Opera Holland Park has announced its 2025 season. The season will open with a new production of The “Flying Dutchman,” the company’s first staging of a work by Richard Wagner. Directed by Julia Burbach and conducted by Peter Selwyn, the production will star Paul Carey Jones, and Eleanor Dennis as the Dutchman and Senta with Neal Cooper as Erik. Premiere {…}
(Photo: Ellie Kurttz) John Savournin returned with Charles Court Opera for their fourth collaboration with Opera Holland Park, following 2023’s zesty “Ruddigore”. In 2024 they have opted for one of the most tonally and musically complex of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Savoy operas in “The Yeomen of the Guard”, whose mood is darker and dramaturgy complex, treading an awkward line between {…}
(Photo: Ali Wright) Opera Holland Park has made a name for itself rummaging around in the cupboard of verismo and polishing up the gems they find. Puccini’s seldom-performed “Edgar” featured in the 2024 summer offering – to mixed reviews, mostly ascribed to the uneven quality of the work than the artistry – now complemented by a striking new double bill {…}
(Photo credit: Ali Wright) Whatever your views on Puccini, “Tosca” always draws a crowd. In a UK opera landscape mired by cuts and ever-tightening budgets, it is reassuring to see an opera festival that continues to stand on its own two feet, irrespective of Arts Council funding (or perhaps more accurately lack thereof). A full house then, as it was {…}
Opera Holland Park has announced its 2024 season featuring two Puccini operas celebrating the centenary of the composer’s death. Puccini’s “Tosca” will be revived from a 2008 OHP production. Matthew Kofi Waldren conducts a cast that includes Amanda Echalaz, José de Eça, Edwin Kaye, and Jack Holton. Performance Dates: May 28-June 22, 2024 A new production of Rossini’s “The Barber {…}
(Photo: © Craig Fuller) Opera Holland Park’s last show this summer was Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Ruddigore.” This was their third co-production with G&S specialists, Charles Court Opera, following last year’s “HMS Pinafore.” Again, it is directed by John Savournin, who also plays a leading role, with David Eaton conducting the City of London Sinfonia in one of the duo’s more {…}
(Photo: Opera Holland Park 2023 © Craig Fuller) Part of “La bohème’s” appeal is surely in its cinematic quality. Puccini’s score does so much meticulous work that directors sometimes feel that they have little to do other than show the singers to the stage – and ensure they take the right cues from the orchestra. There are sudden close-ups and {…}
Photo credit: Opera Holland Park (c) Ali Wright Opera Holland Park (OHP) is rightly proud of its Young Artists (YA) scheme, now some thirteen-years-old. It boasts superb alumni who grace the stage of its summer season in principal roles as well as other major houses in the UK and abroad. Just last month, soprano and former YA Alison Langer impressed {…}
Photo: Craig Fuller Opera Holland Park’s (OHP) 2023 season opened with Cecilia Stinton’s new production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” It leads a pack of new productions including “Hansel and Gretel,” the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s new opera “Itch,” and “Ruddigore,” another G&S collaboration with Charles Court Opera. Stinton’s handsome production (designed by Neil Irish) is “Rigoletto” by way of Evelyn {…}
Opera Holland Park has announced its 2023 season. The company will open its season on May 30 with new productions of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” starring Stephen Gadd, Alison Langer, David Junghoon Kim, Simon Wilding, and Hannah Pedley. Lee Reynolds conducts the production by Cecilia Stinton. Performance Dates: May 30-June 24, 2023 Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” sung in German will feature 2023 {…}
(Photo: Opera Holland Park 2022 © Ali Wright) Following on from last season’s imaginative realization of “The Pirates of Penzance,” Charles Court Opera returned to the Holland Park stage in a co-production of “HMS Pinafore”. W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s satire on class, manners, and buffoonery as directed by John Savournin. Savournin has built quite the reputation in G&S as {…}