New Sussex Opera’s (NSO) 2026 autumn touring production will be Charpentier’s tragédie en musique David et Jonathas. In five acts and a prologue, the work was written in 1688 for the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Paris. This dark jewel of the French Baroque opera with its achingly beautiful score will be staged in London and the South for the first time, performed in a new English translation by Christopher Cowell.
NSO will collaborate for the second time with the period-instrument Bellot Ensemble, the New Generation Baroque Ensemble for 2025-27, a scheme run jointly by BBC Radio 3, the RCM and the National Centre for Early Music. This follows their celebrated production of Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley in 2024 [see my review]. The production reunites the creative team responsible for NSO’s acclaimed staging of The Dragon of Wantley and The Silver Bell in 2025, director Paul Higgins, designer Mollie Cheek, choreographer Namiko Gahier-Ogawa, and dramaturg Benjamin Poore.
A cast of promising singers with burgeoning careers stars includes tenor Harun Ellis Tekin and countertenor Tom Lilburn in the title roles, with baritone Massimo Modoni as Saul, bass Daniel Chomiak as Achis and Samuel and Ukrainian mezzo Nadiia Chaichenko as the Witch. The principals will be supported by the New Sussex Opera Chorus, who remain at the heart of the company’s work.
Dance and movement, which play an essential role in French Baroque opera of this kind, are choreographed by Namiko Gahier-Ogawa, who will also appear onstage. As a celebration of the ingenuity and spectacle of Baroque stagecraft, the opera will be punctuated by dramatic use of stage percussion.
The tour sees the launch of the Chalk Cliff Trust NSO Emerging Artists programme, and is supported by funding from the Laidlaw Opera Trust. NSO’s Emerging Artists will play the many smaller named roles in David and Jonathan, and support the singing of the chorus elsewhere in the opera; this professional development programme will also include one-to-one coaching with NSO’s Music Director and Director. This programme is an exciting further step for NSO in its longstanding aim of supporting artists at the start of their careers and of acting as a bridge between the world of community-run opera and the professional one.
The production opens at the Windmill Theatre Hove on October 11 and tours to Holy Trinity, Cuckfield, The Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne, and The Theatre Royal Winchester. The performance at Cadogan Hall on 20 October is preceded by a pre-concert talk from the creative team with broadcaster Donald Macleod.
Full details from the New Sussex Opera website.
