ENO The Magic Flute - Ben Johnson and Devon Guthrie © Robbie Jack

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute remains the most popular opera ever written and the perfect one to introduce the genre to the non-initiated. The English National Opera is committed to create new audiences for Opera through English language performances. Beware, purists will be shocked! However, this event would be rather ordinary if Complicite company director Simon McBurney was not running the show.

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Simon McBurney is one of the most exciting British directors of his generation. An associated artist of the Festival d’Avignon 2012, he amazed everyone with his version of Bulgakov’s Master and the Margarita in the Palais des Papes last summer. As an introduction to the work he intends to do on The Magic Flute, he said: “I am staging The Magic Flute with as much left to the imagination as possible”. Leading us to believe we can expect a bare stage with lots of highly inventive physicality.

Mark Wigglesworth, the new artistic director of the ENO, will conduct. He is known for his luminous work on Wagner's Parsifal, and an interest in programming lesser known works alongside the classics. Gareth Fry, currently one of Britain’s most inventive sound designers, and Michael Levine, a Canadian opera designer of international reputation, are also part of the team. Ever-rising lyric soprano and London favourite Lucy Crowe will play Pamina, opposite Allan Clayton, whose skilful psychological readings and command of language is making him one to watch. Dramatic soprano Ambur Braid will be an uncharacteristically youthful Queen of the Night.

We would strongly recommend you book a good seat, preferably in the stalls, to best follow Prince Tamino’s search of love in this unique version of Mozart's final operatic masterpiece. Based on the reception afforded its initial run, this will be a theatrical, profound and memorable, an exciting show from a trailblazing director.

What	The Magic Flute, London Coliseum
Where	London Coliseum, WC2N 4ES \| MAP
Nearest tube	Charing Cross (underground)
When	05 Feb 16 – 19 Mar 16, 7:30 PM – 10:25 PM
Price	£12-125
Website	Click Here to book via the English National Opera

Practical

ENO 2015/16 BOOKING

The English National Opera have launched their line up for much of next season, and it's an exciting one: five new productions and three esteemed revivals, with bel canto classics alongside works from Mozart, Verdi, Gilbert & Sullivan and Philip Glass. General booking opens on 27 May, but if you are a friend of the company you can choose the prime seats from 6 May. A week before the public release, on 20 May, half-price disability tickets will be available, as will the seasonal subscription offer, which gives you a discount on your overall order when you buy for three or more productions at once.

What the critics say

THE OBSERVER

"Amid the darkness in this rich, inventive production there were, too, moments of startling humour and theatrical wizardry. The effect is absorbing and finally captivating."

THE INDEPENDENT

"This fantastical show will never be anyone’s definitive Flute, but it conveys more of its evanescent mystery than anything else has for a long time. That's quite an achievement."

The Magic Flute, London Coliseum

Simon McBurney's pioneering, garlanded 2012/3 production of the Magic Flute returns for a much anticipated second run.

London Coliseum

English National Opera

Simon McBurney

Mozart

Mark Wigglesworth

Classical