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{{Short description|Northern Irish opera director}}
'''Annilese Miskimmon''' (born 1974) is a Northern Irish-born ] director who has been the artistic director of ] since 2020. She previously held equivalent posts at Ireland's ] (2004–12), ] (2012–17) and the ] (2017–20).
'''Annilese Miskimmon''' (born 1974) is a Northern Irish ] director who has been the artistic director of ] since 2020. She previously held equivalent posts at Ireland's ] (2004–2012), ] (2012–2017) and the ] (2017–2020). She is also a freelance director who has often worked with ], ] and other companies. Her productions include classics of the repertoire, such as Puccini's '']'' (2018),<!--Highlighted in New York Times 2019 article by Marshall--> as well as rarely performed operas. They are often reset in the twentieth century, with several stagings employing Miskimmon's native Ireland as the setting, including Janáček's '']'' (2015), Bellini's '']'' (2015) and Puccini's '']'' (2024).


==Early life and education== ==Early life and education==
Annilese Miskimmon was born in 1974 in ], ], near ], to Irene and John Miskimmon.<ref name=Observer_Maddocks /><ref name=BBC_Campbell /> She was educated at ] in Bangor.<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> She said in a 2016 interview with '']'' that opera was "central" to her imagination as a child, characterising the form as simply a "really dramatic story with big music".<ref name=Observer_Maddocks /> She sang in the chorus of amateur opera productions in her teens, and she cites her father, who sang in amateur productions with Opera NI and ], as an important influence.<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> The first opera that she attended was an amateur performance of '']'' in Belfast, at the age of ten. She said that opera, together with theatre, formed a "safe place for open-minded, creative people from both communities" during the ].<ref name=Observer_Maddocks /> Annilese Miskimmon was born in 1974 in ], near ], to Irene and John Miskimmon.<ref name=Observer_Maddocks /><ref name=BBC_Campbell /> She was educated at ] in Bangor.<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> She said in a 2016 interview with ] that opera – simply a "really dramatic story with big music" – was "central" to her imagination as a child, adding that opera, together with theatre, formed a "safe place for open-minded, creative people from both communities" during the ].<ref name=Observer_Maddocks /> She cites her father, who sang in amateur productions with Opera Northern Ireland and ], as an important influence.<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> The first opera that she attended was an amateur performance of '']'' in Belfast, at the age of ten.<ref name=Observer_Maddocks /> She sang in the chorus of amateur opera productions in her teens,<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> and appeared, aged fifteen, as the Page in Verdi's '']'' with Opera Northern Ireland, at Belfast's ].<ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2005 />


Miskimmon read English at ], ] (1992–95). There she was involved with the college's amateur dramatic society and the university's opera and ] societies, starting to direct theatre and opera. She became president of the college JCR,<ref name=Christs_Mag /> where she led a campaign to protect first-year students from older ones.<ref name=Times_1994 /> She then went to ] in London, where she studied arts management.<ref name=Guardian_Bakare /> Miskimmon read English at ], ] (1992–1995). There she was involved with the college's amateur dramatic society and the university's opera and ] societies. She became president of the college ],<ref name=Christs_Mag /> where she led a campaign to protect first-year students from older ones.<ref name=Times_1994 /> She then went to ] in London, where she studied arts management (1995–1996).<ref name=Guardian_Bakare /> While a student she started to direct theatre and opera,<ref name=Christs_Mag /> including Cambridge productions of ]'s ''Endimione''<ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2005 /> and in 1996, '']'', an early performance of ]'s response to a lost work by ], which received reviews in the national press.<ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2005 /><ref name=Observer_Porter_1996 /><ref name=Times_Morrison_1996 />


==Career== ==Career and productions==
===Early career and Opera Theatre Company (to 2012)===
She worked as a producer at ], and then became artistic director at Ireland's ] (2004–12), general manager and artistic director of the ] (2012–17), and director of opera at the ] (2017–20).<ref name=Guardian_Bakare /><ref name=NYT_Marshall />
Miskimmon was an in-house producer at ] (1996–2001) and consultant associate director at ] (2001–2003).<ref name=Comus /> During this time she served as an assistant under the opera directors ], ], ] and ].<ref name=Guardian_Jeal /> An early work she directed was a 2000 semi-staged performance of ]'s musical '']'' at the ] in London.<ref name=Times_Brown /> In 2002, she directed a production of Tchaikovsky's '']'' (originally a Welsh National Opera production, directed by Jones) with the ].<ref name=Littler />


Miskimmon was appointed artistic director of the ] (ENO) in October 2019, succeeding ];<ref name=Guardian_Bakare /><ref name=NYT_Marshall /> at the time '']'' described her as the only woman to lead an important opera company in Britain.<ref name=Gramophone_Kirkup /> She took up the post in May 2020 during ]; during this period, she directed innovative ''Drive and Live'' performances of Puccini's '']'' in the car park of ], London in September 2020,<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> perhaps the first drive-in opera performance in Britain.<ref name=Country_Life_Jackson /> Her first conventional production at ENO was of ]' opera, '']'', in April 2022; it employed a simple staging that coupled austere sets with film denoting the character's memories.<ref name=FT_Fairman /> At the beginning of 2004, Miskimmon became artistic director at Ireland's ] (2004–2012),<ref name=Guardian_Bakare /><ref name=NYT_Marshall /> a national ]-based touring company founded in 1986 that specialised in small diverse productions in a large number of venues across Ireland.<ref name=Kellow /><ref name=Irish_Times_Battersby_2010 /> One of her first productions with the company was the European premiere of ]'s '']'', which she directed with "pace and wit", according to Robert Thicknesse, writing in '']''.<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_Vegas /> Chris Moffat comments in '']'' in 2006 on the "originality and panache" of her reworkings of traditional operas with the company, particularly praising her "racy" version of Monteverdi's '']'' (2004) featuring "cupids on skateboards" as an "ironic" commentary on the opera's original audience.<ref name=Moffat_2006 />


In 2006, she directed Mozart's '']'', in a collaboration with the London-based Classical Opera Company; Mozart wrote the opera when he was eleven, and Miskimmon includes the child composer as a character.<ref name=Independent_Picard /> The same year she directed a popular production of Beethoven's '']'' in Dublin's ],<ref name=IrishTimes_Battersby /> later described by Eileen Battersby in the '']'' as among the company's "most magnificent productions".<ref name=Irish_Times_Battersby_2010 /> The following year, Miskimmon reset Handel's '']'' in a hospital, using giant poppies in the central act.<ref name=IrishInd_2007 /> In 2010, Opera Theatre Company was threatened with withdrawal of its Art Council funding. That year, Miskimmon co-directed, with ], the Irish premiere of ]'s '']'', in what was announced as the company's final production.<ref name=Irish_Times_Dervan_2010 /><ref name=Irish_Times_Johnstone_2010 /> Closure was averted,<ref name=Irish_Times_Dervan_2015a /> and Miskimmon's last production with the company came the following year: Mozart's '']'', re-imagined in early 20th-century London, with a minimal set designed by Nicky Shaw.<ref name=OKelly />
She was elected an honorary fellow of Christ's College in 2024.<ref name=Christs_Mag />

