Marc-Antoine Charpentier's David and Jonathan

New Sussex Opera is launching its 2026 touring production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's David and Jonathan.

Spokeswoman Fran Mortimer said: “Following NSO's practice of championing underappreciated corners of the repertoire, this dark jewel of the French Baroque opera with its achingly beautiful score will be staged in London and the south for the first time, performed in a new English translation by Christopher Cowell. The opera was written in 1688 for the Jesuit School in Paris.”

Performances include Friday, October 23 at 7pm, Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne. More details on www.newsussexopera.org

“NSO will collaborate for the second time with the period-instrument Bellot Ensemble, the New Generation Baroque Ensemble for 2025-27, a scheme run jointly by BBC Radio 3, the RCM and the National Centre for Early Music. This follows their celebrated production of The Dragon of Wantley in 2024, conducted by Toby Purser.

“A biblical tragedy set in a war-torn world, it sees love and duty collide, with David, Jonathan and Saul caught in a destructive web of desire, politics and paranoia. This English-language staging reveals a profoundly moving portrait of loyalty and sacrifice, building to a tragic climax shaped by Charpentier’s richly expressive music, which is both sensuous and dancelike by turns.

“A cast of promising singers with burgeoning careers sees tenor Harun Ellis Tekin and countertenor Tom Lilburn take the title roles, with baritone Massimo Modoni as Saul, bass Daniel Chomiak as Achis and Samuel and Ukranian mezzo Nadiia Chaichenko as the Witch. The principals will be supported by the New Sussex Opera Chorus, who remain at the heart of the company's work.

“The production reunites the creative team responsible for NSO’s acclaimed staging of The Dragon of Wantley and The Silver Bell in 2025, director Paul Higgins, designer Mollie Cheek, choreographer Namiko Gahier-Ogawa, dramaturg Benjamin Poore.

“The staging draws on the iconography and art of Louis XIV's time – when Charpentier created the opera – as well as twentieth-century images of conflict for a production that reflects on the tragic, eternal recurrence of war and suffering. Dance and movement, which play an essential role in French Baroque opera of this kind, are choreographed by Namiko Gahier-Ogawa, who will also appear onstage. As a celebration of the ingenuity and spectacle of Baroque stagecraft, the opera will be punctuated by dramatic use of stage percussion.

“The tour sees the launch of the Chalk Cliff Trust NSO Emerging Artists programme and is supported by funding from the Laidlaw Opera Trust. Our Emerging Artists will play the many smaller named roles in David and Jonathan and support the singing of the chorus elsewhere in the opera; this professional development programme will also include one-to-one coaching with our music director and director. This programme is an exciting further step for NSO in its longstanding aim of supporting artists at the start of their careers and of acting as a bridge between the world of community-run opera and the professional one.”