What's on in Summer 2024 at the UK's Opera Houses
The UK loves summer opera and, as usual, the upcoming summer season features a fantastic range of performances. But with so much on offer, which shows will you choose?
Here's what's on this summer at the UK's top opera houses.
1. Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera, under the direction of Antonio Pappano, is one of the world’s leading opera companies. Based in the iconic Covent Garden theatre, it is renowned both for its outstanding performances of traditional opera and for commissioning new works by today’s leading opera composers.
Madama Butterly
14 March–18 July 2024
Puccini’s devastating tragedy about a young geisha who falls in love with an American naval officer.
Carmen
5 April–31 May 2024
Aigul Akhmetshina and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya share the title role in Damiano Michieletto's searing new production of Bizet’s ever-popular opera.
Lucia de Lammermoor
19 April–18 May 2024
Katie Mitchell’s acclaimed production returns to The Royal Opera, bringing a bold, feminist vision to Donizetti’s setting of Walter Scott’s gothic novel.
Celebrating 22 Years of Antonio Pappano
16 May 2024
A special Gala evening with a star-studded cast to celebrate Antonio Pappano’s 22 years as Music Director of The Royal Opera.
Andrea Chénier
30 May-11 June 2024
Jonas Kaufmann headlines David McVicar’s spectacular staging, under the baton of long-time collaborator Antonio Pappano – who conducts Giordano’s epic historical drama of revolution and forbidden love in his last production as Music Director of The Royal Opera.
Così Fan Tutti
26 June-10 July 2024
Mozart’s classic opera puts love under the microscope with comic and disturbing results.
Tosca
1-21 July 2024
Set in Rome, 1800, Puccini's sweeping operatic thriller combines romance, revolution, and a devastating twist.
Jette Parker Artists Summer Performance
20 July 2024
The 2023/24 Jette Parker Artists perform an uplifting array of opera excerpts on the main stage, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
General booking opens on Wednesday 27 March 2024.
2. Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne is an opera house in East Sussex, which has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival since 1934.
Carmen
16 May-17 June and 1-24 August 2024
Award-winning Broadway director Diane Paulus brings us a powerful new Carmen. Passion ignites when Don José meets the fiercely independent Carmen, but she won’t give up her freedom without a fight. The energy and emotion of Bizet’s score collide with urgent, raw choreography in this visceral new production.
Die Zauberflöte
18 May-21 July 2024
Dazzling theatrical magic abounds in this visual and musical feast. Unforgettable characters search for love and truth in this playful reimagining of Mozart’s classic fairytale. Be transported by hand-drawn illustrations and elaborate puppetry, as well as some of the best music Mozart ever composed.
The Merry Widow
9 June-28 July 2024
This lavish new staging of Lehár’s sparkling romantic comedy has all the opulence of classic Hollywood. Glamorous, wealthy and recently widowed, can Hanna outwit the swarm of suitors in her search for true love? Danielle de Niese leads a stellar cast in this laugh-out-loud classic, which is sure to put a smile on your face as it spins around the glittering ballrooms of 1900s Paris.
Giulio Cesare
23 June-23 August 2024
Bollywood meets Baroque in this utterly original retelling of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s tempestuous love affair. Handel’s masterpiece, full of seduction, dazzling spectacle and vocal fireworks, is given the all-singing, all-dancing treatment in this Glyndebourne classic.
Tristan und Isolde
29 July-25 August 2024
Unstoppable love meets awe-inspiring musical power in this timeless epic. Two star-crossed lovers are consumed by a passion that destroys everything in its path. Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s dream-like production returns, with leading Wagnerian singers and orchestral forces led by Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati.
General booking opens on Sunday 3 March 2024 at 6:00 pm.
3. Garsington Opera
Garsington Opera is an annual summer opera festival founded in 1989. The Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert are its two resident orchestras. For 21 years it was held in the gardens of Ingrams's home at Garsington Manor in Oxfordshire, but since 2011 the festival has been held in Wormsley Park near Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire.
Platée
29 May-30 June 2024
A comic-tragic opera with grand choruses and fabulous dances plays out in a world of glamour and deception.
Le Nozze di Figaro
30 May-23 July 2024
Our legendary John Cox production of Le nozze di Figaro returns with Bruno Ravella as revival director and with Robert Perdziola’s beautiful design, first seen at Garsington Manor.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
16 June-19 July 2024
A visually striking and atmospheric production of Britten’s retelling of Shakespeare’s tale is co-produced with Santa Fe Opera and will include members of our Youth Company as the children’s chorus.
Un Giorno di Regno
29 June-22 July 2024
The first of Verdi’s two comedic operas finally takes its rightful place on the Garsington stage having been part of the cancelled 2020 Season. This light-hearted comedy features an impressive virtuosic vocal score sung by an international cast and large chorus of our renowned Young Artists.