===Danish National Opera and Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2012–2020)===
], base of the ], where Miskimmon was artistic director (2012–2017)]]
From September 2012 to 2017, Miskimmon was the general manager and artistic director of the ] (''Den Jyske Opera''), the country's largest touring company, which is based in ].<ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2015 /><ref name=Scotsman_Walton /> Her first production with the company, in 2013, was Denmark's premiere of Janáček's '']''.<ref name=Herald_2015 /> The following year, she staged the rarely performed Massenet's '']''.<ref name=FT_Nepil /> In 2015, she staged an experimental version of Mozart's '']'', in which the audience selected both the type of staging and the interpretation of the ending. Hannah Nepil, writing in the '']'', considers that this "milks the ambiguity" of the ending, and underlines the work's focus on "choice, indecision and 'the road not taken'".<ref name=FT_Nepil /> The opera writer Andrew Mellor (quoted in the '']'') said that she created "several innovative productions" in Denmark, which "became talking points"; in addition to ''Così fan tutte'', he highlighted her commission ''Brothers'', which addresses post-traumatic stress in Afghanistan veterans.<ref name=NYT_Marshall_2022 />

In August 2017 Miskimmon became the director of opera at the ] (2017–2020), based in ].<ref name=NYT_Marshall /><ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2015 /> The Norwegian newspaper '']''{{'}}s opera reviewer, Maren Ørstavik (quoted in the ''New York Times''), praised Miskimmon during her tenure there for making good artistic choices, as well as for having a gift for understanding what will please an audience.<ref name=NYT_Marshall /> Although according to Mellor, Miskimmon experienced conflict in the post over her use of guest artists,<ref name=NYT_Marshall_2022 /> Ørstavik judged that she had been a "diplomatic leader" at the company.<ref name=NYT_Marshall /> A major production at the company was the Norwegian premiere of Britten's '']'', which was positively reviewed by Ørstavik in ''Aftenposten''.<ref name=Aftenposten_2019 /> The production was reset on a submarine during the Second World War, using an extravagant set based on a larger-than-lifesized submarine, which Shirley Apthorp, in a review for the ''Financial Times'', writes adds nothing except "anachronistic dissonance"; she considers that Miskimmon failed to uncover the necessary "fizzing current of homoerotic tension" between the characters, rendering the drama "apathetically told and ultimately pointless".<ref name=FT_Apthorp />

===Freelance opera director (2004–2020)===
Throughout this period, Miskimmon worked concurrently as a freelance director.<ref name=FT_Nepil /> In 2004, she revived Jones' version of Humperdinck's '']'' with the Welsh National Opera,<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_2004 /> as well as Vick's production of Debussy's '']'' with Glyndebourne.<ref name=Spectator_Tanner_2004 /> The same year she directed Handel's '']'' with the ] at the ] in London; Thicknesse, in a review for the ''Times'', commends some of Miskimmon's directorial ideas but feels that the production was "undone by overambition".<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_Semele2004 /> In 2007, she directed a production of Mozart's early work, '']'', at ], which Geoff Brown, in a review for the ''Times'', writes "teases enough to twinkle, but never to irk".<ref name=Times_Brown_2007 /> The same summer she directed Offenbach's '']'' at ], employing "immaculate comic timing", according to Hilary Finch in the ''Times''.<ref name=Times_Finch_2007 /> Later that year she directed the premiere of ]'s children's opera, ''Shadowtracks'', at the ] in London.<ref name=Griffel /> In 2009, she directed Handel's '']'' at Buxton, in a production set in a hospital ward, which, according to Finch, at times approached '']'' but "comes into its own" with a shower of giant poppy petals that accompanied the central character's madness.<ref name=Times_Finch_2009 />

In 2012, she directed Verdi's '']'' at ], in a production which Brown, in a review for the ''Times'', criticises for a lack of humour and a confusing setting "mostly" in the 1920s that "mix and match references".<ref name=Times_Brown_2012 /> Richard Fairman, in a more-balanced review for the ''Financial Times'', describes the production as "hyperactive", with the comedy having a "cruel, rather manic feel".<ref name=FT_Fairman_2012 /> The same year, she directed Verdi's '']'' in a pared-down, English-language touring production with ],<ref name=Scotsman_Walton /> later described in '']'' as "stylish" and "hard-hitting".<ref name=Herald_2015 /> She updated the setting to Paris in the 1950s; Miskimmon says that she chose a timeframe when the aristocracy remained influential but the class system was "destroying itself from inside".<ref name=Scotsman_Walton />

In 2014, she directed Britten's '']'' with Opera Holland Park, in a production that the American critic ] describes as an "artistic miracle" in which "he unnatural, the unlikely, was clearly the rule of the day", also praising the spare classroom setting that facilitated the movement of the ghosts.<ref name=Lesser_2014 /> That year she also directed a tour of Handel's '']'' with Mid Wales Opera and the ].<ref name=Western_Mail_Smith />

The following year, in a production with Scottish Opera, she re-imagined the 19th-century rural Czech setting of Janáček's '']'' as 1918 Ireland;<ref name=Observer_Maddocks_2015 /> Miskimmon said in an interview that her intent was to make the audience focus on the universality of the opera's themes, particularly the "complexity of being human" and people's "mixture of cruelty and kindness", rather than be distanced by the unfamiliar setting.<ref name=FT_Nepil /> ], in a review for '']'', writes that the change gave a "different and unexpected" perspective, and praises the production's "impact and intelligence".<ref name=Observer_Maddocks_2015 /> Later that year, Miskimmon staged Bellini's '']'' with the Welsh National Opera, re-envisaging the ]s of the original as ] in 1970s Belfast, a conceit that Maddocks in the ''Observer'' and Rian Evans in the ''Guardian'' each praise,<ref name=Observer_Maddocks_2015a /><ref name=Guardian_Evans /> but ], in a more-balanced review for '']'', criticises.<ref name=Spectator_Tanner_2015 /> The heroine's hallucinations or psychosis are used to enable reversion to the Civil War setting, in a device that Maddocks praises but Evans considers verges on overcomplexity.<ref name=Observer_Maddocks_2015a /><ref name=Guardian_Evans /> Miskimmon also "ore controversially" overturns the opera's ending, a move which Evans describes as "less illogical" than the original.<ref name=Guardian_Evans />

