Bright Young Things to the fore: Liam Steel's new production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in its 1920s London setting

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Alison Langer, Harry Wilson - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus; Thomas Atkins, Alison Langer, Rebecca Bottone, Clare Presland, Julien Van Mellaerts, Xavier Hetherington, director: Liam Steel, City of London Sinfonia, conductor George Jackson; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 29 July 2026

London 1929 is the setting for Liam Steel's engaging production full of Bright Young Things, helped by strong musical values under George Jackson though perhaps dialogue does not fizz quite enough

Johann Strauss's operettas were highly popular in his lifetime, particularly in Vienna, but apart from Die Fledermaus they have struggled to find a place in the repertoire - when did you last come across a performance of Eine Nacht in Venedig or Der Zigeunerbaron? The fault laid against them is often that the librettos were poor, partly this is because many were based on boulevard comedies. Mistaken identities, disguise and farcical situations are often key and a lesser known work like Blindekuh (Blind man's buff, see my review of the 2002 recording) seems to have too much plot for its own good.

Cannily, Die Fledermaus solves this problem partly by having a key element of the plot happen well before the opera starts, a trick with which Verdi (Il trovatore) and Wagner (Parsifal) were both familiar. The other canny element is the Act Two party, where stray bits of plot can happen in quick succession alongside a bubbly score. And that is the point, Strauss operettas work because of their scores, because of his infectious melodies.

Whilst Die Fledermaus is the best known of Strauss's operettas, it hardly gets over-performed in the UK. The Grange Festival performed it last year [see my review], and fringe opera company St Paul's Opera did it in 2024 [see our article]. But before then we came across Opera Integra in 2017 [see our review] and Opera Holland Park in 2016 [see my review], with ENO presenting a single run of Christopher Alden's production in 2013 [see our review], whilst the Royal Opera last performed it in 1990!

Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Julien Van Mellaerts, Clare Presland, Alison Langer, Thomas Atkins - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Ten years on from their last production, Opera Holland Park returned to Strauss's Die Fledermaus on 29 July 2026 in a new production directed by Liam Steel (who also provided the choreography) and conducted by George Jackson with City of London Sinfonia in the pit. Sets were by Neil Irish and costumes by Laura Jane Stanfield. Eisenstein was Thomas Atkins, Rosalinde was Alison Langer, Rebecca Bottone was Adele, Clare Presland was Orlofsky, and Julien Van Mellaerts was Falke.

Beyond the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera; Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari, Rosalind Plowright, dir: Rodula Gaitanou, City of London Sinfonia, cond: Michael Papadopoulos; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 25 July 2026

Superbly sung with a real sense of the underlying melodrama of the piece. Gaitanou's 1940s Hollywood setting really comes together for a highly taut and disturbing final act 

Verdi's Un ballo in maschera has a famously complex history. Planned for the 1858 Carnival season at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, controversy over the subject matter and the heavy hand of the Neapolitan censors meant that the opera debuted in revised form in 1859 in Rome. The source for the libretto was Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué. 

Verdi was familiar with French grand opera, he had had two not entirely successful attempts at writing in the genre - Jérusalem (a major rewrite of I Lombardi) in 1847 and Les vêpres siciliennes (with a libretto by Scribe) in 1855. He had also produced a grand opera version of Il trovatore as Le trouvère in 1856 [see my review of Le trouvère at Wexford Festival]. His fascination with the genre was partly economic and reputational - the Paris Opera paid well and success there was a significant event. But it would only be in 1867 with Don Carlos that he 'cracked' the genre, however his experience of French grand opera would cast a long shadow on his later Italian operas, so that Aida for instance has clear links to the genre.

Un ballo in maschera is a fascinating example of the way Verdi and his librettists took elements of the French grand opera genre but projected them onto a tauter dramatic structure. There is still a ball as the climax of the opera, but it has an important dramatic function. Similarly, the scene at Madame Arvidson's is stripped of frivolity and wrapped into the dramatic structure. And the opera has none of the length problems that beset Don Carlos when presented in Italian opera houses.

Opera Holland Park had a notable success with its 2019 production of Un ballo in maschera [see my review], which was also that year's Young Artists production [see my review]. Now the production has been revived for the first time with a largely new cast. We caught the opening night on Saturday 25 July 2026. Rodula Gaitanou again directed (with Harriet Taylor as assistant director), and Michael Papadopoulos conducted the City of London Sinfonia. Designs were by takis. Gustavo was sung by Matteo Desole, Amelia by Elin Pritchard, Anckarstrom by Dario Solari, Oscar by Rhian Lois and Madame Arvidson by Rosalind Plowright (who sang in the original production). The conspirators were Jihoon Kim and Duncan Stenhouse.

