IMPARTIAL NEWS + INTELLIGENT DEBATE
The i Paper’s critics pick all the cultural highlights to look forward to in the coming year
By Fiona Mountford
Garrick Theatre, London (4 February-26 April)
They formed the glorious central pairing in Abi Morgan’s television drama The Split and now old friends Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan reunite for Mike Bartlett’s spicy new play about long-term relationships and maintaining the passion. Walker and Mangan are, as per the start of The Split, a happily married, professionally successful couple with children, but that’s before they’ve encountered The Crown’s Erin Doherty.
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, Bath (7 February-8 March)
Sister Aloysius is the indomitable headteacher of a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, who suspects that one of the monks may be abusing a pupil – and it is difficult to imagine more perfect casting for the role of this clear-eyed woman than Maxine Peake. This actress has long been drawn to work that asks searching, often ethics-related questions about the accepted order and John Patrick Shanley’s vigorous drama, memorably filmed with Meryl Streep in the part, should showcase Peake’s myriad strengths.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London (10 February-5 April)
The bucolic Tuscany-set Emma Thompson/Kenneth Branagh film remains the sine qua non of Much Ados, yet hopes are vertiginously high for the pairing of Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston as they set about the verbal high jinx of once and future lovers Beatrice, the wittiest and most delightful heroine in all of Shakespeare, and Benedick. Let us hope that director Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard with Nicole Scherzinger) takes a break from his recent all-black dress code.
Donmar Warehouse, London (14 February-12 April)
We often hear talk of middle-aged women being the “sandwich generation”, caught between – and exhausted by – juggling the needs of both children and ageing parents. Yet this potent topic has been bewilderingly under-explored on stage, so big hurrahs for Anna Mackmin’s new drama for tackling this theme. The irrepressible pairing of Celia Imrie and Tamsin Grieg provides the juicy casting. As the Almeida proved so conclusively with The Years, The i Paper’s play of 2024, theatre that explores the contemporary female experience is most welcome.
Barbican Theatre, London (26 February-5 April)
Feted German disruptor-director Thomas Ostermeier arrives once again from Berlin to shake up British theatre, hopefully with better results than last year’s disappointing Matt Smith-starring Enemy of the People. This time he’s aided in his enterprise by none other than Cate Blanchett, as the double Oscar winner plays Chekhov’s study in solipsism, lofty actress Arkadina. Emma Corrin is young hopeful Nina, while that intriguing film actor Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) makes his stage debut as her neglected aspiring playwright of a son.
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh (6 March-5 April)
Nicole Taylor’s marvellous script, full of heart and tough-love humour, about a chaotic young Glaswegian single mother who dreams of becoming a country and western singer in Nashville, propelled Jessie Buckley on the road to stardom in its much-praised film incarnation. Now John Tiffany, the magician director of the Harry Potter plays, aims to sprinkle the star-making dust over the stage version, which features music from the likes of Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood.
York Theatre Royal (14 April-17 May)
He’s known and celebrated the world over, most recently for his role as the charismatically chaotic Jackson Lamb in the award-winning Slow Horses, but now Gary Oldman is returning to the theatre where he began his professional career in 1979. He stars in Samuel Beckett’s powerful modern classic of a one-man one-act play, in which a lonely chap sits down on his 69th birthday to listen ruefully to the yearly tape recordings he made of his younger self.
Wyndham’s Theatre, London (17 April-12 July)
Ewan McGregor returns to the London stage for the first time in 17 years to headline Lila Raicek’s modern spin – we’re in the Hamptons for the 4th July weekend now – on the Ibsen classic about a celebrated architect whose past relationship with a student comes back to haunt him. Watch out for those famous phallic references to tall towers. McGregor reunites with director Michael Grandage, for whom he starred previously in Othello and Guys and Dolls.