In 2018, Miskimmon's version of Puccini's '']'' at ] unusually shifted the setting to ] in the 1950s; ], in a review for the '']'', comments that the choice lends "urgency" to Butterfly's plight, likening her to a "war bride".<ref name=Telegraph_Christiansen_2018 /> Christiansen, also in the ''Telegraph'', criticises her earlier decision to give Handel's ''Semele'' a modern setting, in a 2017 production with Garsington Opera, writing that Miskimmon here "flounders" as a director and "blurs" the opera's "sly sexual politics", describing the staging as "littered with rather desperate visual ideas".<ref name=Telegraph_Christiansen_2017 />

As well as giving a new slant to classics of the repertoire, Miskimmon successfully staged underperformed works.<ref name=FT_Nepil /> For example, in 2011, she directed Mascagni's '']'' with Opera Holland Park, changing the setting from 19th-century France to 1950s America,<ref name=Times_Fisher_2011a /> a move that Christiansen, reviewing for the ''Telegraph'', describes as "effortless, enlivening – and nicely cute";<ref name=Telegraph_Christiansen_2011 /> Neil Fisher, reviewing in the ''Times'', writes that the resetting "adds spice if not quite enough sense",<ref name=Times_Fisher_2011a /> describing the production overall as a "fruity delight for fans of ''verismo''".<ref name=Times_Fisher_2011 /> Her production that year of ]'s '']'' at ] is described by Andrew Clark in the ''Financial Times'' as embracing the period sensibility of the piece, "preserving the innocence of the story and sprinkling it with fairy-dust".<ref name=FT_Clark />

===English National Opera (2020–present)===
], base of the ], where Miskimmon is artistic director (from 2020)]]
In October 2019, Miskimmon was appointed artistic director of the ] (ENO), succeeding ];<ref name=Guardian_Bakare /><ref name=NYT_Marshall /> at the time '']'' described her as the only woman to lead an important opera company in Britain.<ref name=Gramophone_Kirkup /> She took up the post in May 2020 during ], and in September 2020, led innovative ''Drive and Live'' ENO performances of Puccini's '']'' in the car park of ], London,<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> in England's first drive-in opera performance.<ref name=Guardian_Jeal /><ref name=Country_Life_Jackson />

The choice of ]' '']'' for her first conventional production at ENO in April 2022 is described by ] in the ''Telegraph'' as a "brave move... vindicated" by a "totally committed and communicative" performance that attracted a younger-than-usual audience.<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2022 /> The production employed a simple staging that coupled austere sets with film denoting the character's memories, a contrast which Fairman, in a review for the ''Financial Times'', found effective<ref name=FT_Fairman /> while Kenyon describes the set as "dreary".<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2022 />

In 2023, she directed the second UK staging of Korngold's '']'', which Miskimmon says "explores how grief meets religion meets the subconscious", adding that "infatuation can be both very negative and an incredibly creative act", in an English-language production.<ref name=Guardian_Jeal /> In a September 2024 production of Puccini's '']'' that was among the ''Telegraph'''s top five operas of the year,<ref name=Telegraph_2024_summ /> Miskimmon moved the setting from Italy to Ireland's ].<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2024 />

She was elected an honorary fellow of Christ's College in 2023.<ref name=Christs_Mag /><ref name=CUReporter />


==Personal life== ==Personal life==
Miskimmon is married. As of 2021, she lived in ].<ref name=BBC_Campbell /> Miskimmon is married. As of 2021, she lived in ].<ref name=BBC_Campbell />

==List of productions==
Partial chronological list of professional opera and musical productions directed by Miskimmon.<ref name=Operabase />
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Opera (composer) !! Company/festival !! Notes !! Refs
|-
| 1999 || '']'' (Debussy) || ] || Also 2004 ||
|-
|2000 || '']'' (Bernstein) || ] || Semi-staged at ] ||<ref name=Times_Brown />
|-
| 2000 || '']'' (Mozart) || Glyndebourne || ||
|-
| 2001 || '']'' (Beethoven) || Glyndebourne || ||
|-
| 2002 || '']'' (Tchaikovsky) || ] || Revival of production by ] ||<ref name=Littler />
|-
| 2003 || '']'' (Berg) || ] || Also 2004 ||
|-
| 2003 || '']'' (Rossini) || ] || ||
|-
| 2004 || '']'' (Hagen) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2004 || '']'' (Puccini) || ] ||
|-
| 2004 || '']'' (Humperdinck) || ] || Revival of production by Richard Jones ||<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_2004 />
|-
| 2004 || '']'' (Handel) || ] || ||<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_Semele2004 />
|-
| 2005 || '']'' (Monteverdi) || Opera Theatre Company || Also 2006 ||
|-
| 2005 || '']'' (Donizetti) || ] || ||
|-
| 2005 || ''The Queen of Spades'' (Tchaikovsky) || ] || ||
|-
| 2005 || ''La Bohème'' (Puccini) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2006 || ''Fidelio'' (Beethoven) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2006 || '']'' (Mozart) || Classical Opera Company/Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2006 || ''Così fan tutte'' (Mozart) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2007 || '']'' (Handel) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2007 || '']'' (Offenbach) || ] || ||
|-
| 2007 || '']'' (Mozart) || ] || ||
|-
| 2007 || ''Shadowtracks'' (]) || ] || Premiere ||<ref name=Griffel />
|-
| 2008 || ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (Debussy) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2008 || '']'' (Tchaikovsky) || Opera Holland Park || ||
|-
| 2008 || '']'' (Mozart) || Opera Theatre Company || Also 2011 ||
|-
| 2009 || '']'' (Handel) || Opera Theatre Company || Also 2010 ||
|-
| 2009 || '']'' (Handel) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2010 || '']'' (Frid) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2010 || '']'' (Mozart) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2010 || '']'' (Gounod) || Opera Ireland || ||
|-
| 2010 || '']'' (von Weber) || ] || ||
|-
| 2011 || '']'' (Thomas) || Buxton Festival || ||
|-
| 2011 || '']'' (Mascagni) || Opera Holland Park || ||
|-
| 2011 || '']'' (Donizetti) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2011–12 || '']'' (Mozart) || Opera Theatre Company || ||
|-
| 2012 || '']'' (Verdi) || Opera Holland Park || ||
|-
| 2013 || '']'' (Janáček) || ] || ||
|-
| 2013 || '']'' (Verdi) || ] || ||
|-
| 2014 || '']'' (Massenet) || Danish National Opera || ||
|-
| 2014 || '']'' (Britten) || Opera Holland Park || ||
|-
| 2014 || ''Acis and Galatea'' (Handel) || Mid Wales Opera || ||
|-
| 2015 || '']'' (Bellini) || Welsh National Opera || ||
|-
| 2015 || ''Così fan tutte'' (Mozart) || Danish National Opera || ||<ref name=FT_Nepil />
|-
| 2015 || '']'' (Janáček) || Scottish Opera || ||
|-
| 2015 || '']'' (Janáček) || Danish National Opera || ||
|-
| 2016 || '']'' (Puccini) || Glyndebourne || Also 2018, 2020 ||
|-
| 2016 || ''I puritani'' (Bellini) || Danish National Opera || ||
|-
| 2017 || ''Jenůfa'' (Janáček) || ] ||
|-
| 2017 || ''Semele'' (Handel) || Garsington Opera || ||
|-
| 2018 || ''I puritani'' (Bellini) || ] || ||
|-
| 2019 || '']'' (Britten) || ] || ||
|-
| 2019 || ''Billy Budd'' (Britten) || ] (Opera Narodowa) || ||
|-
| 2022 || '']'' (Ruders) || ] || Also 2024 ||<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2022 />
|-
| 2023 || ''The Turn of the Screw'' (Britten) || ] || ||
|-
| 2023 || '']'' (Korngold) || English National Opera || ||<ref name=Guardian_Jeal />
|-
| 2024 || ''Jenůfa'' (Janáček) || Royal Swedish Opera || ||
|-
| 2024 || '']'' (Puccini) || English National Opera || ||<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2024 />
|-
|}


