Upcoming Events
Upcoming Events
Opera Holland Park: Turandot
Celebrating the centenary of its 1926 Premiere.
From Opera Holland Park’s foundation in 1996, Puccini has been central to the company’s programming. From multiple productions of La bohème, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly and La rondine across three decades to individual highlights including the Royal Philharmonic Society Award-nominated 2015 production of Il Trittico, our first staging of Le Villi in 2023 and the triumphant 2024 revival of Stephen Barlow’s ground-breaking 2012 production of Tosca, our work has included a semi-staging of the early romance, Edgar and a concert performance of the Messa di Gloria. In 2026, following Martin Lloyd-Evans’s new production of La fanciulla del West, the company’s third staging of this opera, we complete this journey of discovery with a concert staging and celebration of the centenary performance of Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, completed after the composer’s death in 1924 by Franco Alfano.
Conducted by Naomi Woo (Edgar 2024), Turandot continues the 2026 Season’s themes of deception and disguise, its heavily perfumed score the final expression of late romantic Italian opera’s fascination with the Far East. Director Eleanor Burke makes her much anticipated company debut with this concert staging, with a cast led by tenor José de Eça (Tosca 2024, Lucia di Lammermoor 2025, La fanciulla del West 2026) as Calaf, the unknown prince who must solve the riddles of the Ice Princess, Turandot, or lose his head. Last seen at Opera Holland Park in the role of Vivetta in L’arlesiana in 2019, soprano Fflur Wyn makes her role debut as Liù.
Opera Holland Park: Un Ballo Maschera
The first revival of Rodula Gaitanou’s "spectacular" 2019 production of Verdi’s 1859 tragedy of illicit love, political unrest and regicide in the court of Gustave III, King of Sweden
Chiaroscuro meets Busby Berkeley meets Boris Karloff in a staging designed by takis, lit by Simon Corder and choreographed by Steve Elias. Close cousin to Gaitanou’s much loved production of La traviata (2018, 2021, 2024) in its theatrical exuberance and psychological sensitivity, Un ballo in maschera was hailed in The Independent as “a triumphant meld of lighting, design and choreography” and The Spectator as “musically exemplary”, with particular praise across the press for the work of the Opera Holland Park Chorus.
In mutual love with Amelia, the wife of his closest ally, cursed by a prophecy from a medium, and under threat from anti-monarchist conspirators, Gustavo must renounce his passion or his throne. Michael Papadopoulos (Lucia di Lammermoor 2025, Acis and Galatea 2024) conducts this revival with a cast led by the Italian tenor Matteo Desole (La traviata 2018, 2021, 2025) in his role debut as Gustavo, with Rhian Lois (The Merry Widow 2025) as Oscar.
“No one beats Verdi at rendering the gorgeous cacophony of desire and rage”, wrote Howard Jacobson in The Observer in 2019. “The night quivered. The orchestra thrilled. The wind blew through the grand marquee, and I became a devotee.”
Opera Holland Park: Die Fledermaus
Johann Strauss II’s irrepressible comedy of flirtation and intrigue among Vienna’s poseurs, frenemies and round-the-clock party people
Sparring frenemies and working-class wannabes return to Opera Holland Park in a sparkling new production. Will Doctor Falke get his revenge on Gabriel von Eisenstein for the embarrassing incident with the bat costume? Can Frank convince Count Orlofsky and his guests that he is a Frenchman born and bred? And why does that actress look so very much like Rosalinde’s maid?
Excess is the order of the day as three of the company’s favourite leading ladies, sopranos Alison Langer (La traviata 2021 and 2025, Pagliacci 2024, Carmen 2023) and Rebecca Bottone (Itch 2023 and 2025, Flight 2015), and mezzo-soprano Clare Presland (Il segreto di Susanna 2019 and 2024, The Bear 2021), don various disguises and assumed names to join tenor Thomas Atkins (Eugene Onegin 2023) in a Viennese whirl of a plot of romantic intrigues and costume balls. Rising star George Jackson (Così fan tutte 2018) returns to conduct a score that fizzes with dances and drinking songs from across the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Lake District Music Festival Finale 2026
Cavalleria Rusticana is a one-act Italian opera set in a Sicilian village on Easter morning. The story centres on love, jealousy and revenge.
Turiddu, a young soldier recently returned home, rekindles a romance with Lola, despite her now being married to Alfio, a local carter. Hurt by Turiddu’s betrayal, his former lover Santuzza confronts him, but he rejects her. In despair and anger, Santuzza reveals the affair to Alfio.
When Alfio learns of Lola and Turiddu’s relationship, he challenges Turiddu to a duel in accordance with Sicilian tradition and honour. Before leaving to fight, Turiddu says an emotional farewell to his mother, sensing he may not survive.
Join us for Lake District Music’s semi-staged production, the finale to their 2026 summer season.
The Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss
The Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss is recognised as one of the RNCM’s leading competitions for vocal students, offering a substantial financial First Prize to aid further studies at the College.
Established in 2001 thanks to the inspiration and generosity of Joyce and Michael Kennedy, the award is open to fourth year undergraduates and postgraduate students. Following a preliminary round, six finalists are chosen to compete for the prize, presenting a 15 minute programme of songs and/or arias by Richard Strauss to an esteemed panel of judges. Both Joyce and Michael have been faithful and enthusiastic supporters of the RNCM since its inception and, before that time, of the old Royal Manchester College of Music. The RNCM remains extremely grateful for Joyce’s continuing support.
Adjudicators have included Dame Felicity Lott, Dame Janet Baker, Nigel Douglas, Marie McLaughlin, Sir Mark Elder, Dame Anne Evans, Sir George Christie, Sir John Tooley, Sir John Tomlinson, Roger Vignoles, Lillian Watson, Dame Josephine Barstow and Sir Thomas Allen. This year’s adjudicating panel was chaired by baritone Alan Opie.
Fated Hearts and Faded echoes: A Masters Recital
Fated Hearts and Faded Echoes; Songs of Love and Loss
"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; all that we deeply love becomes a part of us."
— Helen Keller
Join Jemima in her Masters recital as she explores the themes of love, loss and the inevitability of fate through an exciting programme of Bellini, Berlioz, Strauss, Bizet, Vaughan Williams, Howells and Parry.
Follow her on a journey through a forest at lovers meeting, stand beside Romeo as he fights for his Juliet, weep with Strauss at the loss of a lifelong love and reminisce on the melancholic beauty of all that is left behind. From the ecstatic joy of newfound passion to the quiet devastation of parting, this programme traces the fragile threads that bind love and grief so closely together.
Through moments of aching tenderness, longing and remembrance, Fated Hearts and Faded Echoes invites audiences into a world where love lingers long after the final farewell, and where every ending leaves behind its own echo.