It's all about the music: Opera Holland Park chorus & City of London Sinfonia on terrific form under Naomi Woo in powerful, celebratory Turandot

Puccini: Turandot - José de Eça - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Pablo Strong)

Puccini: Turandot; Anne Sophie Duprels, José de Eça, Fflur Wyn, Jihoon Kim, Robert, Burt, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Joseph Buckmaster, Zwakele Tshabalala, director: Eleanor Burke, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Naomi Woo; Opera Holland Park

A powerful evening from Opera Holland Park's chorus, youth chorus and the City of London Sinfonia who fill the auditorium with music, in a performance perhaps unsubtle at times yet always thrilling.

Puccini's Turandot is the only one of the composer's operas not performed at Opera Holland Park. To celebrate the company's 30th anniversary, the centenary of the first performance of Turandot and soprano Anne Sophie Duprels 25-year association with the company, Turandot was presented in a concert staging on Tuesday 23 June at Opera Holland Park. Naomi Woo conducted with Duprels as Turandot, José de Eça as Calaf, Fflur Wyn as Liu, Jihoon Kim as Timur, Robert Burt as Altoum, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Joseph Buckmaster and Zwakele Tshabalala as Ping, Pang and Pong, and Wonsick Oh as the Mandarin.

Though performed in a reduced orchestration the City of London Sinfonia spilled out of the pit and onto the stage (trumpets and trombones stage right, percussion with its array of tam-tams stage left). An expanded Opera Holland Park chorus sat on the main stage and sang from copies, and were joined at times by the Opera Holland Park Youth Chorus. This latter was formed in 2025 and this was its first appearance on one of OHP's operatic stagings.

Puccini: Turandot - Anne Sophie Duprels - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Pablo Strong)

From the outset, Naomi Woo shaped the opera commandingly and the orchestral sound filled the auditorium with colour and movement. Too much so, at times, frankly, as in the work's more intimate moments you felt that lack of a pit to cover the sound. This was a loud performance of a loud opera, and the quieter, more reflective passages could have done with being emphasised more. That said the orchestra and choral contributions were effectively the real highlights of the evening. For Turandot to work you need to be carried away by the whole, not just thrilled by 'Nessun dorma' and here Woo and her forces definitely blew us away.

What fun, what larks: musical quality & deft comic action in Opera Holland Park's 1960s package deal holiday Cosi fan tutte

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Osian Wyn Bowen, Madeline Boreham, Paul Grant - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte: Madeline Boreham, Shakira Tsindos, Osian Wyn Bowen, Paul Grant, Elizabeth Karani, Paul Carey Jones, director: Cecilia Stinton, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Charlotte Corderoy; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 28 May 2026

Musical quality triumphs in Cecilia Stinton's over-active Italian package holiday-themed production with a young cast led by conductor Charlotte Corderoy really showing their Mozartian chops

When Mozart's Cosi fan tutte last appeared at Opera Holland Park (OHP) in 2018 [see my review] the young artists playing the lovers were Eleanor Dennis, Kitty Whately, Nick Pritchard and Nicholas Lester, all now well on their way to being distinguished names, and one wonders what a production featuring them would be like now. The sisters being somewhat more mature, perhaps having a holiday fling!

That 2018 production was also firmly and attractively set in the 18th century. For their new production at this year's Opera Holland Park, director Cecilia Stinton [who directed Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor here last year, see my revew] and designer Neil Irish have decided to take the opera's ideas of two women holidaying near Naples and give it a more contemporary gloss so that the sisters are on a distinctly modern package deal holiday. 

We caught the opening night of the production (28 May 2026) when Charlotte Corderoy conducted the City of London Sinfonia with Madeline Boreham and Shakira Tsindos as Fiordiligi and Dorabella [the two were in the 2023 Young Artist performance of Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel, also conducted by Corderoy, see my review]. Ferrando was Osian Wyn Bowen and Guglielmo was Paul Grant [who sang Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville in 2024, also directed by Stinton, see my review]. Elizabeth Karani was Despina and Paul Carey Jones was Don Alfonso, both OHP regulars.

Mozaart: Cosi fan tutte - Elizabeth Karani - Opera Holland Park 2026 (Photo: Craig Fuller)

During the overture we watched passengers arriving for holidays against a backdrop of a huge Naples travel poster. The mood was deliberately upbeat and at the end of the overture Fiordiligi and Dorabella were left, unmet, at the airport. The setup seemed to be that Ferrando and Guglielmo were American servicemen stationed in Naples, and both Don Alfonso and Despina worked in the hotel where the sisters were staying. Act One unfolded against a series of imaginative (and very funny) scenes as the sisters did the usual tourist activities. The men's disguises were as ancient Romans and dressing up became a theme as, when the sisters finally took the plunge they dressed up too, as did Despina and Don Alfonso.