==References== ==References==
{{reflist|refs= {{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Aftenposten_2019>Maren Ørstavik (19 January 2019). . '']'' (accessed 28 December 2024)</ref>

<ref name=BBC_Campbell>Tina Campbell (4 April 2021). . ] (accessed 20 December 2024)</ref> <ref name=BBC_Campbell>Tina Campbell (4 April 2021). . ] (accessed 20 December 2024)</ref>


<ref name=Christs_Mag>College News. '']'', pp. 28–29 (2024)</ref> <ref name=Christs_Mag>College News. '']'', pp. 20, 28–29 (2024)</ref>

<ref name=Comus>, ] (2008)</ref>


<ref name=Country_Life_Jackson>Claire Jackson (17 June 2020). '']'', pp. 96–97</ref> <ref name=Country_Life_Jackson>Claire Jackson (17 June 2020). '']'', pp. 96–97</ref>

<ref name=CUReporter>. '']'' CLIV (Special 3): 2</ref>

<ref name=FT_Apthorp>Shirley Apthorp (22 January 2019). Opera: Billy Budd: Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Oslo. '']'', p. 8</ref>

<ref name=FT_Clark>Andrew Clark (12 July 2011). ''Mignon'', Buxton Festival. '']''</ref>


<ref name=FT_Fairman>Richard Fairman (11 April 2022). ''The Handmaid's Tale'' – one of the most powerful operas of the century. '']''</ref> <ref name=FT_Fairman>Richard Fairman (11 April 2022). ''The Handmaid's Tale'' – one of the most powerful operas of the century. '']''</ref>

<ref name=FT_Fairman_2012>Richard Fairman (26 July 2012). Falstaff, Holland Park, London. '']''</ref>

<ref name=FT_Nepil>Hannah Nepil (13 March 2015). Interview: Annilese Miskimmon, Danish National Opera director. '']''</ref>


<ref name=Gramophone_Kirkup>Sarah Kirkup (9 October 2019). . '']'' (accessed 21 December 2024)</ref> <ref name=Gramophone_Kirkup>Sarah Kirkup (9 October 2019). . '']'' (accessed 21 December 2024)</ref>


<ref name=Griffel>]. '''', p. 444 (Scarecrow Press; 2012) {{isbn|9780810883253}}</ref>
<ref name=Guardian_Bakare>Lanre Bakare (8 October 2019). English National Opera names Annilese Miskimmon as new artistic director. '']''</ref>

<ref name=Guardian_Bakare>Lanre Bakare (8 October 2019). . '']'' (accessed 26 December 2024)</ref>

<ref name=Guardian_Evans>Rian Evans (13 September 2015). ''I Puritani'' review – Bellini, gracefully poised in the Troubles. '']''</ref>

<ref name=Guardian_Jeal>Erica Jeal (14 March 2023). 'I fear we are losing a whole generation of talent': ENO head hits back at the 'leave London' ultimatum. '']'', p. 8</ref>

<ref name=Herald_2015>Complexity is a virtue as harsh tale returns for a new retelling. '']'' (1 April 2015)</ref>

<ref name=Independent_Picard>Anna Picard (12 March 2006). Opera? It's child's play for Wolfgang; ''Apollo and Hyacinthus'' Britten Theatre London. '']'', p. 17</ref>

<ref name=IrishInd_2007>Operatic prowess in a modern 'Orlando'. '']'', p. 1 (27 September 2007)</ref>

<ref name=IrishTimes_Battersby>Eileen Battersby (8 October 2008). Actors' opera in the round. '']'', p. 18</ref>

<ref name=Irish_Times_Battersby_2010>Eileen Battersby (20 September 2010). An Irishwoman's Diary. '']'', p. 17</ref>

<ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2005>Michael Dervan (1 September 2005). The outsider shaking up opera. '']'', p. 12</ref>

<ref name=Irish_Times_Dervan_2010>Michael Dervan (27 August 2010). Opera theatre bows out with 'Anne Frank'. '']'', p. 3</ref>

<ref name=IrishTimes_Dervan_2015>Michael Dervan (16 December 2015). Belfast opera director lands a tricky new job in Norway: Norway's top opera job is being taken up by Annilese Miskimmon. The post comes with its own dramatic history. '']'', p. 12</ref>

<ref name=Irish_Times_Dervan_2015a>Michael Dervan (25 March 2015). An unlikely and intriguing choice for the Arts Council's head of music: Niall Doyle comes to the job as someone who knows how bruising the council can be to clients. '']'', p. 14</ref>

<ref name=Irish_Times_Johnstone_2010>Andrew Johnstone (13 September 2010). ''The Diary of Anne Frank''. '']'', p. 2</ref>

<ref name=Kellow>] (2002). Letter from Dublin. '']'' 66 (9): 88–89</ref>

<ref name=Lesser_2014>] (2015). Unnatural. '']'' (140): 27 {{jstor|24429843}}</ref>

<ref name=Littler>William Littler (2002). Opera in review: Canada: Toronto: ''The Queen of Spades''. '']'' 43 (4): 30</ref>

<ref name=Moffat_2006>Chris Moffat (2006). Virtual Opera. '']'' (445): 17 {{jstor|25561721}}</ref>


<ref name=NYT_Marshall>Alex Marshall (8 October 2019). Beleaguered English National Opera Announces New Artistic Director. '']''</ref> <ref name=NYT_Marshall>Alex Marshall (8 October 2019). Beleaguered English National Opera Announces New Artistic Director. '']''</ref>

<ref name=NYT_Marshall_2022>Alex Marshall (8 April 2022). For This Opera Director, a Lot Is Riding on a 'Handmaid's Tale'. '']''</ref>

<ref name=OKelly>Pat O'Kelly (29 November 2011). The Lir Theatre, Dublin: Features. '']'', p. 18</ref>


