Opera packages don’t get much better than a hotel break in London with tickets for the English National Opera or the Royal Opera House.
A couple of opera’s for 2026 at the Royal Opera House.
The Royal Opera House gives us Verdi’s devastatingly beautiful La Traviata to warm up our winter nights in 2026. This tale of love and frailty in Paris is conducted by Antonello Manacorda. The cast features Ermonela Jaho, Giovanni Sala, Aleksei Isaev, Veena Akama-Makia and Barnaby Rea.
We have packages available for performances between 08 January and 17 February 2026
A little pre-Christmas opera is provided by Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen’s production of Ariodante. Handel’s 3 hour 50 minute music drama about jealousy, infidelity and deception features the singing of Emily D’Angelo, Jacquelyn Stucker, Elena Villalón, Christophe Dumaux and Ed Lyon and two intervals.
A complete side step is Last Days – loosely based on the last days of Grunge icon, Kurt Cobain.
For those of you who don’t know their Grunge from the Gounod, Cobain was a musician and lead singer of a group called Nirvana. You may have come across their hit single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
How that transfers into what you will hear on the stage of the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House is best explained by Oliver Leith, who’s score creates an immersive sound world, with unconventional elements like whistles, rustling bin bags, glass bottles and even the sound of pouring cereal!
‘One of the things I took from Nirvana and grunge music is repetition,’ says Leith. ‘I like the stubbornness of staying on an idea, with other things going on top.‘
I don’t know if it will be good news to you or not, but musically Last Days will not sound like a Nirvana ’90s grunge concert! Leith suggests that grunge can be found in ‘the character of the opera.’ instead.
Lastly don’t forget Turandot. Coming to the velvet and gold swagged stage in January 2026. Puccini’s fabulously tonally rich opera is mainly known for Nessun Dorma, but there is so much more than that to whet your whistle!
Opera and Hotel packages for the ENO 2025
I love the London Coliseum – I spent 2 years sharing a fire exit with the wardrobe department and the Lemon Tree with the musicians of the orchestra and, for now, the ENO are staying here to entertain us with top class, English language opera. Every season is packed with a wide range of new operas and old operas, new productions and old productions, but always with a top class list of singers, directors and conductors.
Our opera breaks are now available to book in 2026.
Now D’Oyly Carte don’t bring us G&S on a regular basis, we have to rely on the ENO. Step forward the crew of HMS Pinafore. Will it be the First Lord of the Admiralty that Josephine’s heart desires, or lowly deck hand, Ralph’s. No spoiler here!
More classic fluff and nonsense is promised in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti in February 2026. The master manipulator, Don Alfonso is played by rbass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams. His play things are given to us by Samantha Clarke, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Joshua Blue and Darwin Prakash.
About the ENO
The English National Opera is the national opera company dedicated to one simple aim: making opera for everyone. They sing in English to be accessible to the widest possible audience. They create opera that feels different, theatrical, and creatively daring and have been doing this to an internationally recognised standard since being founded in 1931 as Sadler’s Wells Opera.
- The ENO’s relaxed performance programme on the main stage will be for two productions this season: Iolanthe and The Magic Flute. For one performance, The Barber of Seville will be the ENO’s first Discover Opera Experience – deconstructing the opera for audiences, providing a shortened and guided version, which will be performed in a relaxed setting.
The ENO is for everyone, and always will be.