Throughout, Neil Irish's designs made the most of very little, creating a series of imaginative and effective settings yet allowing scenes to flow. A single ticket booth did multiple duty - airport arrivals, hotel reception, ticket desk at Pompeii - thus ensuring we knew where we were! The introduction of quasi-erotic Roman frescoes during Act Two only ensured that the opera's underlying theme was emphasised.

A mix of melodrama & sentiment, yet unashamedly enjoyable: Opera Holland Park open the season in terrific form with Puccini's La fanciulla del West

Puccini: La fanciulla de West - José de Eça, Robert Hayward - Opera Holland Park, 2026 (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Puccini: La fanciulla del West; Amanda Echalaz, José de Eça, Robert Hayward, Zwakele Tshabalala, Alaric Green, Aidan Edwards, Blaise Malaba, director: Martin Lloyd Evans, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Matthew Kofi Waldren; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 26 May 2026

With two leads who soar and vivid sense of ensemble, Opera Holland Park launches its 30th season with a production that should win plenty of hearts and minds for Puccini's surprisingly sophisticated Wild West opera

Puccini's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West premiered at the Met in New York to great acclaim but failed to make a regular place for itself in the opera house. When the Met mounted a new production in 1961 it was the first time the company had performed the work in 30 years. Covent Garden's 1977 production, originally intended for the 1976 American Centennial celebrations, featured Carol Neblett and Placido Domingo and the production's subsequent filming made its very influential. This production was a regular at Covent Garden until 2008. Since then both Opera North and English National Opera have produced the work (both in 2014). Opera North revived their production in 2021, but the work has never returned to the London Coliseum alas. 

Opera Holland Park had productions in 2004 and 2014, with Grange Park Opera producing it in 2008 and 2016 [see my review]. When I attended Opera Holland Park's 2014 performance I commented on how many people had not seen the opera before, and the situation has hardly changed.

It remains a challenging work to produce because the basic premise is so specific, yet somewhat resistant to naturalism. When Richard Jones directed it for English National Opera in 2014 [see my review] he talked about not tinkering with the opera's complex mechanism. It is not a piece that responds well to creative dissonance, so the 1950s Las Vegas casino setting for Stephen Barlow's production at Opera Holland Park 2014 was less successful [see my review].

Puccini: La fanciulla de West - Amanda Echalaz, José de Eça - Opera Holland Park, 2026 (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Yet the opera has oddities which mitigate against complete naturalism. The work opens with the men rushing into the Polka saloon, the language is Italian, yet there are odd awkward English phrases and the card game that the men are playing is Faro! It requires you to surrender to this world. For all their rough exterior, these characters have a strong vein of sentimentality and early on in Act One, Jake Wallace's aria keys into this as well as providing the source material and connective tissue for a lot of the opera.

Watching Opera Holland Park's new production where director Martin Lloyd-Evans and designer Anna Reid have chosen to set the work in 1849 as intended, I was struck by how much Puccini and his librettists, Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, prefigure that combination of the projection of robust manhood with melodrama and sentimentality that characterises many of the mid-20th Westerns from Hollywood. And the ending with Minnie and Dick walking off into the distance is pure Hollywood too. Except, of course, Puccini and his librettists took this from Belasco's original play where the stage pictures conjured much. [Incidentally there is a 1938 film based on Belasco's play with songs by Sigmund Romberg!]

Opera Holland Park opened its 2026 season with Puccini's La fanciulla del West on Tuesday 26 May 2026 directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren with City of London Sinfonia in the pit. Designs were by Anna Reid, lighting by Jamie Platt, choreography by Roisin Whelan. Amanda Echalaz was Minnie, Robert Hayward was Jack Rance, José de Eça was Dick Johnson, Zwakele Tshabalala was Nick, Alaric Green was Ashby, Aidan Edwards was Sonora. Freddie Tong and Kezia Bienek were Billy Jackrabbit and Wowkle, Blaise Malaba was Jake Wallace, Ronald Nairne was Jose Castro.

Puccini: La fanciulla de West - Opera Holland Park, 2026 (Photo: Craig Fuller)

The seven other named miners were played by members of the Opera Holland Park Chorus - Jamie Formoy, Joe Ashmore, Michael Temporal Darell, Dominick Felix, Hugh Beckwith, Matthew Duncan, Samuel Snowden - whilst another chorus member, Robert Jenkins play the Pony Express rider.

A little summer magic: Anush Hovhannisyan & Sam Jewison in Broadway Rhapsody, for one night only

Broadway Rhapsody: Anush Hovhannisyan & Sam Jewison

Soprano Anush Hovhannisyan is familiar from her performances as Lisa in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Space at the Grange Festival [see my review], Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park [see my review], and Verdi's Les vêpres Siciliennes at WNO [back in 2020 when the company could still afford to stage grand opera, see my review] but in July we will be seeing another side to her.

