Terry Gilliam returns to English National Opera

2 May 2013, 10:26 | Updated: 2 May 2013, 10:40

The Monty Python star turned Hollywood film maker is returning to ENO to direct Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini in their 2013-14 season.

English National Opera have announced their new 2013-14 season, including Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, directed by Terry Gilliam. As well as his work on films including Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam previously worked with ENO in 2011 with an acclaimed production of another Berlioz work, The Damnation of Faust.

Gilliam said: "I've avoided reading Berlioz's biographies, which everybody says I should, but I don't think I need to, but I think the music says it all. He was wonderfully ahead of his time, he was crazed, he had too many ideas, he was spectacular, he was shameless, the music is so extreme - and I kind of identified with him!"

The show will run for eight performances from June 5 2014. Other highlights of the season include UK premieres of nine other productions, including Beethoven's Fidelio, Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, Rigoletto, Rodelinda and Cosí Fan Tutte and four revivals, including Philip Glass's Satyagraha and Anthony Minghella's Madam Butterfly.

This year also sees ENO launch a new 'secret seat' scheme, where audience members pay a fixed price of £20 to be entered into a seat lottery. Opera fans could end up in the best seats in the house, which usually cost £125, or the cheapest seats, priced at £25, but organisers promise no views will be restricted and none of the tickets will be worth less than the ordinary sale price.