Qualla: English National Opera

English National Opera: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:MykReeve, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1889, in a working-class corner of Lambeth, a Victorian philanthropist named Emma Cons began presenting fortnightly evenings of opera excerpts. The Old Vic theatre she ran was licensed for variety, not full opera, so Cons offered condensed versions, always sung in English. The orchestra was eighteen players. The chorus was amateur. The audience could not afford the West End. Within a decade her niece Lilian Baylis had arrived to help, and within two decades the niece would dream of turning the Old Vic into a "people's opera house." The dream grew, moved, split, and became three things: the Royal National Theatre, The Royal Ballet, and the English National Opera. The opera company moved to the London Coliseum in 1968. Its productions are still sung in English, just as Cons insisted.

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Image: en:User:MykReeve | CC BY-SA 3.0

English National Opera: The Aunt and the Niece

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew in Raleigh, CC BY 2.0. Emma Cons was a remarkable Victorian: social reformer, suffragist, and theatrical manager who took over the Old Vic to provide affordable culture for the poor. The licensing laws of the day prevented full costumed opera, so she presented edited versions, building a working-class ...

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Image: Andrew in Raleigh | CC BY 2.0

English National Opera: Sadler's Wells in Wartime

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charles J. Phipps, Public domain. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadler's Wells theatre in north London in 1931, a larger house better suited to opera. The opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble. Then came September 1939. The government requisitioned Sadler's Wells as an air-raid refuge for the homel...

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Image: Charles J. Phipps | Public domain

English National Opera: Peter Grimes and the Schism

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Origafoundation, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 7 June 1945 the company reopened Sadler's Wells with Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten, starring Peter Pears as the haunted fisherman and Joan Cross as Ellen Orford. It was the first major British opera in living memory and a critical triumph. It also tore the company apart. So...

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Image: Origafoundation | CC BY-SA 3.0

English National Opera: Mackerras's Janáček

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Maňas, CC BY 3.0. In 1950, Sadler's Wells was receiving a public subsidy of £40,000 a year. Covent Garden received £145,000. The young Australian conductor Charles Mackerras joined as a deputy and began championing the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, almost unknown in Britain. The company gave the fi...

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Image: Michal Maňas | CC BY 3.0

English National Opera: The Coliseum, 1968

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:FA2010, Public domain. By the late 1960s the Islington theatre was too small. A study showed the company comprised 278 salaried performers and 62 guest singers. In 1968 the opera moved south to the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane, the largest theatre in the West End, designed by Frank Matcham and o...

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Image: User:FA2010 | Public domain