On 26 July 2026, Hovhannisyan is joined at Opera Holland Park by singer and pianist Sam Jewison and a 40-piece orchestra for Broadway Rhapsody, a celebration of Broadway musicals with music from Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, Show Boat, Porgy and Bess, Anything Goes and more, blending the golden age of Broadway with classical flair.

This is very much a passion project for Hovhannisyan and she describes it as "a bold, artist-led, no-safety-net adventure, which means no big backers, just us, the music".

She is joined by Scarborough-born jazz pianist and vocalist Sam Jewison whose performances have included sold-out EFG London Jazz Festival shows in 2022 and 2023, as well as appearances at the West End’s Crazy Coqs, Camden’s Jazz Café, Westminster Abbey and, not least, the Royal Opera House.

Tickets are available from the Opera Holland Park website, and what better way to spend a summer evening.

Alice's Adventures Underground, Puccini's Golden Girls & masterclass with Louise Alder: Opera Holland Park's Opera in Song returns

Julien Van Mellaerts at Opera in Song in 2022

Opera in Song, baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and pianist Dylan Perez' song recital series at Opera Holland Park, returns for 2026 with three recitals and a masterclass from 22 to 26 June 2026. Tenor Robert Murray and soprano Madeline Boreham join Perez to open the series with a musical reimagining of Lewis Carroll's seminal novel, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, exploring the nonsensical prose of the novel as well as influences in Carroll’s life and creativity including works by Elgar, Walton and their contemporaries. 

Soprano Louise Alder will be giving a public masterclass with the OHP Young Artists, and then in the evening, she, Perez and the OHP Young Artists will perform works by Mozart, Haydn and Mendelssohn. The final event celebrates OHP's production of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West with soprano Olivia Boen joining Van Mellaerts and Perez to perform works by Copland, Previn and Bernstein. Perez and Van Mellaerts will also be celebrating the release of their disc, Dialogues which comes out on Delphian Records in June.

Full details from the Opera Holland Park website. 

Ravishing delight: Rebecca Meltzer tells the story of Handel's Semele with engaging clarity at Waterperry Opera with Hilary Cronin & Michael Lafferty

Handel: Semele - Hilary Cronin & ensemble - Waterperry Opera Festival (Photo: Jennifer Hawthorn)

Handel: Semele; Hilary Cronin, Michael Lafferty, Sophie Goldrrick, Nathan Mercieca, Sarah Winn, director: Rebecca Meltzer, conductor: Bertie Baigent, Waterperry Opera Festival; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 23 August 2025

A small-scale production with a big heart. Director Rebecca Meltzer tells the story with engaging clarity and benefits from Hilary Cronin charming and delighting in the title role

Having finished its summer performances in Oxfordshire, Waterperry Opera Festival made two guest appearances at Opera Holland Park bringing their new production of Handel's Semele. We caught the second, on 22 August 2025. The director was Rebecca Meltzer and conductor was Bertie Baigent with Hilary Cronin as Semele, Michael Lafferty as Jupiter, Sophie Goldrick as Juno, Nathan Mercieca as Athamas, Sarah Winn as Ino, Phil Wilcox as Cadmus, Louse Fuller as Iris, James Micklethwaite as Apollo and Masimba Ushe as Somnus and the High Priest. Designs were by Jennifer Gregory, lighting by Catja Hamilton and movement by Alexandria McCauley.

Meltzer's production took advantage of the full extent of the Opera Holland Park stage even adding a walkway across the middle of the pit. Most of the action was on the forestage with the main stage used for emphasis. Jennifer Gregory's designs were contemporary, the mortals dressed in shades of black, white and grey with clothes that might have come from Cos, whilst the immortals were in vivid colour with paint on their skin and graffiti-esque clothes.

Handel: Semele - Michael Lafferty, Hilary Cronin - Waterperry Opera Festival (Photo: Jennifer Hawthorn)

It was a tight and small cast, with many of the smaller roles being doubled with the chorus, but quick changes and clear delineation of costumes meant that there was never any confusion, and the choruses filled the space admirably. Bertie Baigent directed a small-ish band from the harpsichord, but even with a second harpsichord in the ensemble the instrument sounded undernourished and the cello was the main driver in the recitatives.

I Shall Hear In Heaven: Tama Matheson impressively incarnates Beethoven in an evening that puts music alongside the spoken word

Tama Matheson as Beethoven in his play, Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven

Tama Matheson: Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven; Tama Matheson, Jayson Gillham, Quartet Concrète, English Chamber Choir; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 6 August 2025

Tama Matheson effective combines spoken drama with music to illuminate Beethoven's life in an evening both theatrical and musical

Biographies of artists are, in the main, tricky because if you are not careful you can lose sight of the essential, the act of creation. Writers at least leave something that can be included, but with other artists the written word struggles as can anything dramatised. Director, playwright and actor Tama Matheson has been extending the way we dramatise musicians' lives by writing plays that incorporate their music, not as simple background but as an integral part of the theatrical experience.