<ref name=Observer_Maddocks>] (9 October 2016). Annilese Miskimmon: 'From an early age opera helped me escape the Troubles'. '']''</ref> <ref name=Observer_Maddocks>] (9 October 2016). Annilese Miskimmon: 'From an early age opera helped me escape the Troubles'. '']''</ref>

<ref name=Observer_Maddocks_2015>] (12 April 2015). ''Jenufa''; ''St Luke Passion''/MacMillan; ''Swanhunter'' – review. '']'', p. 31</ref>

<ref name=Observer_Maddocks_2015a>] (20 September 2015). ''Orphee et Eurydice''; ''I Puritani''; Chineke! review -- breathtaking, tireless. '']'', p. 35</ref>

<ref name=Observer_Porter_1996>] (13 October 1996). The week in Reviews: Classical: 'Ariadne seems to hear an age-old cry of women being abandoned'. '']'', p. 10</ref>

<ref name=Operabase>, ] (accessed 26 December 2024)</ref>

<ref name=Scotsman_Walton>Ken Walton (20 September 2012). Review: Classical: Intimate business. '']'', p. 10</ref>

<ref name=Spectator_Tanner_2004>] (2004). Opera: Seething cruelty. '']'' 295 (9175): 65–66</ref>

<ref name=Spectator_Tanner_2015>] (19 September 2015). Opera: ''I puritani''; ''Orphée et Eurydice''. '']''</ref>

<ref name=Telegraph_2024_summ>It's time to put an end to the war on opera: Reverse snobbery has left this centuries-old art form in critical condition; to save it, let's stop the bigotry. '']'', p. 14 (14 December 2024)</ref>

<ref name=Telegraph_Christiansen_2011>] (13 June 2011). Chip-shop shenanigans take the shine off fine farce. '']'', p. 27</ref>

<ref name=Telegraph_Christiansen_2017>] (4 June 2017). Romantic, witty and a little bit muddled. '']'', p. 26</ref>

<ref name=Telegraph_Christiansen_2018>] (18 June 2018). The heartless GIs who inspired Mme Butterfly. '']'', p. 24</ref>

<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2022>] (11 April 2022). Resonant tale of terror, fear, and a hint of love. '']'', p. 25</ref>

<ref name=Telegraph_Kenyon_2024>] (30 September 2024). Haunting reimagining of Puccini by the ENO. '']'', p. 11</ref>


<ref name=Times_1994>P. H. S. (2 November 1994). No sex please. '']'' (65101), p. 18</ref> <ref name=Times_1994>P. H. S. (2 November 1994). No sex please. '']'' (65101), p. 18</ref>

<ref name=Times_Brown>Geoff Brown (9 October 2000). On the Town: Festival Hall. '']'', p. 24</ref>

<ref name=Times_Brown_2007>Geoff Brown (14 June 2007). Opera: ''Il re pastore''. '']'' (69038), p. 117</ref>

<ref name=Times_Brown_2012>Geoff Brown (24 July 2012). This Falstaff needs more fizz. '']'' (70633), p. 73</ref>

<ref name=Times_Finch_2007>Hilary Finch (11 July 2007). Opera: ''Roberto Devereux''/''Bluebeard''. '']'' (69061), p. 86</ref>

<ref name=Times_Finch_2009>Hilary Finch (15 July 2009). Opera: ''Mitridate'': ''Orlando''. '']'' (69688), p. 89</ref>

<ref name=Times_Fisher_2011>Neil Fisher (4 June 2011). Opera: Critic's choice. '']'' (70277), p. 135</ref>

<ref name=Times_Fisher_2011a>Neil Fisher (14 June 2011). Mad mensch or Mad Men? '']'' (70285), p. 80</ref>

<ref name=Times_Morrison_1996>Richard Morrison (8 October 1996). No reason for Monteverdi to lament. '']'' (65704), p. 35</ref>

<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_2004>Robert Thicknesse (1 March 2004). Opera: ''Hansel and Gretel''. '']'' (68011), p. 15</ref>

<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_Semele2004>Robert Thicknesse (10 September 2004). Opera: ''Cunning Little Vixen'': ''Semele''. '']'' (68177), p. 23</ref>

<ref name=Times_Thicknesse_Vegas>Robert Thicknesse (25 November 2004). Opera: ''Vera of Las Vegas''. '']'' (68242), p. 125</ref>

<ref name=Western_Mail_Smith>Mike Smith (1 February 2014). Quality musicianship to be treasured: Review: ''Acis and Galatea'', Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. '']'', p. 2</ref>
}} }}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miskimmon, Annilese}}
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Latest revision as of 05:56, 12 January 2025

Northern Irish opera director

Annilese Miskimmon (born 1974) is a Northern Irish opera director who has been the artistic director of English National Opera since 2020. She previously held equivalent posts at Ireland's Opera Theatre Company (2004–2012), Danish National Opera (2012–2017) and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2017–2020). She is also a freelance director who has often worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera Holland Park and other companies. Her productions include classics of the repertoire, such as Puccini's Madama Butterfly (2018), as well as rarely performed operas. They are often reset in the twentieth century, with several stagings employing Miskimmon's native Ireland as the setting, including Janáček's Jenufa (2015), Bellini's I Puritani (2015) and Puccini's Suor Angelica (2024).

Early life and education

Annilese Miskimmon was born in 1974 in Bangor, County Down, near Belfast, to Irene and John Miskimmon. She was educated at Glenlola Collegiate School in Bangor. She said in a 2016 interview with Fiona Maddocks that opera – simply a "really dramatic story with big music" – was "central" to her imagination as a child, adding that opera, together with theatre, formed a "safe place for open-minded, creative people from both communities" during the Northern Ireland conflict. She cites her father, who sang in amateur productions with Opera Northern Ireland and Castleward Opera, as an important influence. The first opera that she attended was an amateur performance of The Magic Flute in Belfast, at the age of ten. She sang in the chorus of amateur opera productions in her teens, and appeared, aged fifteen, as the Page in Verdi's Rigoletto with Opera Northern Ireland, at Belfast's Grand Opera House.

Miskimmon read English at Christ's College, Cambridge (1992–1995). There she was involved with the college's amateur dramatic society and the university's opera and Gilbert and Sullivan societies. She became president of the college JCR, where she led a campaign to protect first-year students from older ones. She then went to City University in London, where she studied arts management (1995–1996). While a student she started to direct theatre and opera, including Cambridge productions of Johann Christian Bach's Endimione and in 1996, Arianna, an early performance of Alexander Goehr's response to a lost work by Monteverdi, which received reviews in the national press.

Career and productions

Early career and Opera Theatre Company (to 2012)

Miskimmon was an in-house producer at Welsh National Opera (1996–2001) and consultant associate director at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–2003). During this time she served as an assistant under the opera directors David Alden, Richard Jones, Graham Vick and Deborah Warner. An early work she directed was a 2000 semi-staged performance of Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town at the Royal Festival Hall in London. In 2002, she directed a production of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (originally a Welsh National Opera production, directed by Jones) with the Canadian Opera Company.

