“I really want it to be normal for people to go to the opera.”

These are the words of Robin Norton-Hale, artistic director of English Touring Opera (ETO), who was introduced to opera by her dad. “He just loved classical music, all music,’ she says, smiling. “When I was born, it was natural for him to share this love with me. He took me to the English National Opera. We’d sit in the cheap seats. It was always special, but it was a normal thing to do.”

We’re interviewing Norton-Hale after ETO opened its spring tour in Sheffield for the first time, following its relocation to the Steel City.

“Now, as a grown-up, I really want it to be normal for people to go to the opera,” Norton-Hale tells us. “For the art to be extraordinary, for the experience to be extraordinary, but for it to be a normal thing I was lucky enough to have.”

A Sheffield home

ETO began moving its office up north in 2024 through the Arts Council England Transfer Programme. As part of that new chapter, audiences at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre experienced the premieres of fresh productions Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, directed by Olivier Award-winning director Liam Steel, and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, in a new English translation from Norton-Hale.

“The performances went down really well, there was whooping and cheering for both.” Norton-Hale grins. You can tell this means a lot to her. “Gilbert and Sullivan sold out and Pagliacci was very busy. There was a real buzz about it.”

After a successful spring tour across the North, ETO’s autumn tour will start in Sheffield, too. And there are hopes of a week-long city run in the future.

Norton-Hale, who is commuting to Sheffield three days a week, stresses the move up North is a “genuine commitment”. Most of ETO’s 17 employees have already relocated to Sheffield. And, as of June, the company no longer has an office in London.

“Because London has its two opera houses, we don’t make the same splash there that I think we can in Sheffield,” says Norton-Hale. “There was something about the tour opening here that felt special.”

But ETO is serving everyone, she says. “That includes people who want to come and see us in London and know they’ll get a different experience from the opera house.”

The clue is in the name, English Touring Opera – its whole reason for being is to take opera across the country. “We’re still going down to Truro, up to Chester and all over.” In fact, ETO takes world-class theatre to more towns and cities than any other UK opera company. Sheffield undoubtedly benefits, however. The move to the city means that each strand of ETO’s work, from children’s and sensory opera to working with people with dementia, will be implemented here.

And ETO’s move to Sheffield completes a holy triumvirate of opera for the north.

“There’s something longer term about having us in Sheffield, Opera North in Leeds, and English National Opera’s new presence in Manchester,” says Norton-Hale, who hopes there will be future northern co-productions and a positive impact for people seeking an opera career outside of London.

“We work with a lot of singers in the north but often they have to find somewhere to stay in London.” She also appeals to anyone who knows of suitable rehearsal spaces in Sheffield to get in touch. It’s no easy feat – it requires a space large enough to simultaneously rehearse two large scale operas for six weeks at a time.

Meanwhile, the welcome from the city’s cultural organisations has been “notable”, according to Norton-Hale. ETO has already collaborated with Sheffield Hallam University to create a short opera film and is keen for more creative partnerships. Now ETO is here, reaching new audiences and increasing access to opera is a priority with an average ticket price of £23.

At several schools in Sheffield, ETO has made a commitment to visit annually for four years, meaning those young people will have seen more opera than 85 per cent of adults, according to YouGov figures.

Norton-Hale says: “We have all these pathways for young people that are super important. But one of the things we try to do with adults who go to musical theatre or spoken theatre is show them the similarities. If you are into fashion, we’ve got amazing costumes, if you are story-driven we have that too, if you are into huge orchestras, we’re touring with one.

“We’re very confident in the quality of the work and it’s really engaging. We just need to get people to make that leap of faith and get them into the theatre. Then we think we can win them over, no matter how old they are.”

By Ellen Beardmore and Amy Stone

Main image: English Touring Opera – The Gondoliers, (c) Richard Hubert Smith.

 

For more information about ETO and tickets, click here.