War Requiem - ENO tickets

Coventry Cathedral was reduced to a shell during WWII, with the replacement being built adjacent to the ruins. Completed in 1962, it was opened to much celebration, including a specially commissioned work, War Requiem, by Benjamin Britten. Inspired by the anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owens, who was killed in action in 1918, Britten uses the Latin Mass for the Dead as a backdrop for Owen’s poetry and his opposition to war.

This interpretation of the Requiem Mass is performed by a chorus of 80 adults, a 40-strong children’s choir and the English National Opera orchestra and a chamber orchestra. This concert performance is staged with costume and design, creating a powerful experience that rails against humanity’s ability to disregard the lives of others.

Martyn Brabbins conducts this concert staging, which is directed by ENO Artistic Director Daniel Kramer. Wolfgang Tillmans designs the production, with Justin Nardella as his associate. Nasir Mazhar and Charles Balfour are credited with costume and lighting respectively, with Ann Yee providing choreography. Leading the choir are soprano Emma Bell, Tenor David Butt Philip and baritone Roderick Williams.

This concert performance promises to be a moving, immersive homage to those who died in battle, and protested the actions of war. The powerfully recognisable music and notable anti-war poems from one of the country’s greatest war poets will be a visceral combination of the best and worst of the human race. Playing for a limited season at the London Coliseum, War Requiem runs in the West End from 16 November to 7 December 2018.