Wild Arts is delighted to return for a fourth year to the beautiful garden at Great Ruffins with our new show for 2025.

Our opera evening is a love story built around favourite opera arias, duets and ensembles, sung by the stars of tomorrow and played by a string quintet of top chamber musicians. 

Bring a picnic for afterwards and enjoy the summer evening in the peaceful grounds of architect A.H. Mackmurdo's quirkiest creation, located on Beacon Hill, between Wickham Bishops and Great Totham.

5pm Gardens open   

6pm Performance starts in the croquet lawn

7.30pm – 9pm Picnics 

9.30pm Carriages  

Bernstein - Candide; West Side Story
Britten - Billy Budd
Donizetti - Don Pasquale; L'Elisir d'Amore
Handel - Semele
Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro
Porter - Kiss me Kate
Puccini - La Bohème
Verdi - Falstaff
Rodgers and Hammerstein - Carousel
Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia
Verdi - Rigoletto

We look forward to welcoming you to a beautiful evening of opera. Please book early - the performances in 2022, 2023 and 2024 sold out.

wildarts.org.uk is also presenting Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin and Donizetti The Elixir of Love at the Essex Summer Opera Festival at Layer Marney Tower, 17th - 22nd June, and Handel's Messiah each December at Chelmsford Cathedral, Smith Square Hall and Layer Marney Tower - details here.

To be notified about chamber music concerts during the season in the drawing room at Great Ruffins, please sign up to the mailing list at https://vermeerchamberconcerts.org/