Gala Concert
7 July 2024
A very special event to celebrate the opening of Garsington Studios. Enjoy an afternoon at Wormsley including a visit to the Studios, take tea whilst watching a cricket match, listen to a Young Artists’ recital, and meet the gardeners in the Walled Garden.
A Trip to the Moon
30-31 July 2024
Georges Méliès’ seminal 1902 silent film is the inspiration for this year’s Community Opera.
General booking opens on Tuesday 2 April 2024 at 10:00 am.
4. Opera Holland Park
Surrounded by the beautiful formal gardens and wilded woodlands of Holland Park, the canopied open-air auditorium is the perfect place to enjoy critically acclaimed opera in the heart of London.
Tosca
28 May-22 June 2024
Feared throughout Rome, a corrupt chief of police meets his match in Puccini’s gripping drama.
The Barber of Seville
4-21 June 2024
Rossini's sparkling comedy of intrigue with a hero of many talents.
Edgar
2-6 July 2024
A search for redemption in Puccini’s early romance.
Acis and Galatea
19 July-2 August 2024
G. F. Handel's miniature masterpiece of love, loss and transformation.
Il segreto di Susanna / Pagliacci
17 July-3 August 2024
Two stories of jealousy from two masters of comedy and tragedy.
The Yeomen of the Guard
7-10 August 2024
Broken hearts and broken vows abound in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Shakespearean comedy
General booking opens on Wednesday 6 March 2024 at 10:00 am.
5. Grange Park Opera
Founded in 1998, Grange Park Opera's elegant summer festival takes place at West Horsley Place, an enchanting 15th century house near the Surrey hills.
Double Bryn Terfel: blood & bounty
6 June-7 July 2024
Sir Bryn Terfel takes centre–stage in a tragedy / comedy pairing of bloodshed and bounty.
Daughter of the Regiment
8 June–6 July 2024
Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment is delicious French whimsy, written by an Italian, and sung in English. A canteen girl brought up by a rollicking regiment of soldiers is expected to marry a soldier but her heart strays elsewhere. Cue: much hilarity and many high notes from both the canteen girl and her lover Tonio – whose aria Ah mes amis! features a terrifying sequence of top C’s.
Katya Kabanova
16 June-12 July 2024
Katya Kabanova is one of the 20th century’s greatest operas. Janáček wrote music of blazing intensity inspired by his own love for a young woman. A second inspiration was Puccini’s Madama Butterfly which, he says, was the impetus musically and dramatically.
Island of Dreams
11 & 13 July 2024
Shakespeare’s Tempest has attracted composers across the centuries. Its most recent reinvention comes from Anthony Bolton, whose Life & Death of Alexander Litvinenko thrilled Grange Park Opera audiences in 2021.
Tickets for the summer festival are available now.
6. The Grange Festival
The Grange Festival is a summer opera festival established to continue performances at The Grange opera house in Hampshire.
L'incoronazione di Poppea
7-22 June 2024
Love conquers all in ancient Rome. The baddies win, the goodies are banished or killed. Social advancement and power politics govern Monteverdi’s soap opera: the first great work of baroque musical theatre.
Tosca
8-30 June 2024
Tosca pulsates with dramatic tension like few other operas. Puccini’s score curdles the blood. Christopher Luscombe, Simon Higlett and Francesco Cilluffo (Falstaff) return to create this new production of Puccini's searing masterpiece.
The Rake's Progress
23 June-6 July 2024
Hogarth’s London, with all its burlesque exuberance, is brought to life in Antony McDonald’s new production of The Rake's Progress. Stravinsky’s score is a modern Mozart opera, infused with delicious parody and celebration of the earlier genius’ music.
General booking is open.
7. Nevill Holt Opera
Nevill Holt Opera is an arts festival that is held at Nevill Holt Hall in Leicestershire.
The Magic Flute
1-9 June 2024
Nevill Holt Festival 2024 opens with Mozart’s most magical opera, directed and designed by Melly Still (Tony and Olivier Award-nominated Coram Boy, National Theatre; Rusalka and The Wreckers, Glyndebourne). An enchanting fairy-tale quest for love, The Magic Flute promises an evening of magic, mystique and romance, set to some of the most sublime music ever written by Mozart, conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear.
General booking is open.
Where is your favourite place to enjoy summer opera in the UK?
Garsington Opera
Glyndebourne
Grange Park Opera
Opera Holland Park
Stefan Holmström is a professional opera singer and voice teacher working with speakers and singers of all ages and abilities with a wide range of goals. He offers online and in-person vocal coaching and workshops from his studio in central Brighton in the UK. As an Estill Master Trainer (EMT), Stefan uses Estill Voice Training (EVT) as a baseline for safe and sustainable voice use.
