Following The Royal Ballet & Opera’s season announcement for 2026/27…
Lauren Young makes her debut at the Royal Opera House as Emily in Philip Venables’ operatic adaptation of Sarah Kane’s explosive 4.48 Psychosis, staged by Ted Huffman. She is joined by former Jette Park Artist, Veena Akama-Makia as Clare.
Alison Kettlewell and Wyn Pencarreg understudy Rosie Aldridge as Kabanicha and Clive Bayley as Dikoj in Richard Jones’ production of Káťa Kabanová.
In Opera North’s 2026/27 season, Gweneth Ann Rand and Ronald Samm return to the roles of Kitty Hart and Father Grenville in Anniliese Miskimmon’s acclaimed production of Jake Heggie’ Dead Man Walking, first seen at English National Opera in autumn 2025. These performances are conducted by Ben Glassberg.
This is a co-production with English National Opera and Finnish National Opera.
Lauren Young returns to Opera North as the multifaceted mezzo soprano in The Big Opera Mystery. This crime-solving operatic extravaganza will have schools performances in Leeds, Salford, Newcastle and Nottingham, and a family performance in Hull.
We are delighted to have five artists returning to English Touring Opera for their spring 2026 tour of The Gondoliers and Pagliacci.
The season opens in Sheffield with The Gondoliers, followed by Pagliacci, touring to a further nine venues, closing in Durham at the end of May.
The Gondoliers
20, 24 March | 11, 18, 25, 29 April | 2 , 7, 9, 16, 21 May 2026
Jonah Halton Annibale | Lauren Young Duchess of Plaza-Toro
Samuel Pantcheff Giuseppe | Wonsick Oh Giorgio
Pagliacci
21, 25 March | 10, 17, 24, 28 April | 1 , 8, 15, 20 May 2026
Ronald Samm Canio
Delighted to announce three of our artists will appear in Opera North’s 2025/26 season.
Following acclaimed performances as Queen of the Night this season, Nazan Fikret returns to Opera North as First Niece in Phyllida Lloyd’s production of Peter Grimes. Additonally, Binny-Supin Yang joins Opera North covering this role.
Making his company debut Mark Nathan joins the Opera North Youth Chorus and Youth Orchestra as Count Heinrich in Judith Weir’s historical comic thriller, The Secret of the Black Spider. Following that he returns as The Banana in David Fennessy’s Pass the Spoon, a sort-of opera about cookery – a darkly comic feast of words, music and puppetry, made with decidedly adult ingredients. Mark will then understudy the role of Ned Keene in Peter Grimes.
Making her company debut Lauren Young is the mezzo soloist in The Big Opera Mystery – a family show and musical extravaganza where some of the suspects are some of the greatest opera characters of all time.
We are delighted that Scottish mezzo soprano Lauren Young has joined our artist roster for general management. Lauren is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) Alexander Gibson Opera School and was an inaugural studio artist at the Mascarade Opera Studio in Florence.
In the current season she performs Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia (Longborough Festival Opera); Annie in R&D workshops of Displaced: A Woolwich Arsenal Opera (coalign); and covers Maddalena in Jonathan Miller’s production of Rigoletto (English National Opera).
Among her recent highlights are Baba the Turk The Rake’s Progress, Tisbe La Cenerentola, Mathilde Ottone (English Touring Opera); Daughter 6 Akhnaten (English National Opera); Mezzo The F*ggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions (Ruhrtriennale Festival); and Vanamaka Zonnendanz Donizetti’s Viva la Diva (Buxton International Festival).
