of Opera magazine and a Telegraph music critic, said: 'People may say that running a national company leaves little time for anything else. Sadly, through little fault of their own, ENO is not exactly the busiest national full-time opera company. 'But it's not a vote of confidence either in where André de Ridder thinks ENO might be in a couple of years time when he starts in New Zealand. It's not impossible for him to do both jobs, but it's not necessarily an ideal look. 'ENO hasn't been out of crisis for a very long time. It's a different kind of a crisis at the moment because nobody quite knows where it's going, allegedly to Manchester. But, who knows if the Arts Council, which imposed this on them, will still be here in 2029 when the move is supposed to take place? It's certainly got an identity crisis and it needs vision.' 'Strong leadership' An ENO spokesman said Mr de Ridder was appointed 'following a rigorous process', adding: 'We are all looking forward to working together with him over the coming years. 'It is absolutely standard for leading conductors to have more than one post internationally. 'It is simply not true that ENO is in a state of crisis. With strong leadership in place, and a clear plan for the future delivering programmes in both London and Greater Manchester, as we announced in May, ENO is moving forward with an exciting 2025/26 season. 'This includes 12 productions and concerts across London and Manchester, expansion of our work through new broadcast partnerships and learning and participation programmes and the extension of our offer of free tickets for under 21s.'
Reuters
27-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Sensodyne maker Haleon says 2025 revenue growth skewed to second half
Summary Companies 2025 organic revenue expected to grow 4% to 6% U.S. tariffs impact expected to be 'relatively low' - CEO CEO confident of meeting outlook, even with any tariff hit Feb 27 (Reuters) - British consumer healthcare group Haleon (HLN.L), opens new tab on Thursday said 2025 revenue and profit growth would be weighted to the second half of the year, overshadowing a strong end to 2024 and sending its shares down by more than 3%. The company, which makes Sensodyne toothpaste, ENO antacids and Centrum multivitamins, projected organic revenue would grow between 4% and 6% for the year, compared with a company-compiled consensus of 5.3%. "We are well positioned to drive organic revenue growth within our medium-term guidance range, with strong organic profit growth in 2025," CEO Brian McNamara said. Slowing demand for cold and cough medicines after the pandemic has weighed on consumer healthcare companies, and Haleon is working on clearing stocks of those products which typically sell more in the colder months. Its shares were down 2.9% at 384 pence by 1155 GMT. The stock had gained around 20% since its spin-off from GSK (GSK.L), opens new tab in 2022. "The stock has moved quite a way since it floated, so the reaction is understandable, but longer term this remains a good quality business with good brands," Quilter Cheviot's Chris Beckett said. A rising consumer focus on wellness is boosting sales at Haleon's multivitamins and oral hygiene products divisions, where revenues rose by 7.6% and 9.6%, respectively, on an organic basis. Still, companies globally are scrambling to adapt to growing trade tensions after the U.S. administration imposed a raft of tariffs on imports from China, Mexico and Canada, and soon possibly from the European Union. Any potential impact on Haleon is expected to be "relatively low", and the company is monitoring the situation and working on potential mitigations, CEO McNamara told Reuters. "We still believe we can deliver on (2025) guidance, even if there is an impact from tariffs." He added that most of Haleon's U.S. supplies were produced domestically, and that the company had "very little to no" exposure to China and Mexico, but had a plant in Montreal and some raw materials were sourced from outside the U.S. North America accounted for about 36% of Haleon's 2024 revenue, which along with adjusted operating profit, was in line with expectations.
