Performers:
Alison Langer, soprano
Rebecca Bottone, soprano,
Victoria Simmonds, mezzo soprano
José de Eça, tenor
Paul Carey Jones, bass-baritone
Charlotte Corderoy, conductor
City of London Sinfonia, string quartet
Berrak Dyer, piano

In a concert where music and storytelling meet, Opera Holland Park makes its Barnes Music Festival debut, bringing five of its finest principal artists together under the baton of Charlotte Corderoy, with the City of London Sinfonia String Quartet and pianist Berrak Dyer.

“London’s own country house opera” (Culture Whisper) presents a programme inspired by stories of love and adventure, including music from Verdi’s La traviata, based on Dumas’s La Dame aux Camélias, scenes from Jonathan Dove’s Itch, which adapts Simon Mayo’s novel, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, drawn from Sir Walter Scott’s gothic masterpiece. The concert also explores the world of myth with Wagner’s stormy The Flying Dutchman, capturing Heinrich Heine’s tale of the legendary ghost ship.

The concert will feature some of today’s finest operatic talent, including lyric soprano Alison Langer, acclaimed for her roles in Pagliacci and Carmen; coloratura soprano Rebecca Bottone and mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds, who created the roles of Jude/Roshanna and Watkins in the world premiere of Itch; tenor José de Eça, who made his UK debut with Opera Holland Park in Tosca in 2024 and returns in 2025 in Lucia di Lammermoor; and renowned Wagnerian bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones, who makes his role debut as the Dutchman in this year’s production of The Flying Dutchman.

Opera Holland Park is an urban company blending tradition with the daring to redefine opera for a modern audience. Every summer, OHP builds a canopied open-air theatre to perform to audiences for a three-month long summer festival. Surrounded by the beautiful formal gardens and wilded woodlands of Holland Park, our auditorium is the perfect place to enjoy critically acclaimed opera, welcoming over 30,000 people each summer.