English Touring Opera’s make their Spring visit to the Gala Theatre on 19 and 20 May – details are now on my listings. They’re doing Magic Flute and Tippet’s King Priam. I’d quite like to see their production of the Magic Flute, and the trailer looks great fun (there’s a link on my listing page) but unfortunately the “7 reasons why you can’t miss ETO’s Magic Flute” in their promo email don’t include “it’s not on a choir night”. I will be there for King Priam though. The opera was written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, and first performed the night before Britten’s War Requiem. It tells the familiar story of the fall of Troy, but focussing not on the heroes and gods, but on King Priam and his family, the choices they make and the consequences of their actions. It sounds compelling, and isn’t performed very often, so I will definitely be going to that one.