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Recommended age guidance 18+. Note that children under 5 are not allowed in the auditorium.
Performance dates
13 - 25 February 2027
Run time: 2 hours 35 minutes
Includes interval
Faith, heartbreak and loss. One of the most powerful contemporary operas, adapted from Lars von Trier’s critically acclaimed film, comes to the ENO. Hauntingly beautiful, prepare to be moved by the unflinching emotional intensity.
A strict religious community on a remote Scottish island. A couple in love, happily married until a terrible accident leaves Jan paralysed, unable to have an intimate relationship with his wife, Bess.
Bess encourages Jan to find sexual encounters elsewhere with other men, and then to recount her experience to him. Bess, devout to her husband and God, believes this is God’s will and reluctantly explores these sexual encounters.
The story tests the boundaries of faith, marriage and sacrifice.
Adapted from Lars von Trier’s multi-award-winning 1996 film, composed by the cultural trailblazer Missy Mazzoli. She is the first woman commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and hailed as ‘Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart’ (Time Out). Mazzoli’s music is influenced both by Britten and the minimalist music of Philip Glass.
Please note our recommended age guidance for Breaking the Waves is 18+.
Recommended age guidance 18+. This opera contains depictions of sex and violence including domestic & sexual violence, violence in a religious context, mutilation and attempted suicide.