World-famous sculptor Anish Kapoor joins director Daniel Kramer and conductor Edward Gardner for a new production of Wagner’s epic Tristan and Isolde

World-famous sculptor Anish Kapoor will design the sets for ENO’s unmissable new production of Tristan and Isolde. Directed by Daniel Kramer and conducted by former ENO Music Director Edward Gardner, Tristan and Isolde is one of the most hotly-anticipated arts events of 2016.

An epic drama told on a grand scale, Tristan and Isolde is one of the most powerful pieces in the repertoire. Described by Richard Wagner as ‘the most audacious and original work of my life’, the opera retells the legend of Tristan and Isolde’s transcendent but ill-fated love.

ENO’s first new production of Tristan and Isolde since 1996 is directed by ‘theatre’s most exciting young director’ (Daily Telegraph) Daniel Kramer. His previous work with ENO and Edward Gardner includes Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (2009) and Punch and Judy at the Young Vic (2008), for which he won the South Bank Show Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. Kramer was also nominated for the Golden Mask award for Best Director for Duke Bluebeard’s Castle when it was performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

For this spectacular staging Kramer collaborates with Anish Kapoor, one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. Winner of the Turner Prize in 1991, he was awarded a CBE in 2003 and a Knighthood in 2013 for services to visual arts. He designed the ArcelorMittal Orbit, Britain’s largest piece of public art, which was constructed in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to stand as a permanent legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Kapoor has also designed stage sets that include Idomeneo for Glyndebourne in 2003 and Pelléas et Mélisande for La Monnaie in Brussels in 2008.

This thrilling score is conducted for the first time by former ENO Music Director Edward Gardner. Following his performances of Richard Jones’s Olivier Award-winning, five-star production of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (2015), The Stage wrote that his ‘immaculate sense of balance and flow denotes a great Wagner conductor’.

The creative team is completed by Costume Designer Christina Cunningham, Lighting Designer Peter Mumford and Video Designer Frieder Weiss.

Tristan and Isolde opens at the London Coliseum on 9 June 2016 for 8 performances – June 9, 15, 22, 29 at 5pm and June 19, 26 & July 2, 9 at 3pm

Pre-performance talk: 19 June, 1.15-2pm, £5/£2.50 concs