At the beginning of 2004, Miskimmon became artistic director at Ireland's Opera Theatre Company (2004–2012), a national Dublin-based touring company founded in 1986 that specialised in small diverse productions in a large number of venues across Ireland. One of her first productions with the company was the European premiere of Daron Hagen's Vera of Las Vegas, which she directed with "pace and wit", according to Robert Thicknesse, writing in The Times. Chris Moffat comments in Fortnight in 2006 on the "originality and panache" of her reworkings of traditional operas with the company, particularly praising her "racy" version of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea (2004) featuring "cupids on skateboards" as an "ironic" commentary on the opera's original audience.

In 2006, she directed Mozart's Apollo and Hyacinthus, in a collaboration with the London-based Classical Opera Company; Mozart wrote the opera when he was eleven, and Miskimmon includes the child composer as a character. The same year she directed a popular production of Beethoven's Fidelio in Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol, later described by Eileen Battersby in the Irish Times as among the company's "most magnificent productions". The following year, Miskimmon reset Handel's Orlando in a hospital, using giant poppies in the central act. In 2010, Opera Theatre Company was threatened with withdrawal of its Art Council funding. That year, Miskimmon co-directed, with Ingrid Craigie, the Irish premiere of Grigory Frid's The Diary of Anne Frank, in what was announced as the company's final production. Closure was averted, and Miskimmon's last production with the company came the following year: Mozart's The Magic Flute, re-imagined in early 20th-century London, with a minimal set designed by Nicky Shaw.

Danish National Opera and Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2012–2020)

Musikhuset Aarhus, base of the Danish National Opera, where Miskimmon was artistic director (2012–2017)

From September 2012 to 2017, Miskimmon was the general manager and artistic director of the Danish National Opera (Den Jyske Opera), the country's largest touring company, which is based in Aarhus. Her first production with the company, in 2013, was Denmark's premiere of Janáček's Káťa Kabanová. The following year, she staged the rarely performed Massenet's Don Quichotte. In 2015, she staged an experimental version of Mozart's Così fan tutte, in which the audience selected both the type of staging and the interpretation of the ending. Hannah Nepil, writing in the Financial Times, considers that this "milks the ambiguity" of the ending, and underlines the work's focus on "choice, indecision and 'the road not taken'". The opera writer Andrew Mellor (quoted in the New York Times) said that she created "several innovative productions" in Denmark, which "became talking points"; in addition to Così fan tutte, he highlighted her commission Brothers, which addresses post-traumatic stress in Afghanistan veterans.

In August 2017 Miskimmon became the director of opera at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2017–2020), based in Oslo. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten's opera reviewer, Maren Ørstavik (quoted in the New York Times), praised Miskimmon during her tenure there for making good artistic choices, as well as for having a gift for understanding what will please an audience. Although according to Mellor, Miskimmon experienced conflict in the post over her use of guest artists, Ørstavik judged that she had been a "diplomatic leader" at the company. A major production at the company was the Norwegian premiere of Britten's Billy Budd, which was positively reviewed by Ørstavik in Aftenposten. The production was reset on a submarine during the Second World War, using an extravagant set based on a larger-than-lifesized submarine, which Shirley Apthorp, in a review for the Financial Times, writes adds nothing except "anachronistic dissonance"; she considers that Miskimmon failed to uncover the necessary "fizzing current of homoerotic tension" between the characters, rendering the drama "apathetically told and ultimately pointless".

Freelance opera director (2004–2020)

Throughout this period, Miskimmon worked concurrently as a freelance director. In 2004, she revived Jones' version of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with the Welsh National Opera, as well as Vick's production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with Glyndebourne. The same year she directed Handel's Semele with the British Youth Opera at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; Thicknesse, in a review for the Times, commends some of Miskimmon's directorial ideas but feels that the production was "undone by overambition". In 2007, she directed a production of Mozart's early work, Il re pastore, at Garsington Opera, which Geoff Brown, in a review for the Times, writes "teases enough to twinkle, but never to irk". The same summer she directed Offenbach's Bluebeard at Buxton Opera House, employing "immaculate comic timing", according to Hilary Finch in the Times. Later that year she directed the premiere of Julian Grant's children's opera, Shadowtracks, at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2009, she directed Handel's Orlando at Buxton, in a production set in a hospital ward, which, according to Finch, at times approached Doctor in the House but "comes into its own" with a shower of giant poppy petals that accompanied the central character's madness.

In 2012, she directed Verdi's Falstaff at Opera Holland Park, in a production which Brown, in a review for the Times, criticises for a lack of humour and a confusing setting "mostly" in the 1920s that "mix and match references". Richard Fairman, in a more-balanced review for the Financial Times, describes the production as "hyperactive", with the comedy having a "cruel, rather manic feel". The same year, she directed Verdi's La Traviata in a pared-down, English-language touring production with Scottish Opera, later described in The Herald as "stylish" and "hard-hitting". She updated the setting to Paris in the 1950s; Miskimmon says that she chose a timeframe when the aristocracy remained influential but the class system was "destroying itself from inside".

In 2014, she directed Britten's The Turn of the Screw with Opera Holland Park, in a production that the American critic Wendy Lesser describes as an "artistic miracle" in which "he unnatural, the unlikely, was clearly the rule of the day", also praising the spare classroom setting that facilitated the movement of the ghosts. That year she also directed a tour of Handel's Acis and Galatea with Mid Wales Opera and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

The following year, in a production with Scottish Opera, she re-imagined the 19th-century rural Czech setting of Janáček's Jenufa as 1918 Ireland; Miskimmon said in an interview that her intent was to make the audience focus on the universality of the opera's themes, particularly the "complexity of being human" and people's "mixture of cruelty and kindness", rather than be distanced by the unfamiliar setting. Fiona Maddocks, in a review for The Observer, writes that the change gave a "different and unexpected" perspective, and praises the production's "impact and intelligence". Later that year, Miskimmon staged Bellini's I Puritani with the Welsh National Opera, re-envisaging the Roundheads of the original as Orangemen in 1970s Belfast, a conceit that Maddocks in the Observer and Rian Evans in the Guardian each praise, but Michael Tanner, in a more-balanced review for The Spectator, criticises. The heroine's hallucinations or psychosis are used to enable reversion to the Civil War setting, in a device that Maddocks praises but Evans considers verges on overcomplexity. Miskimmon also "ore controversially" overturns the opera's ending, a move which Evans describes as "less illogical" than the original.

In 2018, Miskimmon's version of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Glyndebourne unusually shifted the setting to American-occupied Japan in the 1950s; Rupert Christiansen, in a review for the Telegraph, comments that the choice lends "urgency" to Butterfly's plight, likening her to a "war bride". Christiansen, also in the Telegraph, criticises her earlier decision to give Handel's Semele a modern setting, in a 2017 production with Garsington Opera, writing that Miskimmon here "flounders" as a director and "blurs" the opera's "sly sexual politics", describing the staging as "littered with rather desperate visual ideas".

