THINGS TO COME - BENVENUTO CELLINI

Benvenuto Cellini ENO production

English National Opera are keen to be inclusive, with musical theatre and a café promised for the future. Mike Leigh and a children's opera too.

We've already had Damon Albarn [back in 2012], and now, next month, we've got another Terry Gilliam to look forward to. Best remembered for his work on Monty Python, and for directing the visually stunning Brazil, Gilliam will be directing Berlioz's first opera, Benvenuto Cellini, with Ed Gardner in the pit. They first worked together on the same composer's Damnation of Faust – not really an opera, some might say – critically acclaimed in 2011.

We're promised stunning visual and musical set pieces such as the Mardi Gras carnival, the opera is based on the autobiography of celebrated 16th-century goldsmith and maverick sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. The ENO cast includes rising tenor Michael Spyres in the title role, soprano Corinne  Winters   as Cellini's lover, Teresa, and ENO favourite Willard White – whom I last saw as Britten's Bottom - as Pope Clement VII.