Opera at Forde Abbey
Wed 2 Jul 2025 4:00 PM - Thu 3 Jul 2025 9:30 PM
Forde Abbey, TA20 4LU
Description
Wednesday 2 July 2025 Eugene Onegin
Thursday 3 July 2025 The Elixir of Love
After the success of their 2023 and 2024 visits, Wild Arts return in 2025 with two operas - Tchaikovsky's romantic love story Eugene Onegin, directed by former 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 the beautiful Great Hall in the main house, with room for only 175 audience members.
The operas will be fully staged, in costume and sung in English by a cast of exceptional singers, with a chamber orchestra of top musicians, conducted by Wild Arts' Artistic Director Orlando Jopling.
Forde Abbey is a Grade 1 listed 17th century country house with 30 acres of award-winning gardens, including the highest-powered fountain in England, wildflower meadows, topiary lined vistas, herbaceous borders, arboretum, bog garden, and walled kitchen garden.
Wednesday 2 July
6pm Eugene Onegin
You are welcome to arrive from 5pm to set up your picnic in the gardens, and bring food, drink, rugs, chairs, tables, friends, and candelabras. The performance will start at 6pm, with a 90-minute picnic interval at approximately 7pm before Act II starts at 8.30pm. Curtain down will be at approximately 9.30pm.
Directed by Dominic Dromgoole and conducted by Orlando Jopling.
Thursday 3 July
6pm The Elixir of Love
You are welcome to arrive from 5pm to set up your picnic in the gardens, and bring food, drink, rugs, chairs, tables, friends, and candelabras. The performance will start at 6pm, with a 90-minute picnic interval at approximately 7pm before Act II starts at 8.30pm. Curtain down will be at approximately 9.30pm.
Directed by Guido Martin-Brandis, designed by Sophie Lincoln and conducted by Orlando Jopling.
Tickets and information
Dress - Summer Smart
Front rows £95 | Mid section £75 | Back rows £55
Please book early - last year's opera sold out. A limited number of joint ticket to both operas are available at a discount.
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.
The Elixir of Love
Director Guido Martin-Brandis
Conductor Orlando Jopling
Designer Sophie Lincoln
Translation Joseph Morris
Orchestration
Adina Galina Averina
Nemorino Matthew Curtis
Belcore Tim Nelson
Dulcamara Alex Jones
Giannetta Bethan Terry
Lauretta Laura Mekhail
Claudio Eamonn Walsh
Roberto Alex Pratley
The Wild Arts Ensemble led by Sijie Chen
A full list of the performers will be available here from January 2025.
Wild Arts
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.
Location
Forde Abbey, TA20 4LU