London Coliseum 🎶🎹🏛

The biggest theatre in London

Inaugurated in 1904 to be the biggest and most luxurious theatre in London, the London Coliseum has survived for more than a century through many ups and downs maintaining a high profile for popular entertainment in the city with the highest concentration of theatres in the world. The Coliseum is now home to the English National Opera and the English National Ballet which take up the largest share of performances on the theatre programme. Its capacity has now been reduced to 2,359 seats but this is still high enough to keep the title of the largest theatre in London.

Built to impress

The theatre was commissioned to architect Frank Matcham as a venue of very large proportions and interior decor to impress the audience. In fact the grandiose auditorium with a domed ceiling and the foyer areas decorated in Edwardian-Baroque style with precious marbles and intricate plaster work provide a magnificent backdrop to every performance, Its architectural value has been recognised by English Heritage as a listed building in 1960. .

The English National Opera

Curtain call for a recent ENO production of Satyagraha by Philip Glass

One of the main institutions hosted within the London Coliseum is the English National Opera (ENO) moved to this venue after having been based at the Sadler Wells and earlier at the Old Vic. ENO is now one of the two major opera houses in London, along with the Royal Opera House. One of the distinguishing features of the ENO is to stage operas sung in English, rather than in the original language these were written in, ENO is also known for commissioning and staging new works, along with staging less performed operas. One of my latest visit there was to see Satyagraha, a mesmerising contemporary opera by Philip Glass, inspired by the life of Mahatma Gandhi.