Beethoven's life was eventful enough, but a simple recitation or dramatisation of the facts would lose sight of the essential core of his life, the creation of music, everything else was largely irrelevant. Tama Matheson's Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven debuted at the Wimbledon International Music Festival in 2021 and was nominated for the 2022 RPS Storytelling Award. In it, Matheson combines a dramatised biographical portrait of Beethoven with the man's music, performed live.

Matheson's Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven played the first of two performances at Opera Holland Park on 6 August 2025. Matheson played Beethoven and was artistic director of the project and was joined by pianist Jayson Gillham along with actors Robert Maskell and Suzy Kohane, plus Quartet Concrète (Anna Brown, Leon Human, Dominic Stokes, Joseph Barker) and the English Chamber Choir.

Satisfying all round: Opera Holland Park's revival of its 2018 production of Verdi's La traviata showcases a trio of fine principals in a vividly realised production

Verdi: La Traviata - Alison Langer, Ellie Edmonds - Opera Holland Park 2025 (Photo: Ali Wright)

Verdi: La Traviata; Alison Langer, Matteo Desole, Michel de Souza, director: Rodula Gaitanou, conductor: Matthew Kofi Waldren, City of London Sinfonia; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 23 July 2025

Holland Park's revival of its 2018 production was no seasoned routine, but a vibrantly living and musical performance that was profoundly satisfying with two principals who have grown into their roles

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Verdi's La traviata returned to Opera Holland Park for the third time in Rodula Gaitanou's handsomely traditional yet intelligent production. Having debuted in 2018 [see my review] with Lauren Fagan and Matteo Desole (with Alison Langer in the Young Artists Performance), it returned in 2021 [see my review] with Lauren Fagan and Alison Langer, sharing the title role, and Matteo Desole. And here we were again, with a cast many of whom had been associated with the production since its outset.

We caught the performance on 23 July 2025, conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren (who was also associated with the production from the outset in 2018) with Alison Langer as Violetta, Matteo Desole as Alfredo and Michel de Souza as Giorgio Germont, plus Ellie Edmonds as Annina and Laura Woods as Flora. Designs were by Cordelia Chisholm, lighting by Simon Corder and choreography by Steve Elias. The City of London Sinfonia was in the pit (using a slightly reduced orchestration with fewer horns and brass, and no on-stage band).

Verdi: La Traviata - Opera Holland Park 2025 (Photo: Ali Wright)

Old-fashioned drama & a modern gloss: Cecilia Stinton's production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Holland Park with Jennifer France's debut in the title role

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Tabitha Reynolds (ghost), Jennifer France - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor; Jennifer France, José de Eça, Morgan Pearse, director: Cecilia Stinton, conductor: Michael Papadopoulos, City of London Sinfonia; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 18 July 2025

Set firmly in the 1840s and full of narrative detail, this was a Lucia that combined immediacy with vivid musical theatrics and a sense of drama.

Opera Holland Park's new production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor which opened on Friday 19 July 2025 was something of a family affair. It was directed by Cecilia Stinton who first worked for the company as director of the Young Artists' performance of Verdi's La Traviata in 2018 and since then she has directed Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Rigoletto and Rossini's The Barber of Seville for the company. Similarly conductor Michael Papadopoulos was the repetiteur on the same Young Artists' La traviata and he has worked on the music staff subsequently, conducting his first main stage production last year with Handel's Acis and Galatea.

But Lucia di Lammermoor is nothing without its heroine. Jennifer France made her Opera Holland Park debut in 2015 in Jonathan Dove's Flight and since then has dazzled with Adele in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, Zerbinetta in Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos and as Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen. Whilst tenor José de Eça first sang with the company as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca last year having earlier that year sung in concert with the company. And the Scarpia in that production of Tosca was Morgan Pearse, a baritone known as much for his Handel and Mozart as later repertoire.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Jennifer France, José de Eça - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

The cast was completed by Joseph Buckmaster as Arturo, Blaise Malaba (who sang in the 2019 Young Artists production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera) as Raimondo, Charlotte Badham (who was Cherubino in the 2021 Young Artists performance of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and subsequently sang Jo March in Mark Adamo's Little Women and Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel). David Webb, who was Richard Dauntless in Gilbert & Sullivan's Ruddigore in 2023 was Normanno.

Designs were by Neil Irish, lighting by Tim van 't Hof and movement by William Byram. The City of London Sinfonia was in the pit, playing a slightly reduced orchestration, the mad scene used the traditional flute, there were a couple of small cuts but it was done substantially complete.

