Introducing the 2024 If Opera season
We are delighted to introduce our 2024 programme hosted at Belcombe Court, Bradford on Avon.
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Gaetano Donizetti
23 | 27 | 29 | 31 August
A new If Opera production sung in Italian with English surtitles.
Directed by Thomas Guthrie, an innovative and award-winning British director, Lucia di Lammermoor will be the magnificent centrepiece to the 2024 season.
Donizetti’s music is beautiful and lithe throughout and we have reconfigured the theatre so that the audience surrounds the stage, creating an immersive atmosphere for this most powerful of dramas.
DIE FLEDERMAUS
Johann Strauss II
24 | 28 August
An operetta in three acts sung in English.
This specially staged and costumed performance will be directed and narrated by the baritone and brilliant comic talent, Simon Butteriss.
Among the repertoire of opera houses throughout Europe there are several sparkling operettas that endure and Strauss’s Die Fledermaus sits at the top of the list for its effervescence and a seemingly endless parade of gorgeous melodies and waltzes.
Our popular picnic prom returns with JTQ - The James Taylor Quartet
26 August
For more than 35 years The James Taylor Quartet have set the standard for the coolest sounds in funky jazz.
Lead by Hammond organ-guru, James Taylor, JTQ stands with one foot planted in 2024 and the other, just as firmly, somewhere south of the 1970s.
Featuring an expanded six-piece line-up, including the incredible vocal talents of Yvvone Yanney, JTQ are perhaps best-known and best-loved for their unrivalled live performances – so don’t miss this opportunity to witness a true British music institution, live in concert.
ROALD DAHL’S
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
25 August
Little Red Riding Hood, from Roald Dahl's wicked Revolting Rhymes, is brought to life in this sparkling musical adaptation by composer Paul Patterson.
Join the Bristol Ensemble’s wind quintet and piano on a magical narrated journey through the Enchanted Forest starring our heroine, Little Red Riding Hood, and one slightly dim wolf whose dastardly deeds are thwarted at every turn by a cast of quirky characters.