By Emily Bootle
UK tour starts 4 July, Cardiff, to 12 August, Edinburgh, returning to London 27-28 September
Some of the biggest cultural news of 2024 arrived in August, when Oasis announced they would reunite for a tour in 2025. It caused a stir – not least because of the fiasco trying to get tickets. Four-hour digital queues and “dynamic pricing”, in which the ticket price increased with demand, led to widespread disappointment and anger. But Oasis re-released 50,000 tickets that had been snapped up by bots and touts; now all that’s left to do is get excited for the run of shows across the UK in July and August.
UK tour starts 7 July, Glasgow, to 23 July, Manchester
Billie Eilish will complete her Hit Me Hard and Soft world tour with a run of shows in Glasgow, London, Manchester and Dublin in July 2025, bringing a very different energy from 2024’s live pop phenomenon, Taylor Swift, but no less excitement among her hordes of Gen Z fans. Eilish’s dark, brooding pop is a breath of fresh air – and the album was full of playful nonchalance that will lend itself to a live show.
It feels like we are long overdue a Lady Gaga album. Her last solo studio record was in 2020, the concept album Chromatica, which returned to the club pop that made her famous in the late 2010s. But the wonderful thing about Gaga is that you never know what to expect. LG7, as fans are calling it, which is expected (but not confirmed) to be released in January, could go in any direction. In October she dropped the lead single “Disease”, which certainly seems to suggest an even greater lean into the “Poker Face” era, with its operatic proportions and pounding beat. But who knows what we’re in for? Gaga is full of surprises.
UK tour starts 6 March, Birmingham, to 14 March, Manchester; returning 5 July for BST Hyde Park
The queen of summer 2024, Sabrina Carpenter is touring the UK in spring 2025, and a few months later will headline BST Hyde Park – her biggest UK headline show to date. Since finding herself firmly at the centre of pop culture and at the top of everyone’s Spotify Wrapped with her hit “Espresso”, Carpenter’s star has only continued to rise – and by the time she gets here in March you’ll probably be singing along to several more of her songs, whether you like it or not.
By Florence Hallett
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol/Towner Eastbourne (Bristol 25 January – 27 April, Eastbourne 14 May to 31 August)
In 1922, 20-year-old Marjorie Watson-Williams left Bristol, first for London and then Paris, where her early abstract work made a decisive break with what she saw as the boring parochialism of English art. She changed her name accordingly, choosing something French-sounding and slightly ambiguous, to avoid – as she told her friend Ithell Colquhoun – “this question of sex dragged into discussions about my work”. Though she was highly regarded, recognition eluded her, and this exhibition will be the first in more than 40 years, exploring the range of her output over seven decades, from painting to collage, sculpture, constructions, illustration, textiles and photography.
Tate St Ives/Tate Britain (Tate St Ives 1 February-5 May, Tate Britain June-October)
Paule Vézelay’s friend Ithell Colquhoun was similarly multi-talented: a painter, poet, and occultist whose imagined worlds are steeped in surrealism and magic. Tate acquired the artist’s vast archive in 2019, a resource of more than 5,000 drawings and other artworks that has yielded invaluable, never-seen-before material – a star exhibit will be Colquhoun’s Tarot deck. Following recent interest in British surrealist women, from Leonora Carrington to Eileen Agar, Colquhoun’s singular imagination adds another layer of female artistic experience to the interwar years, her cultivation of a Celtic identity, and her ideas about divine feminine power and ecology, of special resonance today.
The Hayward Gallery, London (11 February – 5 May)
Punk hero Linder gets her first London retrospective this spring with a major exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, looking back on her 50-year career. Best known for designing the cover of Buzzcocks’ 1977 single “Orgasm Addict”, Linder’s photomontages and a stint as frontwoman of post-punk band Ludus helped define the irreverent, urban aesthetic of the era. Channeling its anarchic spirit into performance art, photography, and sculpture to rip into gender stereotyping and misogyny, her recent foray into digital techniques promises a confrontation between 1970s iconoclasm and 21st-century mores.