The Guardian
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in classical: Mary, Queen of Scots; Academy Symphony Orchestra/ Wilson; James MacMillan: Ordo Virtutum
In the madness of royal succession, a baby in a buggy is proclaimed king, his mother robbed of the crown and banished. Mary, Queen of Scots (1977), a three-act opera by Thea Musgrave, focuses on the seven years leading up to that moment of exile. History is rewritten in the telling, but the atrocity of Mary's story burns through. Sexual politics, shattered trust and religious turbulence eddy and seethe, all to a huge orchestral score and the actions of four earls, two lords, a cardinal and the rabble-rousing people of Scotland, as well as the queen's household of women. In a move as plucky as it was, in some ways, baffling, English National Opera presented Mary, Queen of Scots in a modest semi-staging by director-designer Stewart Laing (woolly hats, anoraks, railings and a dismal, half-built frame marquee). Cast, chorus and orchestra, under the baton of Joana Carneiro, had mastered Musgrave's complex score and wordy text (the composer's own) to the highest standard. The regret was that this exhaustive effort, for whatever reasons of cost or nerve, resulted in only two performances – both sold out. Making her ENO debut in the title role, the American soprano Heidi Stober gave a ferocious account of a power-hungry monarch determined to follow her own path when her drunken husband, Darnley (Rupert Charlesworth), half-brother James (Alex Otterburn) and the seedily rapacious Bothwell (John Findon) prove useless. After the slow explication of the first act – a full production might have clarified all the patrician comings and goings – the pace quickens. Intimate scenes have dramatic force. The noisy, roaring volleys of brass, keening woodwind and outbursts of orchestral menace grip the attention, gathering speed and volume towards the finale. The 96-year-old composer, Edinburgh-born but living in America for more than half a century, had travelled to the UK for the occasion. Taking her bow, she was greeted by an ovation from the enthusiastic audience. Musgrave has managed to bypass the withering nullification of female composers prevalent for most of her career, admired and played if never having the limelight she deserves. An exact contemporary of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), she harnessed her talent to deft instrumental writing when electronic experiment was monster king. She has lived long enough to see that taste has moved on, female composers released from perpetual anchorage and (nearly) properly valued. After this performance, a co-production with San Francisco Opera, she might see, too, that her own work will live on. Lack of money, loss of morale, the effects of Brexit: these issues dog the lives of professional musicians, however determined they are to give their all as artists. At the Royal Academy of Music last week, a new generation of players, average age 20, demonstrated a can-do determination riven into every note they played. The intake at the RAM is still around 58% British, a number to monitor as UK music education continues to unravel. Fewer students come from Europe, post-Brexit, many from farther afield. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, a wise and inspired principal of the academy as well as a practising musician, is fervent in his belief that a positive mantra can bring about change. He instils this in his students and will not countenance compromise. Nor, too, will the conductor John Wilson, who holds the Henry Wood chair in conducting at the academy. After working together for an intensive week, six hours a day, Wilson and the Academy Symphony Orchestra gave an outstanding concert of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and a suite from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. One aspect of the ensemble was immediately clear: the quality of the string sound. This defining section of any orchestra is the hardest in which to achieve blend and expressivity: 50 or so players, with instruments of different quality, using different fingerings or bowing techniques, all able to play the notes but doing it their own way. Wilson, known for his meticulous scrutiny of detail, has introduced them to the sacred principle, which sounds easy enough, of listening. The results were formidable. There was risk here too. The Tchaikovsky, with a first-year student from Texas, 18-year old Adriana Bec, the virtuosic soloist, was a wild, hair-raising ride, Bec clearly revelling in the chance to pour her energy into a Stradivarius, on loan to her from the academy. The strength of her playing prompted me to ponder the weight of a violin bow: average 60 grams, about the same as an egg. Bec made it at once granite-like and featherlight. She still has three years of study left. Watch for the name. A short word, because if I get going on Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) it may turn out long, on a work inspired by her morality play Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues). James MacMillan has created a choral drama, luminous, contrapuntal and ecstatic, out of the German nun-mystic's 12th-century chant. The BBC Singers and National Youth Voices conducted by Sofi Jeannin, with percussionist Andrew Barclay adding sonic colour, gave the UK premiere at Milton Court. Humility, chastity and the rest of the heavenly virtues conquer the Devil. You'd better believe it. Hear it on BBC Sounds and live in hope. (Star ratings) out of five Mary, Queen of Scots ★★★★ Academy Symphony Orchestra/Wilson ★★★★ James MacMillan: Ordo Virtutum ★★★★
