A weekend of opera in the Old Rose Garden to celebrate Henry Channon's great love of opera.

Wild Arts is delighted to return to Kelvedon Hall with two operas - Tchaikovsky's romantic love story Eugene Onegin, directed by former Shakespeare's Globe Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole, and Donizetti's dreamy, sun-kissed comedy The Elixir of Love, set in an Italian seaside village in the 1950ies and performed in a mischievous new translation. 

The performances will take place in a beautiful large marquee that will span the Rose Garden Amphitheatre, with grass embankments and perfect acoustics. The operas will be fully staged, in costume and sung in English by a cast of exceptional singers, with a chamber orchestra of 10 top musicians, conducted by Wild Arts' Artistic Director Orlando Jopling.

Saturday 28 June 

6pm Eugene Onegin

You are welcome to arrive from 4pm to set up your picnic in the gardens, and bring food, drink, rugs, chairs, tables, friends, and candelabras. You will be ushered into the Rose Garden for the performance at 6pm, and there'll be 90-minute picnic interval at approximately 7pm - 8.30pm, before Act II. Curtain down will be at approximately 9.30pm, and you are welcome to stay after the show to enjoy a drink with the Wild Arts company. 

Sunday 29 June

3pm The Elixir of Love

You are welcome to arrive from 12pm to set up your picnic lunch in the gardens, and bring food, drink, rugs, chairs, tables, friends, and candelabras. You will be ushered into the Rose Garden marquee for the performance at 3pm, and there'll be 30-minute interval for pudding at 4pm before Act II, which will end at approximately 5.30pm. You are then welcome to stay after the show to enjoy a drink with the Wild Arts company.

Dress - Black tie

Tickets £150 | Make a weekend of it and enjoy both operas for £245 (£55 discount) | Under 25s £50 | Early bird tickets are currently available at a £25 discount.

A limited number of early bird tickets to both operas and also a joint ticket to both are available at a discount. 

Please book early via the green button above - last year's opera sold out. We look forward to welcoming you to the Rose Garden.

The company

The cast, led by Galina Averina and Tim Nelson, are a mixture of international quality principals who have performed on stage at the world's great opera houses, and exceptionally talented younger singers who are on our Young Artist Programme.

The Wild Arts Ensemble, led by Sijie Chen, is no ordinary opera orchestra - the players are the pick of the UK's finest chamber musicians.

Dominic Dromgoole is on of the UKs most eminent theatre directors, having a string of international hits to his name. He was Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe for 12 years, taking performances to almost every country in the world.

A full list of the performers will be available here from January 2025.

Wild Arts Opera

In just two years Wild Arts has enjoyed startling growth and has gained a series of five star reviews and accolades from the UK press (★★★★★ Opera Now, ★★★★ The Guardian).

We take opera to beautiful places in the UK and Europe, in a one-planet-living way, adhering to the Theatre Green Book and showing how the arts can thrive in a sustainable way. We give opportunities to exceptionally talented performers at the beginning of their careers, and over 500 primary school pupils are actively involved each year in our work. We would like to expand our programme and would value your support in doing so.

Our long-term goal is to create a truly green opera house and performance space, set in a bio-diverse landscape, constructed entirely from sustainable materials, and with a full programme of music, opera, education and cultural opportunity, all produced within the planetary boundaries - ie the planet's ability to heal itself.

Find out more information about our outreach work here, and our public performances here.

The house

Kelvedon Hall is a grade I listed house with a 400-year history. Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon wrote his famous diaries here in the early 20th century.