Courtauld Gallery, London (14 February – 26 May)
For the many dedicated fans of the Courtauld Gallery’s exceptional collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, this selection from the Oskar Reinhart Collection at “Am Römerholz” in Winterthur will be completely irresistible. The collection’s first appearance outside its Swiss home promises a genuinely breathtaking array of paintings, beginning with earlier artists Goya, Géricault and Courbet, and culminating with such delights as Manet’s Au Café (1878) and Toulouse-Lautrec’s The Clown Cha-U-Kao (1895). A pair of paintings by van Gogh, depicting the hospital at Arles where he was admitted after cutting off his ear, will make a moving pendant to the Courtauld’s own Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889).
National Gallery, London (8 March – 22 June)
You might have thought the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary celebrations were over, but in fact they carry over into the spring with an exhibition that some will undoubtedly see as the highlight of the year-long festivities. Siena: The Rise of Painting celebrates the earliest pictures in the national collection, which, made by Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, represent the early innovations that ensured the status of painting as one of the west’s supreme art forms. Fourteenth-century painting means altarpieces, many of which have long been dismantled, with pieces lost, or dispersed across continents over centuries, but some remarkable reunions, brokered goodness-knows-how, promise a truly special occasion.
National Portrait Gallery, London (13 March – 15 June)
Best known for his epic, lifelong project The Frieze of Life, with The Scream the most famous of its tortured explorations of human experience, Edvard Munch was also one of the great portraitists of his age. The first UK exhibition to focus on this lesser-known aspect of Munch’s long career will explore the range of his output, from commissioned portraits of patrons and collectors to personal mementoes, among them preparatory studies for other works. Many of the loans have never been seen in this country, and it’s set to shed new light on this endlessly fascinating artist.
Tate Modern, London (8 October 2025 – 11 May 2026)
Political turbulence is often a catalyst for artistic revolution, and Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule in 1960 provides the crucial moment driving Tate Modern’s autumn exhibition. Featuring more than 50 artists including El Anatsui, Ladi Kwali Uzo Egonu, and Ben Enwonwu MBE, it explores the decades before and after independence when painting, sculpture, textiles and ceramics embodied new horizons, shaped through the interplay of European and African influences in a unique strand of modernism.
Tate Britain, London (2 October 2025 – 15 February 2026)
First came the movie, next up is what looks very much like a blockbuster exhibition, billed as the most extensive retrospective of Lee Miller’s photography ever. It’s only quite recently that Miller has been given proper credit for the pioneering surrealist experiments of her early years in Paris, and her work as an avant-garde artist, fashion and war photographer is more than overdue a big show. Featuring more than 250 pictures, some of which will never have been seen before, this is bound to draw in the Miller-curious as well as longstanding fans.
By Anna Bonet
Fourth Estate, £20, 4 March
Every now and again, the publication of a book is described as a “literary event”. Often, this is overstated. But given that the multi-award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – author of Americanah, Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun and We Should All be Feminists – is publishing her first novel in over a decade, such a phrase is fitting.
Dream Count interweaves the story of four women who are each at reckoning points in their lives. At the heart of it all is Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer living in America, cut adrift during the pandemic. Then there is her best friend Zikora, a broken-hearted lawyer; Omelogor, her frank and courageous cousin who starts to wonder how well she actually knows herself; and Kadiatou, her housekeeper, for whom an adversity could upend everything. Anything Ngozi Adichie writes turns to gold, and this is an emotionally acute study of love and fulfillment.
Hutchinson Heinemann, £20, 3 June
One of the many reasons Taylor Jenkins Reid is so enduringly popular is her knack for crafting unforgettable characters. In The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, it was the 79-year-old Hollywood actress looking back on her life in love; in Daisy Jones & the Six, we were drawn to the white hot world of its eponymous rock star. In Atmosphere, it’s the astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin, who we meet in 1980s Houston as she begins training to be an astronaut. Jenkins Reid always manages to strike the right balance between fun and thoughtful, light and complex, and this story of Joan’s mission into space is just that. A novel guaranteed to be on every sun lounger this summer.
