English National Opera

English National Opera, opera company based at the London Coliseum in central London. The English National Opera (ENO) presents operas sung in English, aiming thus to increase accessibility to the widest possible audience. It presents a ten-month season every year, offering three or four operas in any period, and it occasionally tours outside the United Kingdom.

The ENO owes its creation to Lilian Baylis, who initiated opera recitals at the Old Vic theatre in south London before World War I. The opera company thus formed moved to the refurbished Sadler's Wells theatre in 1931, and became the successful Sadler's Wells Opera, with a professional chorus and permanent orchestra. As well as new operas by Holst, Stanford, and Vaughan Williams, the company produced The Mastersingers of Nuremberg to great acclaim in 1935, and in 1945, reopened the theatre with the new opera, Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten. In 1968, the company moved to the London Coliseum, the largest West End theatre, which has 2,358 seats. A major landmark was the completion in 1973 of Wagner's Ring cycle in English.

The company changed its name to the English National Opera in 1974. It has continued to produce both the classics and more modern works, and encourages new composers and writers of every kind of music theatre, as well as nurturing new talent among performers.