Verdi's Ernani
MusicWeb International
'Julian Gavin is a dashing and driven Ernani, with a resplendent tenor register - his voice also has the stamina to maintain the frenzied momentum right up to his grizzly end, and beyond. Alan Opie is on appropriately imperious form as King of Spain, Don Carlo. Meanwhile, Peter Rose's rich bass timbres make Silva into no mere gravelly old retainer; instead, he is a smooth-toned operator in more ways than one.

A brash and brazen approach suits the young Verdi's intentions to a tee and, in the pit, conductor David Parry gives the score some welly. But the ENO orchestra responds magnificently with great swathes of homogenous sound. Add equally sterling work from the chorus for a really gutsy musical performance all around. Nobody will be nodding off in the seat next to you at this opera.'
Janáček’s The Makropulos Case
The Guardian
'The final act of English National Opera's new production of Janáček's The Makropulos Case is harrowing but uplifting theatre, a brilliant staging of some of the greatest operatic music ever written. The production, directed by Christopher Alden, makes the stage feel like a mausoleum, with sheer, metallic surfaces and the harsh glare of strip-lights... Barker's performance is the dramatic heartbeat of the production. But the real star is Sir Charles Mackerras: he is now in his 80s, yet he conducts a new edition of the score with the energy of a man possessed, confirming his status as the world's pre-eminent Janáček interpreter and producing a blistering performance from the ENO orchestra.
Janáček's The Makropulos Case
Formerly Sadlers Wells Opera, it moved to the London Coliseum in 1968 and was renamed English National Opera in 1974. All ENO operas are sung and surtitled in English.

PMF involvement:

1991 an audience initiative called 'Sponsor an Opera' for a production of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

1992 Berg’s Wozzeck

May 2000 Verdi’s Ernani - refurbishment and new staging based on Elijah Moshinsky’s 1979 production for Welsh National Opera/Royal Northern College of Music (also supported by PMF). Following the stage performances, it was recorded in a studio for Chandos Opera in English.

February 2006 the refurbishment of Jonathan Miller’s production of Verdi's Rigoletto

May 2006 The Foundation supported a new production of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case. It was recorded live at the London Coliseum for Chandos Opera in English
31 July 2010
Janáček's The Makropulos Case
Alden's direction and Charles Edwards' sets are alert to the psychological subtleties of the drama... And yet for all the stark simplicity of the stage pictures and the heartlessness of the characters, it's the humanity of Janacek's music that finally triumphs in this magnificent, insightful production.'