Opera Holland Park

Leading Wagnerian Paul Carey Jones on role debuts

“Never do anything for the first time.” So the old saying goes in the opera business. This deliberate paradox contains a hard truth: making any sort of debut is a challenge. And in particular, performing a major operatic role for the first time is fraught with unforeseen dangers. So, for any young singer contemplating making…

Opera Holland Park announces its 2026 Season

In a year that honours 30 years since Opera Holland Park was established, the 2026 Season will open with a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s La fanciulla del West. The Season also includes a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, which will also be performed by the 2026 Young Artists. A reimagining of the enchanting…

Holland Park’s Wagnerian maiden voyage with The Flying Dutchman

**** Opera Holland Park’s choice of The Flying Dutchman for its first foray into the Wagnerian world (or cult) is both inspired and courageous. Inspired as it is Wagner’s most accessible opera (and short). Courageous as it demands vast amounts of drama, and much of that comes from the orchestra which has to be limited…

Opera Holland Park 2024 season

Opera Holland Park’s 2024 Season opens to press and public on 28 May with a revival of StephenBarlow’s sharp and seductive 2008 production of Tosca, new productions of The Barber of Seville(sponsored by Viking) and Acis and Galatea, three semi-staged performances of Puccini’s earlyromance, Edgar, a sensational double bill contrasting John Wilkie’s stylish 2019 staging…

A psychological journey into Onegin at Opera Holland Park

It is often said that this opera could, perhaps should, be called Tatyana rather than Onegin as she is in many ways the more central (and interesting) of the characters. It is both a strength and weakness of Julia Burbach’s direction that the title character is not only on stage far more than the opera…

Opera Holland Park introduces Songs on the Steps

Opera Holland Park is presenting a new series of free lunchtime recitals from the company’s principal singers.Songs on the Steps will offer a range of new and familiar songs and arias to capture the imaginations of devotees and dog walkers, passers-by and picnickers, featuring music from the 2022 Season.No booking is required. Bring a rug…

New commission from Opera Holland Park

Opera Holland Park has announced a new commission and world premiere for 2023: Itch. described as an operatic thriller with a most unusual hero. Based on Simon Mayo’s bestselling novels Itch and Itch Rocks, composer Jonathan Dove, above, and librettist Alasdair Middleton have been commissioned to create a new opera for Opera Holland Park. Its hero is Itchingham…

Natalya Romaniw can tell Houston that having survived Covid and lockdown there really isn’t a problem

It is a very long way between lockdown in Cardiff and rehearsing in Texas for the opening of Houston Grand Opera Dialogue of the Carmelites in Texas. For soprano Natalya Romaniw that journey, from the cancellation mid run of Madam Butterfly at English National Opera in 2020 to February 2022’s opening of the Poulenc opera,…

Opera Holland Park unleashes The Bear

Opera Holland Park’s production of William Walton’s take on the Chekhov comedy The Bear is being screened online during November on a “pay what you feel” basis. Filmed and recorded live on location in Stone House over two days in April 2021, Walton’s witty one-act opera reunites the cast and creative team of Opera Holland…

Elin Pritchard comes out fighting

Lockdown was intended to squash the COVID sombrero in early 2020 but it also flattened soprano Elin Pritchard’s rising career. Like many other singers the impact of the pandemic was sudden and dramatic. The North Wales-born, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduate was performing as Micaëla in Welsh National Opera’s touring production of…