Stinton and Irish set the piece in the early 19th century, roughly at the time of the opera's creation. The political clash that is at the heart of Scott's novel and Cammarano's libretto replaced by an economic one. The Ashtons' declining old money being dependent on Lucia's marriage to a Victorian plutocrat. Paul Hastie's surtitles glossed things, somewhat, but it worked.

Brilliant reinvention & razor sharp take-down: Scottish Opera's double-bill pairs Gilbert & Sullivan with Toby Hession's brand new comedy at Opera Holland Park

Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury - Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)

Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury, Toby Hession & Emma Jenkins: A Matter of Misconduct; Richard Suart, Jamie MacDougall, Kira Kaplan, , Chloe Harris Ross Cumming, Edward Jowle, directors: John Savournin & Laura Attridge, Scottish Opera, conductor: Toby Hession; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 24 June 2025

A brilliant reinvention of Gilbert & Sullivan's legal satire as 1980s reality show, plus a brand new operetta that featured a razor-sharp take down of contemporary politics.

Having given us John Savournin's somewhat disappointing reinvention of Lehar's The Merry Widow [see my review], Scottish Opera completed its residency at Opera Holland Park with a double bill featuring Savournin's brilliant updating of Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury alongside a new commission, Toby Hession's A Matter of Misconduct with a razor-sharp libretto by Emma Jenkins and a cast featuring four Scottish Opera Emerging Artists.

On 24 June 2025 at Opera Holland Park, Toby Hession conducted Scottish Opera forces in Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury and Hession & Emma Jenkins' A Matter of Misconduct, with both operas designed by takis.

John Savournin directed Trial by Jury with Richard Suart as the judge, Jamie MacDougall as the Defendant, Kira Kaplan as the Plaintiff, Chloe Harris as Counsel for the Plaintiff, Ross Cumming as Foreman of the Jury, Amy J Payne as First Bridesmaid and Edward Jowle as the Usher.

Laura Attridge directed A Matter of Misconduct with Ross Cumming as Roger Penistone, Deputy Prime Minister, Edward Jowle as press secretary Hugo Cheeseman, Jamie MacDougall as special advisor Sandy Hogg, Chlose Harris as Cherry Penistone and Kira Kaplan as Sylvia Lawless.

Toby Hession & Emma Jenkins: A Matter of Misconduct! - Ross Cumming, Chloe Harris, Kira Kaplan, Edward Jowle, Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)

The Merry Widow meets the Godfather: Scottish Opera brings John Savournin's new production of Lehár's operetta to Opera Holland Park

Lehár: The Merry Widow - Alex Otterburn, Henry Waddington - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)

Lehár: The Merry Widow; Paula Sides, Alex Otterburn, Rhian Lois, William Morgan, Henry Waddington, director: John Savournin, Scottish Opera, conductor: Stuart Stratford; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 19 June 2025

Scottish Opera brings its New York Mafia Merry Widow to Opera Holland Park in a production where the two principals shine despite distractions and overdone comedy

Viennese operetta was written as escapism, usually based on boulevard comedies with plenty of mistaken identity and pretence, settings were largely exotic. in 1905, librettists Viktor Léon and Leo Stein turned to Henri Meilhac's 1861 comic play L'attaché d'ambassade, to create Die lustige Witwe. They transferred the action to Paris, moving the protagonists' native land to the exotic Montenegro, introducing extra plot involving the baron's wife and transferring the last act to the chic Parisian restaurant of Maxim's. The result seemed to have all the ingredients required for an operetta.

Hungarian composer Franz Lehár wrote music that was inflected by these Parisian and Balkan settings, yet his treatment of the opera's two couples, Hanna and Danilo, Valencienne and Camille, gives them sentimentally touching music that makes their emotional journey's believable. Die lustige Witwe isn't just about comic situations, it is about people, yet these four are surrounded by a welter of determinedly comic, stock characters, and that is the challenge when it comes to bringing the operetta alive on today's stage.

It is tempting to wonder what the original production was like (the original Hanna, Mitzi Günther did in fact record parts of the opera and you can hear her Viljalied on YouTube). Now, I expect that we would find the original tedious and hardly escapism, after all neither Paris nor Montenegro has the same exoticism. ENO has had two goes at getting the piece right in recent decades, neither the John Copley production in 2008 [see my review], nor the Max Webster one in 2019 [see my review] seem to have stuck, though both got some things right. Graham Vick directed it at the Shaftesbury Theatre for the Royal Opera in 1997, an experiment that seems never to have been repeated. At Glyndebourne last year (I only saw the production on video), Cal McCrystal brought his familiar style to the work, keeping the original setting yet overegging the drama.

Lehár: The Merry Widow - Paula Sides - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)

Scottish Opera, Opera Holland Park and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company have collaborated on a new production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow in what was presumably hoped were the safe hands of director John Savournin. Savournin with David Eaton founded Charles Court Opera and have long experience in this game, whilst Savournin and his company have collaborated with Opera Holland Park on a series of Gilbert & Sullivan stagings. For this production Savournin and Eaton produced a new English version.

