English Touring Opera to open tour in Sheffield for first timewith debut production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers alongside Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci

English Touring Opera (ETO) announce further details for its Spring 2026 tour, which opens in Sheffield for the first time as the company continues to deepen roots in the city. Featuring two brand new productions – the company’s first ever production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers and a new English translation of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci – as well as a new opera for children, the tour will bring opera to thousands of people across the country.

The nation’s leading touring opera company, ETO brings outstanding live productions and impactful education and community projects to more towns and cities than any other UK opera company in its mission to make exceptional artistic experiences available to all.

Robin Norton-Hale, CEO and Artistic Director of English Touring Opera, said: “This Spring we are delighted to enter a fresh chapter in ETO’s history as we open our first season in our new home city of Sheffield. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to announce ourselves as a permanent fixture of Sheffield’s rich cultural community while continuing to deliver high quality and accessible opera to as many people and places as possible. Featuring premieres of two hugely popular and contrasting operas and a new commission for children based on the life of Ada Lovelace, this truly is a season to show that opera is an artform with something to offer everyone.”

The tour opens with Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre on Friday 20 March. Considered Gilbert and Sullivan’s last great success, The Gondoliers is a fizzing comedy of mistaken identity that marries joy and chaos with a sharp satire of monarchy and class. Robin Bailey and Samuel Pantcheff sing the roles of gondoliers Marco and Giuseppe, with Phil Wilcox – a stalwart of many recent ETO productions and its operas for children – as the Duke of Plaza-Toro. Mezzo-soprano Lauren Young, acclaimed for her appearances in ETO’s The Rake’s Progress and Cinderella, also returns to the company to sing the role of the Duchess of Plaza-Toro. Natasha Agarwal sings Gianetta in her first principal role for the company, with Beth Moxon as Tessa; the cast is completed by George Robarts (Luiz), Kelli-Ann Masterson (Casilda) and Matthew Siveter (Don Alhambra del Bolero).

Director and choreographer Liam Steel returns to the company to direct the production, following 2017’s critically acclaimed Patience and Olivier-Award winning Paul Bunyan in 2014, presenting a technicolour vision of 18^th century Venice full of movement and energy. Joining him to helm the production is conductor Jack Ridley.

The tour also features a new production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, in a new English translation by ETO Artistic Director Robin Norton-Hale. Ripped from the headlines about a real-life crime case from the composer’s own childhood, Pagliacci is the story of the very public breakdown of a passionate relationship between two celebrated actors in an intense 90 minutes of drama. Soprano Paula Sides – who sung the title role in the company’s 2023 production of Lucrezia Borgia – returns to ETO in the role of Nedda, joined by tenor Ronald Samm as Canio, a role he recently performed to critical acclaim at West Green House Opera. Baritones Phillip Rhodes and Danny Shelvey make their ETO debuts in the roles of Tonio and Silvio respectively, and tenor Harry Grigg sings the role of Beppe in his principal role debut with the company.

Eleanor Burke – founder of groundbreaking sustainable opera company Green Opera and graduate of the Royal Ballet and Opera’s Jette Parker Programme – makes her ETO directorial debut with Pagliacci, which explores the dark side of fame and obsessive love in a production inspired by the relationship of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. ETO Music Director Gerry Cornelius conducts, while Michael Pavelka (Set Designer), Laura Jane Stanfield (Costume Designer) and Zeynep Kepekli (Lighting Designer) will work across both productions.

Learning and Participation

ETO’s award-winning Learning and Participation programme is central to the company’s mission and reaches over 10,000 people each year through productions and projects in theatres, schools, museums and libraries. ETO recently partnered with Laidlaw Opera Trust to expand its programme and to bring opera to more people than ever before. This includes a commission of a new opera for children, Ada and the Code Crusaders, which will be performed in over 25 primary schools to more than 5000 children. Written and composed by the award-winning Anna Pool, Ada and the Code Crusaders takes children on a historical and scientific journey that explores the life and genius of English mathematician and writer Ada Lovelace. Directed by Nel Crouch, the production stars many singers from the main Spring productions including Natasha Agarwal, Phil Wilcox, Rebecca Milford, Judy Louie Brown, Beth Moxon, John Ieuan Jones and Wonsick Oh.

In addition to work in primary schools, ETO’s Learning and Participation programme also includes ETO Perform, its opera workshop programme for Key Stage Three and GCSE Music students which gives young people the chance to write and stage their own operas, relationships with partner schools and bespoke projects for Alternative Provision settings. More information on ETO’s partnership with Laidlaw Opera Trust can be found on the LOT website.

ETO’s Spring tour begins on Friday 20 March with The Gondoliers, with Pagliacci following on Saturday 21 March at Lyceum Theatre. Tickets are available here.