A new Elixir & first-time Bohemians: John Savournin announces his first season at Waterperry Opera Festival

Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore -  Oskar McCarthy as Dulcamara in 2021 - Waterperry Opera Festival

For John Savournin's first season as artistic director of Waterperry Opera Festival, the company will be performing Puccini's La Bohème and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore as its main stage productions. Both works will be sung in English. La Bohème is receiving its first production at the Festival whilst they performed L'elisir d'amore in 2021 in a production by Dan Ayling [see my review].

The company aims to build on the success of its record-breaking 2025 season which saw unprecedented audience turnout and the Festival’s highest-ever selling main stage production.

La Bohème will be directed by Ruth Knight whose production of Handel's Rodelinda opened at Garsington Opera this summer [see my review]. Bertie Baigent, the Festival's co-founder and musical director, conducts with designs by Jennifer Gregory, who designed the 2025 production of Handel's Semele [see my review].

L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) see director John Wilkie returning to Waterperry for the third year, having directed Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2025 and Rossini's The Barber of Seville before that. L'elisir d'amore will reunite Wilkie with the creative team responsible for Don Giovanni, designer Ceci Calf and lighting designer Jake Wilshire. The conductor is Charlotte Politi.

The full 2026 programme, including family performances and further site-specific productions, will be announced in January. Priority booking will open in early March.

Further details from the Festival's website.