Having toured the production for Scottish Opera earlier this year [see the review in The Stage]. The cast, the Scottish Opera Orchestra and Chorus, and conductor Stuart Stratford came to Opera Holland Park. We caught the first performance at Opera Holland Park on 19 June 2025. The cast was led by Paula Sides as Hanna and Alex Otterburn as Danilo, with Rhian Lois as Valencienne, William Morgan as Camille, and Henry Waddington as Zeta. Designs were by takis, with lighting by Ben Pickersgill and choreography by Kally Lloyd-Jones.

Savournin (book) and Eaton (lyrics) had the idea to transpose their new English version to Italian-American Mafiosi in New York, with Hanna's fortune coming from Sicily,  so that the second act moved to Sicily, whilst Maxim's was relocated to New York. In an article in the programme book, John Savournin argued cohesively for the new setting, which does make sense intellectually. Unfortunately, the relocation creates dramaturgical and emotional problems.

A lot more emotional resonance than you might expect: Jonathan Dove & Alasdair Middleton's Itch return to Opera Holland Park shows it is more than a rattling good yarn

Jonathan Dove: Itch - Xavier Hetherington - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Jonathan Dove & Alasdair Middleton: Itch; Xavier Hetherington, Natasha Agarwal, Rebecca Bottone, Victoria Simmonds, Eric Greene, Robert Burt, James Hall, director: Stephen Barlow, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Matt Scott Rogers; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 6 June 2025

Dove's Itch returns with Xavier Hetherington successfully drawing us into the engaging mix of family , heroes and villains, and mythic drama with real emotional resonance

Jonathan Dove's Itch, with libretto by Alasdair Middleton based on Simon Mayo's books, debuted at Opera Holland Park in 2023 [see my review] in a production by Stephen Barlow. This has now been revived as Opera Holland Park's second production of its 2025 season. Matt Scott Rogers (assistant conductor in 2023) conducts the City of London Sinfonia, this time Xavier Hetherington as Itch (Itchingham Lofte), also new to the cast was James Hall as Cake and Berghahn, plus Natasha Agarwal, Rebecca Bottone, Victoria Simmonds, Eric Greene, Nicholas Garrett and Robert Burt returning to their roles. We caught the second performance on 6 June 2025.

I have never read Simon Mayo's books, but Alasdair Middleton and Jonathan Dove have created a rattling good yarn that manages to bowl along, carrying you away with it, rooting for the good characters and wanting to boo the bad ones. Even second time around, when we knew what was coming, the work drew you in and the ending when Eric Greene's Nicholas Lofte (Itch's father) rescues his son, brought a lump to the throat. That is part of Dove's skill. 

Sometimes his music can feel slightly too close to primary colours (nearer to Sondheim than Britten), but here he manages to give most of the major characters moments of real emotion, short aria-like monologues where we hear their personal thoughts. This helps a lot as the basic characters are all stereotypes, which of course, makes the plot easier to follow and means that Middleton's libretto does leave plenty of space for Dove's music.

Impressive debuts: Opera Holland Park's first Wagner opera, Der fliegende Holländer is something of a triumph

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer - Eleanor Dennis, Paul Carey Jones - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer; Paul Carey Jones, Eleanor Dennis, Robert Winslade Anderson, Neal Cooper, Angharad Lyddon, Colin Judson, director: Julia Burbach, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Peter Selwyn; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 29 May 2025

The company's first venture into Wagner is a triumph, combining the mythic with the personal in a production that filled the auditorium with vivid drama yet had a quiet intensity in the more intimate moments.

Opera Holland Park opened its 2025 season with a new production of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, the most compact of his mature music dramas, though this still represented a significant increase in scale for the company with a large chorus with larger than usual orchestral forces. Not only was this Opera Holland Park's first staging of Wagner, but there were two debuts in the cast with Paul Carey Jones (an experienced Wotan most recently at Longborough) making his debut as the Dutchman and Eleanor Dennis singing her first Senta (building on previous experience at Longborough, and as Eva in Die Meistersinger with Saffron Opera Group).

To stage the work, Opera Holland Park turned to the team of director Julia Burbach and conductor Peter Selwyn, who were responsible for Grimeborn Opera Festival's fine Ring Cycle [see my review], with the City of London Sinfonia in the pit. We caught the second performance on 29 May 2025, with Paul Carey Jones as the Dutchman, Eleanor Dennis as Senta, Robert Winslade Anderson as Daland, Neal Cooper as Erik, Angharad Lyddon as Mary and Colin Judson as the Steersman.

