Dorset Opera Festival is an annual country house opera festival combining amateur and professional performers, which takes place at Bryanston near

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England. Operas are staged at the conclusion of a two-week summer school focused on the 18–25 age group, based at

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the ...

. It attracts performers from around Europe. Founded as Dorset Opera by Patrick Shelley at

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

in 1974, it moved to Bryanston in 2005, when Roderick Kennedy became its artistic director, and it became Dorset Opera Festival in 2011. Operas are staged in The Coade Hall theatre at the school, and touring productions are also staged elsewhere. Recent productions below: 2011: Puccini's '' Tosca'' and Verdi's ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the La Scala, Teatro alla Scala, M ...

'' 2012: Verdi's '' Il trovatore,'' Puccini's '' Suor Angelica'', and ''Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrament'' by Lord Berners. 2013: '' La traviata'', directed by

Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, comedian and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 19 ...

, Wagner's '' The Flying Dutchman'' and a reduced version of ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'' staged by Dutch National Touring Opera. 2014: Verdi's '' Aida'' and Beethoven's only opera, ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Opus number, Op. 72, is the sole opera by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of ...

'' 2015: Verdi's '' Un Ballo in Maschera'' and Donizetti's '' L'elisir d'amore'' 2016: Tchaikovsky's ''

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...

'' and Verdi's ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

'' 2017: Gounod's '' Faust'' and Rossini's '' Le comte Ory'' 2018: Puccini's ''

'' and Massenet's '' Le Cid'' (the British stage première) 2019: Donizetti's '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' and Verdi's '' Nabucco'' 2021: Mozart's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'', Mozart's ''

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

'' and Handel's '' Acis & Galatea'' in the Mozart orchestration 2022: Puccini's '' Manon Lescaut'' and Mozart's '' The Magic Flute'' 2023: Mozart's '' Le nozze di Figaro'' and Massenet's '' Le Roi de Lahore (finalist in the International Opera Awards 2023)'' 2024: Puccini's '' Madama Butterfly'' and Paul Carr's ''Under The Greenwood Tree'' (librettist Euan Tait, after Thomas Hardy)

References

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External links

Official site
Opera festivals in England Opera in the United Kingdom Music festivals in Dorset Music festivals established in 1974 1974 establishments in England Annual events in England

See also

References

External links