ENO to establish new home in Manchester by 2029

English National Opera (ENO) has today announced that it has formed a ‘new working partnership’ with Greater Manchester which will see the company’s main base move to the city-region by 2029. ENO will continue to present productions at its current home, the London Coliseum, which it will continue to own and manage.

The move fulfils the company’s agreement, reached with Arts Council England (ACE) in July, allowing it to receive £24m to develop an artistic programme and new base outside of London between 2024 and 2026 period. In an announcement published today, ENO said it ‘will be firmly established within Greater Manchester by 2029, delivering performances, wellbeing and learning activity with multiple partners and venues across the city-region’. While today’s announcement references a new partnership with Greater Manchester, no information has yet been released about the exact location of the company’s new home.

ENO interim CEO Jenny Mollica said: ‘As we continue to transition through significant change, today’s announcement marks an important and defining moment for our remarkable company. This future direction will see us continue to expand our role as a national institution – supporting our mission to create work with and for even more audiences across the country, alongside our annual season at the London Coliseum. Throughout our discussions with partners and stakeholders in Greater Manchester, we have been struck by an emerging vision for the future of ENO and operatic work in the city-region, defined by a shared ambition to open up new possibilities for opera in people’s lives.’

The next two years will be a period of transition for ENO. In today’s announcement the company confirmed that it will now work on developing partnerships in Greater Manchester and ‘will stage work in a variety of venues across the Greater Manchester city-region’. Further information about the move is expected in the new season announcement in May 2024.

Darren Henley, chief executive of ACE, which triggered the move with the announcement of cuts to ENO funding in its 2023-26 national portfolio, said: ‘ENO’s new base is good news for the people of Greater Manchester. It means excellent opera performances for new audiences and new ways for young people here to experience and participate in opera. It will also bring new opportunities for creative and technical professionals in Greater Manchester to partner with a world-class organisation making innovative work.’

Today’s announcement follows a ‘rigorous assessment process’ undertaken by ENO to decide on this it’s new location and confirms plans for the company to focus on the development of ‘new innovations in opera’, and ‘creative collaborations’ at its new main base. No mention is made of how this new plan will affect ENO’s staff, orchestra and chorus.

Opera North, which also serves Manchester audiences, has also released a statement welcoming ENO to the region and confirming that it ‘looks forward to continuing to work closely with ENO and other touring companies to offer a coordinated programme of opera for audiences’ and is ‘hungry to collaborate with ENO and other arts organisations to make sure that music reaches as many children and young people as possible and to use public funds as effectively and efficiently as we can for the benefit of all.’