Allen Lane, £25, 4 February
How did the man who helped to shape our modern world come to be? Who was Bill Gates before he dropped out of Harvard in 1975, to focus on developing something a little something called Microsoft?
This highly anticipated, ingeniously titled memoir burrows deep into the billionaire’s past to reveal his origin story. It covers his restless Seattle childhood, during which time he struggled to fit in, the impact of the death of a close friend, and where exactly his philanthropic relationship with wealth came from. This isn’t just a book for computer geeks, but a memoir to be devoured by all kinds of readers.
Hamish Hamilton, £20, 4 September
For an author who has written all manner of books – from her 1997 Booker-winning novel The God of Small Things through to her incisive nonfiction covering politics, colonialism and human rights – it is surprising Arundhati Roy has never sat down and written a memoir. Until now.
In what will be one of the biggest books of next autumn, Mother Mary Comes to Me sees Roy reflecting on her life from childhood to the present through the lens of her complex relationship with her mother. She started writing it in 2022 following her mother’s death, and if Roy’s previous works are anything to go by, it will be a remarkable, absorbing read.
Tinder Press, £20, 10 April
Kit de Waal’s 2016 bestselling debut novel My Name is Leon – which she published in her 50s after a career change from family law – was a gorgeous, compelling story about a young boy growing up in care. It instantly catapulted this author to a kind of beloved status and was later adapted by the BBC.
Everything de Waal has published since has pulled at the heartstrings, so it is no surprise her forthcoming book has been described by Booker-winner Bernardine Evaristo as “a profoundly compassionate novel of devastating power”. It follows Paullette – whose best-laid plans go awry when the man she is meant to marry walks away – and tenderly explores how to build a life of meaning.
HarperVoyager, £22, 28 August
Around once a year, there is a single particular novel that the entire world is reading (or so it seems). In 2018 it was Sally Rooney’s Normal People; in 2022 it was Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. And last year it was RF Kuang’s Yellowface: everywhere you looked, there would be another glimpse of the yellow cover of this thriller-come-satire of the publishing industry.
Katabasis, Kuang’s newest, is destined for similar success. Before Yellowface, she was primarily a fantasy author, and this sees her returning to the genre for a riveting story of two rival Cambridge professors who end up on a mission together journeying to hell. Billed as 2025’s most unexpected love story, prepare for it to be everywhere you look next autumn.
By Christina Newland
1 January
Moody, stylish and mounted with detailed Gothic production design, this retelling of the classic silent movie is old-fashioned in the most satisfying way. Set in 19th-century Germany and starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicolas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, and Bill Skarsgard as the haunting Count Orlok, it’s remarkable how creepy Nosferatu is, given how familiar vampire stories can be.
It owes that to writer-director Robert Eggers, responsible for The Northman, The Witch, and The Lighthouse; he’s a filmmaker with a feel for both historical detail and folk-magic-superstition, building dark and ominous worlds out of very real social fears – disease, grief, loneliness, or even unchecked libido. Come for the vampires, stay for the haunting treatise on human nature.
24 January
This brooding, epic 20th-century story of greed, trauma, and architecture has been compared to the The Godfather and Paul Thomas Anderson’s staggering There Will Be Blood; neither of these comparisons feel too far off the mark. Brady Corbet’s lengthy film (there’s an intermission!) stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian-Jewish survivor of Nazi atrocities, who has made it to America and re-started what was once a bright career in cutting-edge modern architecture. Under the auspices of a haughty millionaire played by Guy Pearce, he attempts to build his masterpiece – but finds the road to American success and artistic fulfilment littered with pitfalls. Devastating and brilliant, this is the kind of film you must see on a big screen.
10 January
By far the sexiest film I’ve seen in recent times, Babygirl is a female-directed foray into the psychosexual power dynamics between a female chief executive and her young male intern. Nicole Kidman plays a corporate boss with two teen daughters, a loving husband (Antonio Banderas, no less), and plenty of money. Yet she risks everything when she falls into a submissive affair with a charismatic young intern (Harris Dickinson, just the right shade of enigmatic). But rather than just gender-swapping the standard erotic thriller, the film is thoughtful about female desire and its complexity. Funny, provocative, and titillating.
