Adriana Mater Tickets at the London Coliseum
A woman raises the child of the man who attacked her, and spends twenty years deciding what to tell him. Kaija Saariaho's opera, in a new English translation, at English National Opera.
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020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
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Before You Book
This is a serious piece about war, assault and what it does to the next generation. During a civil war, Adriana is attacked by a soldier and becomes pregnant. She chooses to keep the child, raises him with love, and does not tell him who his father was. Years later he finds out and wants revenge. The last act is his mother arguing him out of it.
It is not a thriller. It is an opera about mercy.
Who It Is For
People who follow contemporary opera. Kaija Saariaho was voted the greatest living composer in a BBC Music Magazine poll in 2019 and died in 2023, and her work is among the most performed of the last fifty years.
Anyone booking Tosca this autumn. ENO have deliberately paired the two. Tosca is set in a concert hall in a country falling into civil war; Adriana Mater returns to the same room afterwards, now a field hospital. You can see either alone, or both as one arc.
Less good for a first opera or a night out chosen at random.
The Music and the Translation
Saariaho's music blends electronics with live instruments to make a distinctive shimmering sound. It is performed here in a new English translation commissioned specially, written by the composer's son, the writer-director Aleksi Barrière.
Libretto by Amin Maalouf, a novelist and former war correspondent, drawing on what he saw.
Performance Schedule
Seven performances between 28 November and 12 December 2026. Evenings start at 7pm, and the final performance on Saturday 12 December is a 2pm matinee.
Cast and Creative Team
| Role | Performer |
|---|---|
| Adriana | Kristina Stanek |
| Yonas | Caspar Singh |
| Tsargo | Leigh Melrose |
| Refka | Lauren Fagan |
Music by Kaija Saariaho, libretto by Amin Maalouf, English translation by Aleksi Barrière. Directed by Annilese Miskimmon and conducted by André de Ridder, their first collaboration as ENO's Artistic Director and Music Director Designate.
Book Your Tickets
We sell with all-in pricing, so the price you see is the price you pay. Call 020 7193 9050 for seat advice.
Dates & tickets
FAQs
Yes, in a new translation made for this production.
No. ENO present them as a pair but each stands alone.
No. The story begins with a sexual assault during a war.
About 2 hours 30 minutes, including one 20-minute interval.
Centre Stalls, or the front of the Dress Circle. For an opera, avoid the first three Stalls rows and the back four rows of the Dress Circle (H to L), where the surtitle screen is hard or impossible to read. See our London Coliseum guide.
Yes, a BSL-interpreted performance on Tuesday 8 December.
Where to Sit
Centre Stalls rows B to H are the best in the building. The ends of either circle are nearer the stage than the middle seats and cost less, because the circles wrap round the Stalls rather than hanging over them.
The surtitle screen rules out a few seats. The first three Stalls rows look almost straight up at it, and it disappears entirely from the back four rows of the Dress Circle (H to L) and the back two of the Upper Circle (K and L).
No lift to the Upper Circle.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
Booking now
The London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES, three minutes from Charing Cross and Leicester Square. Around 2,380 seats over four levels. Buses 24, 29 and 176 along Charing Cross Road. Full detail in our London Coliseum guide.
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest Tube
Leicester Square and Charing Cross
Adriana Mater Cast
Kristina Stanek as Adriana, Caspar Singh as Yonas, Leigh Melrose as Tsargo and Lauren Fagan as Refka.
Director Annilese Miskimmon. Conductor André de Ridder. Music Kaija Saariaho, libretto Amin Maalouf, English translation Aleksi Barrière.
About This Production
A new ENO staging, opening 28 November 2026, so no reviews yet.
It is the second half of a pair with Tosca, which plays from 30 October. The two operas have nothing to do with each other on paper, written a century apart by different composers. ENO have staged them into the same world. Their Tosca takes place in a concert hall in a nameless European country falling into civil war; this one returns to that concert hall after the war, and finds it has become a field hospital.
Adriana Mater
London Coliseum