Opera North

19/10/2026

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Under Patrick Lange, Verdi’s score crackles with tension and power... ⚡️ Femi Elufowoju jr’s account gives the opera a fiercely contemporary edge"

Rigoletto is now open! This week's performances at Leeds Grand Theatre: Wed (relaxed), Fri and Sun

Opera North offers tension, power and discipline in its revival of Femi Elufowoju Jr’s bold reworking

18/10/2026

Will the curse come to pass? 🫣 Toi Toi Toi to the whole Rigoletto team, who open today at Leeds Grand Theatre.

On the edge of our seats already...

Explore 👉 bit.ly/ONRigoletto

Conductor: Patrick Lange
Director: Femi Elufowoju jr
Set & Costume Designer: Rae Smith
Lighting Designer: Howard Hudson
Choreographer: Jackie Kibuka

📸: Richard H Smith

16/10/2026

🎻 Incredible opportunity to co-lead the renowned Orchestra of Opera North (First Violin No.2) — apply by 20 Nov 👉 https://www.musicalchairs.info/jobs/55586

Our Orchestra is the only ensemble in the country to have a year-round dual role in the opera house and concert hall.

Spread the word!

12/10/2026

"The production is full of vivid details... Nolan’s concept is crystal clear and his handling of the central story emotionally satisfying"— ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from The Guardian

Next performance this Friday at Leeds Grand Theatre

Patrick Nolan’s thoughtful staging for Opera North shifts Pushkin’s story forward to explore the transition from Soviet state to elitist excess

11/10/2026

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from The Reviews Hub: "a production for our times and compellingly so... Verity Wingate, in her Opera North debut is outstanding – every emotion is fully and tangibly expressed and her voice soars"

Writer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Director: Patrick Nolan The stands of a brutalist Soviet stadium, being steadily bedecked with flags and banners is the back drop for Opera North’s bold and stirring new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. The infrastructure of Leslie Travers’ set visibl...

10/10/2026

🎂 Happy 80th Birthday to the legend that is Sir Willard White, who is with us as Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto, opening next weekend! 🥳

Explore 👉 bit.ly/ONRigoletto

09/10/2026

Toi Toi Toi to the whole Eugene Onegin team, who open tonight at Leeds Grand Theatre — our first production of Tchaikovsky - Composer's glorious opera in 25 years!

Explore 👉 bit.ly/46t4nLR

Director Patrick Nolan relocates the piece to Russia in the years before and after Perestroika, so the upheavals of Pushkin’s characters unfold alongside the transformation of Soviet society...

Co-production with Irish National Opera and Opera Queensland

07/10/2026

Smoke machine testing backstage at Leeds Grand Theatre 💨 — dress rehearsal for our new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin tonight!

Explore 👉 bit.ly/46t4nLR

07/10/2026

🏆 Thrilled that The Secret of the Black Spider, which starred our Youth Chorus and Youth Orchestra and opened the 2025-26 opera season at Leeds Grand Theatre, has been nominated in the MTI Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre at the Music & Drama Education Awards 2027!

Congrats to all involved. See all nominees 👉 https://musicdramaedawards.com/live/en/page/2027-shortlist

📸: James Glossop

02/10/2026

"Considering my background as a British born and bred African, our reference point should be Rigoletto’s ‘otherness’. Tradition treats disability as a by-product of evil. This we know is wrong. Rigoletto is not depraved, sick or evil. His ‘deformity’ is a manifestation of the paranoia of the outsider" — Femi Elufowoju Jr.

When this production of Verdi's opera opened in Leeds four years ago, it celebrated a series of firsts:

✨ it was the first time Femi had directed an opera (he is recognised as the first Black director to stage an opera at a major national opera house in the UK);
✨ the first time Rigoletto had been explored through the lens of Black experience in this country

The show was hailed as a "landmark" by the press, and went on to win the Sky Arts Award for Opera 2022.

Hear more from Femi as we get ready to bring back the show — link in the comments.

📸: Samantha Toolsie