23 May
Tom Cruise returns as the legendary Ethan Hunt in this blockbuster spectacle, with Hayley Atwell in an ambiguous new role as a junior agent. This one is not to be missed at the cinema; after all, it features one of our great living movie stars performing his own stunts and death-defying manoeuvres on motorbike, plane, and god-knows-what-else. Some suspect the final instalment of the series will see Cruise pass on the torch to a “new” Ethan, while others think he may even finally do the unimaginable: prove mortal. There’s only one way to find out…
June
Finally, there’s some information about the much-whispered-about third part of Danny Boyle’s terrifying, landmark zombie series, which started with 28 Days Later – wherein a young Cillian Murphy awakes to an emptied-out London and discovers an undead rabid horde awaiting him. If the original was violent, realistic, and suspensefully paced, here’s hoping part three lives up to it. It’s sure to provide some excellent jump-scares and a twisty dystopian plot from co-writer Alex Garland, who directed Annihilation and Civil War. This time around, Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy will be joined by Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Ralph Fiennes in their apocalyptic survival tale.
By Rachael Healy
Touring (From 2 January)
Ever wanted to see a man attempt to kick himself in the head? This thrilling, high-energy show is packed with physical antics and joyful audience interactions, but grounded by moving meditations on the pursuit of success and what it means to build a good life. It places Rob Copland firmly among comedy’s rising stars and earned him the Victoria Wood Award at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he was a runaway word-of-mouth hit.
Chorley Theatre, Lancashire/Soho Theatre, London (Chorley 24 January
Soho 27 January-8 February)
It’s the last chance to see Amy Gledhill’s Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show, which brought her cheeky charm and self-deprecating anecdotes to play in a show about body image. Gledhill’s already had great success as one half of sketch duo the Delightful Sausage, but has cemented her place as a purveyor of warm, storytelling standup with her second solo show.
Touring (From 6 Feb)
She’s known for her brilliantly acerbic standup, showcased on shows like Live at the Apollo, but Fairburn is surveying new territory in her latest live endeavour, Side Eye. In it, we meet characters inspired by the seven deadly sins, from a savage gossip and exhausting nepo baby to a misogynist podcaster. Their interweaving monologues paint a bleakly funny picture. Fairburn’s talent for accents, well-observed phrases and knowing glances are welcome revelations in what’s hopefully not her last foray into character comedy.
Touring (From 6 March)
Texan comedian Kemah Bob has been on the UK scene for years, running their own Femmes of Colour comedy night and appearing as a regular on the Guilty Feminist podcast, but Miss Fortunate is their solo standup debut and it was worth the wait. Bob recounts one of the toughest years of their life – when a mental-health crisis led to an overseas adventure and an encounter with a would-be people trafficker – but does it with a delicate lightness, lots of big laughs and cheeky songs, and thought-provoking material on how to rebuild.
Underbelly Boulevard Soho (16 January – 2 March)
Andrew Lloyd Webber has made many musicals, but has anyone ever made a musical about Andrew Lloyd Webber? In this daring extravaganza, comedy duo Flo & Joan (real-life sisters Rosie and Nicola Dempsey, who play music live on stage) have done just that.
George Fouracres plays the millionaire maestro, who we’re told has written an edgy show about his own life to finally win over the critics. He’s delightfully unhinged in the role, and the script is packed with cutting jokes that will land even if you’re not a musical theatre buff, especially the fun asides about the legal risks of the premise.
Touring (From 5 March)
Another comedian on the ascent, Joe Kent-Walters stormed the Fringe with his sinister comedy character Frankie Monroe, the proprietor of a Rotherham working men’s club, who’s made a deal with the devil to keep his establishment open. The show is non-stop fun, full of catchy songs, mischievous games, and a brilliantly spooky atmosphere. With a BBC radio comedy on the way in 2025 and his tour already selling fast, see the Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer before he goes stratospheric.
