Find the perfect pitch as opera returns to Belcombe Court gardens

Article in Wiltshire Life, June 2023

Picture the scene. It’s a warm summer’s evening and groups of friends picnic within the grounds of a stately Georgian home. Soon the hum of their chatter stills as they make their way into the auditorium and settle into their seats. The gentle notes of an orchestra tuning up float across the gardens, the singers take their starting positions, and the opera is ready to begin.

What could be a description of an evening in East Sussex is instead one that took place in the small, picturesque town of Bradford on Avon last year. If Opera’s inaugural programme at Grade 1 Listed Belcombe Court made for a summer season of art and beauty in the heart of Wiltshire.

Featuring The Bristol Ensemble, the company performed a season of rare gems and family favourites to over 3000 audience members. This year they’re back with another eclectic and vibrant programme of work.

It’s a huge endeavour. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an army to put on a season of opera on this scale in a Wiltshire garden of this size. Powered by an incredible team of professional creatives and crew and a battalion of passionate and generous volunteers, the entire season of three productions and a picnic prom is set up, performed, and taken down in just three weeks.

The repertory ensemble model means that the company performs across a range of operas in the season. This enables If Opera to provide a stable wage to a group of artists across the rehearsal and performance period, which in an increasingly unstable opera ecology is rare. It also gives these singers the chance to perform many eclectic parts of the repertoire. With tickets starting from as little as £20, it provides audiences the opportunity to see a diverse array of talent for affordable prices right on their doorstep.

2023 sees If Opera return to their Saddlespan auditorium in Belcombe Court’s beautiful grounds and perform for the first time at Bradford on Avon’s purpose-built concert hall, Wiltshire Music Centre (featured in Wiltshire Life’s top ten theatres in its April edition).  It’s a season with something for everyone, from bloody Italian melodramas and fairy tale stories of the transformative power of love, to Gilbert and Sullivan classics and jazz-infused adventures in Wonderland.

The season opens with Fedora by Umberto Giordano. Hidden amongst the Italian ‘super operas’, this story of love, murder and betrayal has been experiencing an international renaissance with recent sell-out productions at The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan. Not seen in the UK since 2006, If Opera’s production gives audiences the rare chance to see this classic performed on home soil for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Families are invited to follow Alice down the rabbit hole with Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This wonderfully eclectic mix of jazz, musical theatre and opera is perfect for adults and children alike. Audiences can dive deeper into Alice's magical world by booking a seat at the 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' table, to eat surrounded by wonderous artifacts and meet some of Lewis Carroll’s iconic characters before the show.

The award-winning Charles Court Opera bring their five-star production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s raucous satire The Mikado to the stage. While the Picnic Prom is headlined by renowned jazz pianist Jason Rebello with vocalist Joy Rose, and seven-piece ‘swamp funk’ band The Coalminers.

This year the theatre at Belcombe Court will be more spacious and airier with new, wider seating and improved acoustic. Audiences are invited to bring their own food and drink for picnicking before the shows or can visit the Scout and Sage Gin bar and order picnics to collect on arrival from Goodness Grazers.

To finish the season If Opera brings Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s magical fairy tale, Iolanta, to the Wiltshire Music Centre. Tchaikovsky’s last opera premiered alongside the composer’s last ballet, The Nutcracker to thrilled audiences at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg in 1892. One of Tchaikovsky’s lesser-known works, this beautiful opera with aria after aria and a final exultant ensemble is increasingly becoming recognised as one of his most powerful works.

A proud part of Wiltshire’s rich artistic ecology, If Opera’s eclectic and vibrant programme makes for the perfect end to a summer of county culture.

For more information and to book go to ifopera.com or call Bath Box Office on 01225 463 362