What's on in summer 2023 at the UK's opera houses
The UK loves summer opera!
Luckily, there are many excellent opera companies across the country presenting cutting-edge productions of the highest musical standard and wonderful dining experiences.
As usual, the upcoming summer season features a fantastic range of performances. But with so much on offer, which shows should you choose?
If you are new to opera I recommend Tosca and La Bohème by Puccini. These two operas are a great introduction to the genre because they are gripping dramas acted out in real time. They will have you on the edge of your seat, laughing and crying in equal measures. Other excellent choices are Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and The Marriage of Figaro with their many familiar tunes and sheer, exuberant fun.
If you are familiar with opera already, there are two interesting productions of Werther coming up, both at the Royal Opera House and Grange Park Opera, as well as a rare production of Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmélites at Glyndebourne.
Personally, I am really excited to see that there is a new commission by Jonathan Dove, composer of Flight, at Opera Holland Park, called Itch.
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.
Werther
20 June–4 July 2023
Antonio Pappano conducts Massenet's opera of grand passion and devastating tragedy.
Woman at Point Zero
28–30 June 2023
A story of two women who share their memories, experiences and secrets.
Don Carlo
30 June–15 July 2023
Nicholas Hytner's production of Verdi’s epic historical opera evokes the passion, violence and religious repression of Renaissance Spain.
The Marriage of Figaro
8–22 July 2023
Director David McVicar brings out the revolutionary elements in Mozart’s great comic opera of intrigue, misunderstanding and forgiveness.
La Traviata
10–23 July 2023
Richard Eyre's beautiful production tells the heart-breaking story of Violetta, a courtesan who sacrifices all for love.
Jette Parker Artists Summer Performance
22 July 2023
The 2022/23 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 Thursday 13 April 2023.
2. Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne is an opera house in East Sussex, which has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival since 1934.
Don Giovanni
19 May-15 July 2023
Womanising aristocrat Don Giovanni lives a life of debauchery and pleasure, seducing and abandoning women wherever he goes. But when a seduction goes horribly wrong, he finally finds himself in a situation he cannot charm his way out of.
L’elisir d’amore
20 May-19 July 2023
Light, lyrical and bursting with energy, L’elisir d’amore was the biggest success of Donzietti’s career – a comedy with the softest of hearts and the sweetest of melodies.
Dialogues des Carmélites
10 June-29 July 2023
One of the most devastatingly powerful operas in the repertoire, Dialogues des Carmélites is also one of the most beautiful. Steeped in Debussy, Monteverdi and Verdi, Poulenc’s lyrical score balances cinematic drama and scope, charged with the violence of revolution, with moments of startling simplicity and beauty.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1 July-22 August 2023
In Shakespeare’s story of dreams and desires, four young lovers find themselves lost in a magical wood – playthings for the fairies who rule there. Inhibition gives way to exploration, as fantasy and reality collide over the course of one heady summer’s night.
Semele
23 July-26 August 2023
With a plot full of lusty Gods and beautiful mortals, where intrigue and desire take centre-stage, Handel’s Semele combines the drama of Italian opera with the choral splendour and richness of English oratorio.
The Rake’s Progress
4-27 August 2023
Hogarth’s famous sequence of paintings, charting one man’s path from pleasure to ruin, are the starting point for one of the most dazzlingly original works of the 20th century, a Mozart opera that has wandered into a musical hall of mirrors – at once elegant and anarchic.
General booking opens on Sunday 5 March 2023 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.
Il barbiere di Siviglia
31 May-22 July 2023
Rossini’s joyously inventive music makes this a deftly-paced triumph of comic timing.
Mitridate, re di Ponto
1 June-2 July 2023
Mitridate, the warrior king of Pontus, and his two sons Farnace and Sifare, are all in love with the same woman, Aspasia, resulting in a complex web of rivalry, jealousy, aggression and pent-up passion.
Ariadne auf Naxos
18 June-21 July 2023
The story of Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos and despairing of her lost love, is interrupted repeatedly by the comedians, keen to help and to advise her that the best way to cure a broken heart is to find another lover.
The Bartered Bride
30 June-23 July 2023
This is a story of thwarted love and arranged marriage, an arrangement which the spirited heroine, Mařenka, is not prepared to accept. She has to use every last ounce of determination, charm and cunning that she possesses in order to marry the man she loves.
General booking opens on Tuesday 4 April 2023 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.
Rigoletto
30 May-24 June 2023
Hansel and Gretel
10 June-23 June 2023
La bohème
19 July-5 August 2023
Itch
22 July-4 August 2023
Ruddigore
9 August-12 August 2023
General booking opens in April 2023.
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.
Tristan & Isolde
8 June–9 July 2023
One of the greatest love stories ever told. From that puzzling first phrase, landing on the Tristan chord, Wagner’s late masterpiece weaves its magic. Epic – in every sense.
Tosca
10 June-5 July 2023
Puccini’s Tosca has been called a “shabby little shocker” but ever since it was premiered in 1900, operagoers can’t get enough of it. Fuelled by revenge, lust, murder, and suicide – the opera continues to grip its audience.
Werther
17 June-12 July 2023
Rekindle the experience of first love. Massenet’s gentle love story has the dazzling American mezzo Ginger Costa-Jackson (Charlotte) breaking the heart of the shy poet played by Leonardo Capalbo (Werther).
Bryn Terfel Gala
13 July 2023
Everyone's favourite Welsh knight visits Grange Park for one evening only.
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.
Così Fan Tutte
8-24 June 2023
Two pairs of chivalrous, idealistic, naïve lovers play out challenges directed by their controlling rational puppeteers, initiated by a wager made in a Neapolitan coffee house.
Orfeo Ed Euridice / Dido and Aeneas
9-28 June 2023
Rarely paired before, here are two early operas which changed the course of operatic history. Both end with two of the most adored arias ever written, frequent ‘guests’ on Desert Island Discs.
The Queen of Spades
23 June-2 July 2023
Pushkin’s moody story, set in the St Petersburg imperial court, is ‘an eternal tale of gambling and avarice’ but also a fantastical excursion into the supernatural and an exploration of how over-weaning obsession erodes rational behaviour.
General booking opens on Wednesday 1 March 2023.
7. Nevill Holt Opera
Nevill Holt Opera is an arts festival at the end of June and beginning of July that is held at Nevill Holt Hall in Leicestershire.
Pagliacci & Gianni Schicchi
31 May-6 June 2023
Pagliacci is the tragic story of a travelling commedia dell’arte troupe and the characters within it. Set as a play within a play, the 19th century opera by Ruggiero Leoncavallo tells a story of dramatic love and betrayal. Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi is the perfect comedy in this unique pairing of operas, and follows the aftermath of a family death and farcical missing will.
La Cenerentola
22-28 June 2023
Rossini’s La Cenerentola is a comic retelling of the Cinderella story. Angelina is forced to serve in her own home to her stepfather Don Magnifico and stepsisters until everything changes upon the arrival of the prince Don Ramiro in search of a wife.
General booking opens on Thursday 23 February 2023.
Where is your favourite place to enjoy summer opera in the UK?
Garsington Opera
Glyndebourne
Grange Park Opera
Opera Holland Park