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer - Paul Carey Jones - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Naomi Dawson's fixed set depicted a world gone awry with nothing quite true and a vast ramp presenting Senta's room at an alarming angle. There was nothing sea-going about it, yet, Dawson and Burbach managed to vividly suggest the sea and the ships where necessary, making full use of the whole Opera Holland Park stage, the chorus scenes in Acts 1 and 3 really have the whole stage erupting into action. Sussie Juhlin-Wallen's costumes were modern without making too much point, whilst the Dutchman wore an outfit that merged the trendy with a suggestion of the East, creating a definite otherness to the character.

Vivacity, humour & pathos: Opera Holland Park & Charles Court Opera in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard - Stephen Gadd - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; William Morgan, Matthew Kellett, Llio Evans, Ellie Laugharne, Samantha Price, Stephen Gadd, Amy J PAyne, John Savournin, Jack Roberts, Darren Jeffrey, director: John Savournin, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: David Eaton; Opera Holland Park in collaboration with Charles Court Opera
Reviewed 7 August 2024

Gilbert & Sullivan's more serious opera in a production that balances vivacity, humour and pathos whilst filling the theatre with colour and movement

W.S. Gilbert's librettos for Arthur Sullivan tend to be rather complex mechanisms that do not lend themselves to too much radical reinvention, and most productions content themselves with tweaking the era and the setting. The Yeomen of the Guard, one of their finest collaborations, is one opera that rather resists much tinkering, the entire plot focused on the Tower and its influence. Neither of the recent productions, at ENO [see my review] and the Grange Festival [see my review], was in any way radical though both adjusted and modernised the setting.

For his production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard at Opera Holland Park, director John Savournin chose to return the work to its Victorian roots. The production, which opened on Wednesday 7 August 2024, was the fourth collaboration between Opera Holland Park and Charles Court Opera, and featured designs by Alyson Cummins which placed the setting firmly in a Victorian view of Tudor England, and Cummins' set made it clear that we were in a Victorian theatre. This gave scope for Savournin to keep Gilbert's cod-Tudor dialogue (which is often modernised).

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard - John Savournin, Matthew Kellett - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ellie Kurtz)

David Eaton conducted the City of London Sinfonia with William Morgan as Colonel Fairfax, Matthew Kellett as Jack Point, Llio Evans as Elsie Maynard (though illness meant that the role was sung from the pit by Ellie Laugharne), Samantha Price as Phoebe, Stephen Gadd as Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Amy J Payne as Dame Carruthers, John Savournin as William Shadbolt, Jack Roberts as Leonard Meryll and Darren Jeffrey as Sergeant Meryll.

Relentlessly entertaining: Louise Bakker's new production of Handel's Acis and Galatea at Opera Holland Park rather over-eggs things but features finely engaging soloists

Handel: Acis and Galatea - chorus - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Handel: Acis and Galatea; Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory, Chuma Sijeqa, Ruari Bowen, director: Louise Bakker, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Michael Papadopoulos; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 19 July 2024

For the company's first Handel work, a group of stylishly appealing soloists feature in a production which does not quite understand that less is more and which tends to over-egg things

For such a simple-seeming work, Handel's Acis and Galatea has a somewhat complex history. Written in 1718 whilst Handel was under the patronage of the Duke of Chandos, the work was premiered at the Duke's mansion Cannons with a tradition that it took place in the gardens (which were in the process of being 'improved'), then going on to have a strange after-life as Handel expanded it to suit his Italian opera company. 

We don't know much about that first performance and the surviving music is from slightly later and was published in 1722. It would have been a tiny performance, just five singers providing soloists and chorus, and a similar number of instrumentalists. Whether it was staged is anybody's guess, but Handel's complex writing for the chorus suggests that they, at least, would have been stationary.

For Opera Holland Park's first production of a Handel work, the choice fell rather aptly on Acis and Galatea in the 1718 version (albeit without the character of Coridon who was in the very first performance but dropped subsequently). We caught the opening night on 19 July 2024, directed by Louise Bakker with Michael Papadopoulos conducting the City of London Sinfonia. Elizabeth Karani was Galatea and Anthony Gregory was Acis, with Chuma Sijeqa as Polyphemus and Ruari Bowen as Damon, plus a chorus of eight.

Handel: Acis and Galatea - Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Alyson Cummins' set spread across the whole of the Opera Holland Park stage, creating a series of pastoral-inspired areas - a temple, a swing in a bower, a mound - with neo-classical architecture and verdant greenery and flowers. And yet, the effect had a deliberate artificiality to it, there was no attempt at realism. This was not an evocation of pastoral Ancient Greece, but a highly theatrical Arcadia. This was emphasised when, during the overture, the chorus arrived. They were dressed in what suggested a group of 18th century aristocrats playing at being English nature spirits. One of the men was Herne the Hunter, another something like the Green Man.