Peter Sellars returns to English National Opera to direct the world staged premiere of John Adams’s The Gospel According To The Other Mary as part of his role as the Director-in-Residence of the 14/15 season. Commissioned in 2012 by Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, The Other Mary has been performed in concert around the world, including at the Barbican in March 2013 to great critical acclaim. The Guardian described the performance at the Barbican as “vivid and immaculate…a remarkable occasion”.

The Other Mary continues the long-time creative collaboration between ENO, Peter Sellars and John Adams. Sellars’ “unmissable” (Evening Standard) production of Adams’s Nixon in China was presented by ENO in 2000 (revived in 2006) and Doctor Atomic, a“landmark work” (The Observer) with a libretto by Sellars, was directed by Penny Woolcock in 2009.

Like John Adams’s opera-oratorio El Niño, the Nativity work to which The Other Mary is a companion piece, the text has been created by weaving together an assortment of literary extracts – ranging from both Old and New Testaments to a variety of twentieth-century writers. Sellars described the work as an attempt to “set the Passion story in the eternal present, in the tradition of sacred art”, and so the narrative continuously attempts to combine the Biblical past with themes and references that remain relevant to a contemporary audience. The story unfolds from the point of view of Mary Magdalene, her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus.

Making her ENO debut, The Other Mary is conducted by Joana Carneiro. In 2010, Carneiro led performances of Peter Sellars’s stagings of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms at the Sydney Festival, which won Australia’s Helpmann Award for Best Symphony Orchestra Concert in 2010. Carneiro is currently Music Director of Berkeley Symphony and in January 2014 she was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica Portuguesa.

Set Designer George Tsypin is a sculptor, architect and designer of opera, film and video. Tyspin was Artistic Director, Production Designer and Co-author of the script for the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.

Completing the creative team is Gabriel Berry (Costume Designer), James F. Ingalls (Lighting Designer) and Mark Gray (Sound Designer).

Playing the role of Mary Magdalene is Patricia Bardon. In 2008, Bardon sang the roles of Rosmira in Partenope and Maurya in Riders to the Sea, for which she nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

American contralto Meredith Arwady plays the role of Martha. Arwardy made her UK debut as Pasqualita in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic for ENO in 2009.

The Gospel According To The Other Mary opens at the London Coliseum on 21 November 2014 for 6 performances – 21, 25, 27 November and 3, 5 December at 7.30pm and 29 November, 6.30pm