English Touring Opera embarks on new productions for the Autumn

ETO’s Autumn 2026 tour will once again open at the Lyceum Theatre in the company’s home city of Sheffield, as the company continues to deepen ties to the city.

The tour begins with a double bill of Elena Langer’s Ariadne and Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, presenting a fascinating exploration of mythology and psychology from operas written over 300 years apart.

Ariadne adapts a poem by Glynn Maxwell into a beautiful and devastating piece for soprano and off-stage countertenor and an on-stage quartet of oboe, violin, viola and cello. Purcell’s beloved opera Dido & Aeneas completes the double bill, recalling the tragedy of the Queen of Carthage in a masterpiece of Baroque music. The two operas centre on women who upend their lives to help the man they love, only to be abandoned at their most vulnerable.

They will tour together with a radical new production of Gluck’s Orpheus & Eurydice from Jenny Ogilvie, which will also extend into the Spring tour. The production will be recognisably Gluck’s opera, while also incorporating new electronic soundworlds to depict Orpheus’ grief and descent into the underworld.

The nation’s leading touring opera company, ETO brings world-class theatre for high-street prices and impactful participatory projects to more towns and cities than any other UK opera company in its mission to make exceptional artistic experiences available to all.

English Touring Opera’s performances run at the Lyceum from Friday 9 – Saturday 10 October. Tickets are available here.