Touring (From 30 April)
Emmy-nominated Ted Lasso favourite Nick Mohammed is back in character as hapless, manic magician Mr Swallow for a new tour this summer. His alternative act picked up more mainstream fans thanks to appearances on Cats Does Countdown with impressive tricks and his Jurassic Park song, and during his last live show he appeared on wheels. This time, there might not be roller skates, but he does promise plenty of magic and mistakes, and hopefully a few new songs.
Touring (From 7 May)
Ed Night made a welcome return to the Edinburgh Fringe last year with this show and as he told audiences every night, it was absolutely crammed with jokes. From the surreal to the bleakly observational (a segment on XL bullies was particularly memorable), occasionally straying into the personal with well-crafted jokes on body dysmorphia and anti-depressants, he stalked the stage delivering the perfect blend of comedy and nihilism. Ideal for those who like their jokes dark and deliciously cynical.
By Rosemary Waugh
Royal Opera House (20 February – 12 March)
Crystal Pite’s five-star hit returns to the Royal Opera House feeling as timely as ever. The mass choreographic work meditates on the toil of human migration, but despite its sorrowful leanings is ultimately filled with a sense of profound hope.
Sadler’s Wells East (5 – 8 March)
For more than two decades, the Jasmin Vardimon Company have consistently wowed audiences with the distinctive, off-kilter brand of dance-theatre. NOW marks their 25th anniversary and is equally a chance for existing fans to celebrate “greatest hits” moments and for new recruits to get a quick-fix introduction to an always intriguing choreographer.
ROH Linbury Theatre, Tate Modern, Sadler’s Wells, Southbank Centre, London (12 March – 8 April)
A huge addition to the springtime dance calendar, the second edition of the Dance Reflections Festival features 15 shows (including 10 premieres), 38 performances, four venues and over 350 dancers. Its lineup includes names familiar to UK audiences (Jules Cunningham, for example) with international superstars like the Trisha Brown Company and South Africa’s Robyn Orlin. Combine seeing “classics” (the Royal Ballet doing Balanchine) with totally new work, like Hagay Dreaming by Shu Lea Cheang and Dondon Hounwn in Tate Modern’s South Tank.
Shoreditch Town Hall , London (27 – 29 March)
First Soloist of the Royal Ballet Valentino Zucchetti has been making quite a name for himself in recent years as a rising star of the choreographic world – no surprise, really, given the intelligence and rigour he’s always demonstrated on stage. His latest creation is a two-part work based on the tragic Greek half-brothers Apollo and Hercules. It’s on as part of the London Handel Festival and staged in Shoreditch Town Hall.
Sadlers Wells, London (10 – 19 April)
A shot of pure and absolute joy, the English National Ballet’s William Forsythe’s Playlist (EP) is fizzing, leaping, audience-standing exuberance (and a personal favourite of mine – in case you couldn’t tell). This little gem from 2022 gets a new outing at Sadler’s Wells, along with a vintage Forsythe work and an as-yet-unknown world premiere, also by the choreographer. Trust me when I say this is not to be missed.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London (7-10 May)
Rambert are a lot of fun. And French company La(Horde) are also a lot of fun. Mix them together with a show that’s based on the LA club scene and the hot mess feel of the early hours and what do you get? Something that looks like a whole lot of fun (and, knowing Rambert, will be performed by some knock-out dancers).
Sadler’s Wells, London (9 – 10 May)
Ah, Oona Doherty, what a total and unique stalwart of contemporary dance! The Irish choreographer’s latest creation is based on her great-great-grandfather Specky Clark and her family’s porcine history involving abattoirs, piggies in the back garden, and running a butcher’s shop. “WTF?!” you might be thinking. Don’t worry: Oona has totally got this.
