Annilese Miskimmon
Annilese Miskimmon (born 1974) is a Northern Irish-born opera director who has been the artistic director of English National Opera since 2020. She previously held equivalent posts at Ireland's Opera Theatre Company (2004–12), Danish National Opera (2012–17) and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2017–20).
Early life and education
[edit]Annilese Miskimmon was born in 1974 in Bangor, County Down, near Belfast, to Irene and John Miskimmon.[1][2] She was educated at Glenlola Collegiate School in Bangor.[2] She said in a 2016 interview with Fiona Maddocks that opera was "central" to her imagination as a child, characterising the form as simply a "really dramatic story with big music".[1] She sang in the chorus of amateur opera productions in her teens, and she cites her father, who sang in amateur productions with Opera Northern Ireland and Castleward Opera, as an important influence.[2] The first opera that she attended was an amateur performance of The Magic Flute in Belfast, at the age of ten. She said that opera, together with theatre, formed a "safe place for open-minded, creative people from both communities" during the Northern Ireland conflict.[1]
Miskimmon read English at Christ's College, Cambridge (1992–95). There she was involved with the college's amateur dramatic society and the university's opera and Gilbert and Sullivan societies, starting to direct theatre and opera. She became president of the college JCR,[3] where she led a campaign to protect first-year students from older ones.[4] She then went to City University in London, where she studied arts management.[5]
Career and productions
[edit]Early career
[edit]Miskimmon was a producer at Welsh National Opera, and also worked at Glyndebourne Festival Opera.[5][6] She then became artistic director at Ireland's Opera Theatre Company (2004–12), general manager and artistic director of the Danish National Opera (2012–17), and director of opera at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (2017–20).[5][7] She concurrently worked as a freelance director.[6]
An early work she directed was a 2000 semi-staged performance of Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town at the Royal Festival Hall in London.[8] She staged an experimental version of Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Danish National Opera in 2015, in which the audience selected both the type of staging and the interpretation of the ending. Hannah Nepil, writing in the Financial Times, considers that this "milks the ambiguity" of the ending, and underlines the work's focus on "choice, indecision and 'the road not taken'".[6]
In 2018, Miskimmon's version of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Glyndebourne unusually shifted the setting to American-occupied Japan in the 1950s; Rupert Christiansen, in a review for the Telegraph, comments that the choice lends "urgency" to Butterfly's plight, likening her to a "war bride".[9] Christiansen, also in the Telegraph, criticises her earlier decision to give Handel's Semele a modern setting, in a 2017 production with Garsington Opera, writing that Miskimmon here "flounders" as a director and "blurs" the opera's "sly sexual politics", describing the staging as "littered with rather desperate visual ideas".[10]
As well as giving a new slant to classics of the repertoire, she successfully staged underperformed works.[6] In 2011, she directed Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz with Opera Holland Park, changing the setting to 1950s America, a move that Christiansen, reviewing for the Telegraph, describes as "effortless, enlivening – and nicely cute".[11] Other examples are productions of Ambroise Thomas's Mignon at Buxton Festival and Massenet's Don Quichotte at the Danish National Opera in 2014.[6]
English National Opera (2020–date)
[edit]In October 2019, Miskimmon was appointed artistic director of the English National Opera (ENO), succeeding Daniel Kramer;[5][7] at the time Gramophone described her as the only woman to lead an important opera company in Britain.[12] She took up the post in May 2020 during coronavirus lockdown, and in September 2020, led innovative Drive and Live ENO performances of Puccini's La Bohème in the car park of Alexandra Palace, London,[2] perhaps the first drive-in opera performance in Britain.[13]
The choice of Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale for her first conventional production at ENO in April 2022 is described by Nicholas Kenyon in the Telegraph as a "brave move... vindicated" by a "totally committed and communicative" performance that attracted a younger-than-usual audience.[14] The production employed a simple staging that coupled austere sets with film denoting the character's memories, a contrast which Richard Fairman, in a review for the Financial Times, found effective[15] while Kenyon describes the set as "dreary".[14] In a September 2024 production of Puccini's Suor Angelica, Miskimmon moved the setting from Italy to Ireland's Magdalene Laundries.[16]
She was elected an honorary fellow of Christ's College in 2024.[3]
Personal life
[edit]Miskimmon is married. As of 2021, she lived in Surrey.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Fiona Maddocks (9 October 2016). Annilese Miskimmon: 'From an early age opera helped me escape the Troubles'. The Observer
- ^ a b c d e Tina Campbell (4 April 2021). Annilese Miskimmon: National Opera leading lady 'proud' of NI roots. BBC News Northern Ireland (accessed 20 December 2024)
- ^ a b College News. Christ's College Magazine, pp. 28–29 (2024)
- ^ P. H. S. (2 November 1994). No sex please. The Times (65101), p. 18
- ^ a b c d Lanre Bakare (8 October 2019). English National Opera names Annilese Miskimmon as new artistic director. The Guardian
- ^ a b c d e Hannah Nepil (13 March 2015). Interview: Annilese Miskimmon, Danish National Opera director. Financial Times
- ^ a b Alex Marshall (8 October 2019). Beleaguered English National Opera Announces New Artistic Director. New York Times
- ^ Geoff Brown (9 October 2000). On the Town: Festival Hall. The Times, p. 24
- ^ Rupert Christiansen (18 June 2018). The heartless GIs who inspired Mme Butterfly. The Daily Telegraph, p. 24
- ^ Rupert Christiansen (4 June 2017). Romantic, witty and a little bit muddled. The Sunday Telegraph, p. 26
- ^ Rupert Christiansen (13 June 2011). Chip-shop shenanigans take the shine off fine farce. The Daily Telegraph, p. 27
- ^ Sarah Kirkup (9 October 2019). Annilese Miskimmon is appointed ENO's new Artistic Director. Gramophone (accessed 21 December 2024)
- ^ Claire Jackson (17 June 2020). Country Life, pp. 96–97
- ^ a b Nicholas Kenyon (11 April 2022). Resonant tale of terror, fear, and a hint of love. The Daily Telegraph, p. 25
- ^ Richard Fairman (11 April 2022). The Handmaid's Tale – one of the most powerful operas of the century. Financial Times
- ^ Nicholas Kenyon (30 September 2024). Haunting reimagining of Puccini by the ENO. The Daily Telegraph, p. 11
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