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Makropulos Affair review – immaculately paced and gripping opera storytelling
Come June, Martyn Brabbins will be directing the orchestra of English National Opera in David Pountney's new production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, a story of wartime Ukraine, at Grange Park in Surrey. Brabbins, who resigned his position as music director of ENO in October 2023, has, however, chosen to make his first return to the pit with Scottish Opera, making his company debut with a score he had not previously studied, Janáček's The Makropulos Affair. The result is a triumph, his immaculate pacing of the music and the sparkling detail in the playing crucial to the gripping storytelling of Olivia Fuchs' production. With three striking sets for each of the three acts by Nicola Turner, beautifully lit by Robbie Butler, and video by Sam Sharples in the style of early 20th century experimental cinema, this staging was seen at WNO in Cardiff three years ago, but the Scottish premiere of this co-production, with a fresh cast, uses Pountney's English translation of the libretto, sung so clearly that the surtitles are almost superfluous. At the heart of the compelling narrative is a riveting performance from Irish soprano Orla Boylan, following up her acclaimed Scottish Opera turn as Jenny Marx in Jonathan Dove's Marx in London! Her chain-smoking, hipflask-toting opera diva, Emilia Marty, is uncaringly indestructible because an elixir has kept her alive since 1575 under various aliases, but always with the initials EM. Around her circle besotted men, company stalwarts Roland Wood as Baron Prus and Alasdair Elliot as Count Hauk-Šendorf and debuts from tenors Ryan Capozzo as Albert Gregor and Michael Lafferty as the Baron's impressionable son Janek. Mark Le Brocq, as legal clerk Vítek, and Catriona Hewitson as his opera-singer daughter, Kristina, draw the audience into the tale with their characterful performances, and the young soprano is a crucial presence throughout, even in scenes where she has little to sing. Those include the introduction of a clever interlude between Act 1 and 2 that uses a recording of Janáček's The Danube as part of the period meta-theatricality essential to both the opera itself and to this production. The combination of the wit of those ingredients, and some much broader humour, with the authority of the orchestral work, culminating in the achingly moving finale as Marty embraces death, is quite remarkable – and makes an unanswerable case for the century-old Makropulos as the most contemporary of Janáček's operas. At Theatre Royal, Glasgow, on 22 February and Festival theatre, Edinburgh, on 27 February and 1 March
Telegraph
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Marriage of Figaro, ENO: Who needs props when a production's this fabulous?
Doors are crucial in Mozart's supremely witty comedy Still, in this opera you don't expect to be confronted by nothing more than a set of four white doors in a white box, even if the box then turns out to be moveable and can travel up, down and backwards: the plainness puts a huge weight on the characters, who have to actively compensate for the absence of any props, chairs or other supports. This they do in Joe Hill-Gibbins's sparky production: behind every door, there is a story, characters appear mute from the doors when they are being sung about. Susanna and the Countess don't have a table on which to write a letter to the Count, so he appears between them, and Cherubino is hidden behind an open door rather than under a sheet. It doesn't all work, and slightly runs out of steam in the last act, as the white box retreats to the back of the stage, giving the singers almost too much space. Much of the success of this characterful show must be down to Jenny Ogilvie, whose movement direction creates a constant stream of striking, angular stage pictures. It enables telling relationships, often clustering the characters together as in the hilarious sextet in which Figaro's would-be bride Marcellina is revealed as his mother. This production received only a one-night stand in 2020 before lockdown closed our theatres, and is now revived with a new cast, except for the superb Hanna Hipp as the young Cherubino who overcomes the sacrilegiously sleazy dance treatment of her sublime Act II aria and does a genuine leap from a door onto a waiting mattress. The distressed Countess of Nardus Williams is wonderfully supple of tone, cleanly shaped in both her arias, matched by a lovely solo oboe, her sensuality longing for release. Mary Bevan is more strongly profiled as her maid Susanna, forceful in the many ensembles and then touching in her Act IV aria. David Ireland is a bumptiously assertive Figaro, and Cody Quattlebaum makes a notable debut as a lithe, crisp Count. Rebecca Evans's unusually emotional Marcellina makes one wish she were allowed her Act IV aria, which as normal is cut, and there is excellent support from Neal Davies as Bartolo and Ava Dodd as Barbarina. Under conductor Ainãrs Rubiķis, the music is driven along with propulsive speeds, and the occasional dislocation between stage and pit can be put down to expressive freedom. The effervescent orchestra and the busy chorus demonstrate what precious assets ENO has in these resources. The evening never drags: Jeremy Sams's ultra-clever text is arguably more a new libretto than a translation, but it is intelligible, funny, and on opening night was hugely enjoyed by all. Until Feb 22;