Sadler’s Wells East (10 – 13 July)
The internationally renowned duo Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar collaborate with London arts organisation Young to make a piece that will have everyone dancing – literally. With another work based on clubbing, the Sadler’s Well’s auditorium is going seatless for this one. Let go of any British-inspired shyness and start to move alongside this group of excellent performers.
By Michael Church, Alexandra Coghlan and Jessica Duchen
Wigmore Hall, London (6 February)
Music history doesn’t come more vividly than with this veteran duo. Cellist Mischa Maisky gave himself his surname (meaning May) to commemorate the day he escaped to Israel from a Soviet prison in his native Latvia; Martha Argerich, born in Argentina, is the most celebrated (and most elusive) pianist in the world. And their joint appearances – which normally take place at the Verbier festival in Switzerland – are extremely rare. Argerich is now 83, but her playing still has its pristine lustre; catch this pair for a taste of classical music’s golden age. MC
Royal Opera, London (11-27 February)
Thomas Vinterberg’s Cannes Jury Prize-winning black comedy Festen gets the operatic treatment in a world premiere by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Billy Elliot’s Lee Hall. When a wealthy patriarch gathers his family together to celebrate his 60th birthday, celebration turns into post-mortem as old wounds are reopened and horrifying secrets exposed. No one does family dysfunction, or comedy-cum-grotesque-horror, with quite the scalpel-sharp observation and irreverent musical invention as this composer Set aside whatever you think you know about opera, because Turnage is bound to shock and surprise. AC
English National Opera, London (15 and 18 February)
The British composer Thea Musgrave, who is 96, wrote this powerful and eminently dramatic operatic account of its subject’s turbulent life and death back in the 1970s. More recently it has been seriously short of attention. Conducted by Joana Carneiro and directed by Stuart Laing, this new production at ENO is not before time. Expect gritty, original and heartfelt music to portray the seething morass of passion and betrayal that entrapped the unfortunate heroine. The fine cast includes Heidi Stober, Alex Otterburn, Nicky Spence and many more. Book soon, though, because there are only two performances. JD
Royal Festival Hall, London (27 March)
Riccardo Muti is a living legend – a multi-Grammy-Award winning conductor and former music director of La Scala and both the Chicago and Philadelphia Orchestras, who ranks among the very best in the world. Verdi runs through the Italian conductor’s blood, so a chance to hear him perform the composer’s monumental Requiem (spiritual theatre at its most arresting and intense) is not to be missed – especially when it reunites him with his former band, London’s own Philharmonia Orchestra. The soloists are a Who’s Who of international opera stars, including mezzo Elina Garanča and tenor Piotr Beczała. AC
Royal Ballet and Opera, London (1 – 17 May)
The Royal Opera’s new Ring Cycle takes its second step with arguably the most popular of the four Wagner operas, Die Walküre. In 2023 the tetralogy’s opener, Das Rheingold, established an original and hard-hitting take by the director Barrie Kosky, placing environmental concern high on the agenda, with the contested Rheingold assuming liquid form, laden with symbolism. Now the soprano Lise Davidsen, widely considered one of today’s top Wagnerian sopranos, sings the role of Sieglinde, with Elisabet Strid as Brünnhilde, the eponymous Valkyrie, and Christopher Maltman as Wotan. Sir Antonio Pappano returns to his old Royal Opera House podium to conduct. JD
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lewes (17 May to 24 June)
This will be the first time Wagner’s final opera has been staged at Glyndebourne, and if it has the quality of Glyndebourne’s exquisite production of Tristan und Isolde it will be worth signing up for tickets now. Robin Ticciati, whose touch has matured marvellously since he took up his post 10 years ago, will be on the podium, with an outstanding cast. The grittily powerful bass John Relyea will sing Gurnemanz, with the Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson in the title role. It will be fascinating to see what the Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen makes of this intense psychological drama. MC
Impartial news + intelligent debate
All rights reserved. © 2025 Associated Newspapers Limited.
The 53 films, books, shows and music you mustn't miss in 2025 – The i Paper