As well as giving a new slant to classics of the repertoire, Miskimmon successfully staged underperformed works. For example, in 2011, she directed Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz with Opera Holland Park, changing the setting from 19th-century France to 1950s America, a move that Christiansen, reviewing for the Telegraph, describes as "effortless, enlivening – and nicely cute"; Neil Fisher, reviewing in the Times, writes that the resetting "adds spice if not quite enough sense", describing the production overall as a "fruity delight for fans of verismo". Her production that year of Ambroise Thomas's Mignon at Buxton Festival is described by Andrew Clark in the Financial Times as embracing the period sensibility of the piece, "preserving the innocence of the story and sprinkling it with fairy-dust".

English National Opera (2020–present)

Interior of the London Coliseum, base of the English National Opera, where Miskimmon is artistic director (from 2020)

In October 2019, Miskimmon was appointed artistic director of the English National Opera (ENO), succeeding Daniel Kramer; at the time Gramophone described her as the only woman to lead an important opera company in Britain. She took up the post in May 2020 during coronavirus lockdown, and in September 2020, led innovative Drive and Live ENO performances of Puccini's La Bohème in the car park of Alexandra Palace, London, in England's first drive-in opera performance.

The choice of Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale for her first conventional production at ENO in April 2022 is described by Nicholas Kenyon in the Telegraph as a "brave move... vindicated" by a "totally committed and communicative" performance that attracted a younger-than-usual audience. The production employed a simple staging that coupled austere sets with film denoting the character's memories, a contrast which Fairman, in a review for the Financial Times, found effective while Kenyon describes the set as "dreary".

In 2023, she directed the second UK staging of Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, which Miskimmon says "explores how grief meets religion meets the subconscious", adding that "infatuation can be both very negative and an incredibly creative act", in an English-language production. In a September 2024 production of Puccini's Suor Angelica that was among the Telegraph's top five operas of the year, Miskimmon moved the setting from Italy to Ireland's Magdalene Laundries.

She was elected an honorary fellow of Christ's College in 2023.

Personal life

Miskimmon is married. As of 2021, she lived in Surrey.

List of productions

Partial chronological list of professional opera and musical productions directed by Miskimmon.

Year Opera (composer) Company/festival Notes Refs
1999 Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy) Glyndebourne Also 2004
2000 On the Town (Bernstein) BBC Concert Orchestra Semi-staged at Royal Festival Hall
2000 Così fan tutte (Mozart) Glyndebourne
2001 Fidelio (Beethoven) Glyndebourne
2002 The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) Canadian Opera Company Revival of production by Richard Jones
2003 Lulu (Berg) Oper Frankfurt Also 2004
2003 La Cenerentola (Rossini) Opera Theatre Company
2004 Vera of Las Vegas (Hagen) Opera Theatre Company
2004 La Bohème (Puccini) English Touring Opera
2004 Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) Welsh National Opera Revival of production by Richard Jones
2004 Semele (Handel) British Youth Opera
2005 L'incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi) Opera Theatre Company Also 2006
2005 L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti) Opera Holland Park
2005 The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) San Francisco Opera
2005 La Bohème (Puccini) Opera Theatre Company
2006 Fidelio (Beethoven) Opera Theatre Company
2006 Apollo et Hyacinthus (Mozart) Classical Opera Company/Opera Theatre Company
2006 Così fan tutte (Mozart) Opera Theatre Company
2007 Orlando (Handel) Opera Theatre Company
2007 Barbe-bleue (Offenbach) Buxton Festival
2007 Il re pastore (Mozart) Garsington Opera
2007 Shadowtracks (Grant) Royal College of Music Premiere
2008 Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy) Opera Theatre Company
2008 Iolanta (Tchaikovsky) Opera Holland Park
2008 Bastien und Bastienne (Mozart) Opera Theatre Company Also 2011
2009 Alcina (Handel) Opera Theatre Company Also 2010
2009 Acis and Galatea (Handel) Opera Theatre Company
2010 The Diary of Anne Frank (Frid) Opera Theatre Company
2010 The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) Opera Theatre Company
2010 Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) Opera Ireland
2010 Der Freischütz (von Weber) Salzburger Landestheater
2011 Mignon (Thomas) Buxton Festival
2011 L'amico Fritz (Mascagni) Opera Holland Park
2011 Don Pasquale (Donizetti) Opera Theatre Company
2011–12 The Magic Flute (Mozart) Opera Theatre Company
2012 Falstaff (Verdi) Opera Holland Park
2013 Kát'a Kabanová (Janáček) Danish National Opera
2013 La Traviata (Verdi) Scottish Opera
2014 Don Quichotte (Massenet) Danish National Opera
2014 The Turn of the Screw (Britten) Opera Holland Park
2014 Acis and Galatea (Handel) Mid Wales Opera
2015 I puritani (Bellini) Welsh National Opera
2015 Così fan tutte (Mozart) Danish National Opera
2015 Jenůfa (Janáček) Scottish Opera
2015 Jenůfa (Janáček) Danish National Opera
2016 Madama Butterfly (Puccini) Glyndebourne Also 2018, 2020
2016 I puritani (Bellini) Danish National Opera
2017 Jenůfa (Janáček) Royal Swedish Opera
2017 Semele (Handel) Garsington Opera
2018 I puritani (Bellini) Gran Teatre del Liceu
2019 Billy Budd (Britten) Norwegian National Opera and Ballet
2019 Billy Budd (Britten) Teatr Wielki (Opera Narodowa)
2022 The Handmaid's Tale (Ruders) English National Opera Also 2024
2023 The Turn of the Screw (Britten) Folkoperan
2023 Die Tote Stadt (Korngold) English National Opera
2024 Jenůfa (Janáček) Royal Swedish Opera
2024 Suor Angelica (Puccini) English National Opera

References

  1. ^ Fiona Maddocks (9 October 2016). Annilese Miskimmon: 'From an early age opera helped me escape the Troubles'. The Observer
  2. ^ Tina Campbell (4 April 2021). Annilese Miskimmon: National Opera leading lady 'proud' of NI roots. BBC News Northern Ireland (accessed 20 December 2024)
  3. ^ Michael Dervan (1 September 2005). The outsider shaking up opera. The Irish Times, p. 12
  4. ^ College News. Christ's College Magazine, pp. 20, 28–29 (2024)
  5. P. H. S. (2 November 1994). No sex please. The Times (65101), p. 18
  6. ^ Lanre Bakare (8 October 2019). English National Opera names Annilese Miskimmon as new artistic director. The Guardian (accessed 26 December 2024)
  7. Andrew Porter (13 October 1996). The week in Reviews: Classical: 'Ariadne seems to hear an age-old cry of women being abandoned'. The Observer, p. 10
  8. Richard Morrison (8 October 1996). No reason for Monteverdi to lament. The Times (65704), p. 35
  9. Comus: A masque by John Milton, Christ's College, Cambridge (2008)
  10. ^ Erica Jeal (14 March 2023). 'I fear we are losing a whole generation of talent': ENO head hits back at the 'leave London' ultimatum. The Guardian, p. 8
  11. ^ Geoff Brown (9 October 2000). On the Town: Festival Hall. The Times, p. 24
  12. ^ William Littler (2002). Opera in review: Canada: Toronto: The Queen of Spades. Opera Canada 43 (4): 30
  13. ^ Alex Marshall (8 October 2019). Beleaguered English National Opera Announces New Artistic Director. New York Times
  14. Brian Kellow (2002). Letter from Dublin. Opera News 66 (9): 88–89
  15. ^ Eileen Battersby (20 September 2010). An Irishwoman's Diary. The Irish Times, p. 17
  16. Robert Thicknesse (25 November 2004). Opera: Vera of Las Vegas. The Times (68242), p. 125
  17. Chris Moffat (2006). Virtual Opera. Fortnight (445): 17 JSTOR 25561721
  18. Anna Picard (12 March 2006). Opera? It's child's play for Wolfgang; Apollo and Hyacinthus Britten Theatre London. The Independent on Sunday, p. 17
  19. Eileen Battersby (8 October 2008). Actors' opera in the round. The Irish Times, p. 18
  20. Operatic prowess in a modern 'Orlando'. Irish Independent, p. 1 (27 September 2007)
  21. Michael Dervan (27 August 2010). Opera theatre bows out with 'Anne Frank'. The Irish Times, p. 3
  22. Andrew Johnstone (13 September 2010). The Diary of Anne Frank. The Irish Times, p. 2
  23. Michael Dervan (25 March 2015). An unlikely and intriguing choice for the Arts Council's head of music: Niall Doyle comes to the job as someone who knows how bruising the council can be to clients. The Irish Times, p. 14
  24. Pat O'Kelly (29 November 2011). The Lir Theatre, Dublin: Features. Irish Independent, p. 18
  25. ^ Michael Dervan (16 December 2015). Belfast opera director lands a tricky new job in Norway: Norway's top opera job is being taken up by Annilese Miskimmon. The post comes with its own dramatic history. The Irish Times, p. 12
  26. ^ Ken Walton (20 September 2012). Review: Classical: Intimate business. The Scotsman, p. 10
  27. ^ Complexity is a virtue as harsh tale returns for a new retelling. The Herald (1 April 2015)
  28. ^ Hannah Nepil (13 March 2015). Interview: Annilese Miskimmon, Danish National Opera director. Financial Times
  29. ^ Alex Marshall (8 April 2022). For This Opera Director, a Lot Is Riding on a 'Handmaid's Tale'. New York Times
  30. Maren Ørstavik (19 January 2019). Operaanmeldelse: Billy Budd er Nasjonaloperaens beste produksjon hittil i sesongen. Aftenposten (accessed 28 December 2024)
  31. Shirley Apthorp (22 January 2019). Opera: Billy Budd: Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Oslo. Financial Times, p. 8
  32. ^ Robert Thicknesse (1 March 2004). Opera: Hansel and Gretel. The Times (68011), p. 15
  33. Michael Tanner (2004). Opera: Seething cruelty. The Spectator 295 (9175): 65–66
  34. ^ Robert Thicknesse (10 September 2004). Opera: Cunning Little Vixen: Semele. The Times (68177), p. 23
  35. Geoff Brown (14 June 2007). Opera: Il re pastore. The Times (69038), p. 117
  36. Hilary Finch (11 July 2007). Opera: Roberto Devereux/Bluebeard. The Times (69061), p. 86
  37. ^ Margaret Ross Griffel. Operas in English: A Dictionary, p. 444 (Scarecrow Press; 2012) ISBN 9780810883253
  38. Hilary Finch (15 July 2009). Opera: Mitridate: Orlando. The Times (69688), p. 89
  39. Geoff Brown (24 July 2012). This Falstaff needs more fizz. The Times (70633), p. 73
  40. Richard Fairman (26 July 2012). Falstaff, Holland Park, London. Financial Times
  41. Wendy Lesser (2015). Unnatural. The Threepenny Review (140): 27 JSTOR 24429843
  42. Mike Smith (1 February 2014). Quality musicianship to be treasured: Review: Acis and Galatea, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Western Mail, p. 2
  43. ^ Fiona Maddocks (12 April 2015). Jenufa; St Luke Passion/MacMillan; Swanhunter – review. The Observer, p. 31
  44. ^ Fiona Maddocks (20 September 2015). Orphee et Eurydice; I Puritani; Chineke! review -- breathtaking, tireless. The Observer, p. 35
  45. ^ Rian Evans (13 September 2015). I Puritani review – Bellini, gracefully poised in the Troubles. The Guardian
  46. Michael Tanner (19 September 2015). Opera: I puritani; Orphée et Eurydice. The Spectator
  47. Rupert Christiansen (18 June 2018). The heartless GIs who inspired Mme Butterfly. The Daily Telegraph, p. 24
  48. Rupert Christiansen (4 June 2017). Romantic, witty and a little bit muddled. The Sunday Telegraph, p. 26
  49. ^ Neil Fisher (14 June 2011). Mad mensch or Mad Men? The Times (70285), p. 80
  50. Rupert Christiansen (13 June 2011). Chip-shop shenanigans take the shine off fine farce. The Daily Telegraph, p. 27
  51. Neil Fisher (4 June 2011). Opera: Critic's choice. The Times (70277), p. 135
  52. Andrew Clark (12 July 2011). Mignon, Buxton Festival. Financial Times
  53. Sarah Kirkup (9 October 2019). Annilese Miskimmon is appointed ENO's new Artistic Director. Gramophone (accessed 21 December 2024)
  54. Claire Jackson (17 June 2020). Country Life, pp. 96–97
  55. ^ Nicholas Kenyon (11 April 2022). Resonant tale of terror, fear, and a hint of love. The Daily Telegraph, p. 25
  56. Richard Fairman (11 April 2022). The Handmaid's Tale – one of the most powerful operas of the century. Financial Times
  57. It's time to put an end to the war on opera: Reverse snobbery has left this centuries-old art form in critical condition; to save it, let's stop the bigotry. The Daily Telegraph, p. 14 (14 December 2024)
  58. ^ Nicholas Kenyon (30 September 2024). Haunting reimagining of Puccini by the ENO. The Daily Telegraph, p. 11
  59. Fellows of the Colleges: 31 October 2023. Cambridge University Reporter CLIV (Special 3): 2
  60. Annilese Miskimmon / Past performances, Operabase (accessed 26 December 2024)
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