2022 Waterperry Opera Festival
Friday 12th - Saturday 20th August
Box office opens 11th April | Priority Booking opens 4th April
The Marriage of Figaro
12th, 13th, 16th, 18th and 20th August / 6.30pm
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte | Performed in an English Translation
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Location: Waterperry Front Lawn
Duration: Exact Timings TBC, includes an extended picnic intermission Festival Music Director Bertie Baigent (Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, The Elixir of Love) will conduct five performances of Mozart’s timeless comedy THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO on the front lawn of Waterperry House. Directed by Isabelle Kettle and designed by Charlotte Henery, this bold new production invites audiences into the hustle and bustle of preparations for the wedding of Susanna and Figaro. Throughout the course of the evening, audiences gain a revealing insight into the true nature of the relationship between upstairs and downstairs.
This production showcases some of the UK’s most outstanding emerging operatic talent, alongside our 2022 Young Artists and the acclaimed Waterperry orchestra. |
Svadba 'A Wedding'
18th, 19th and 20th August / 4pm
Composed by Ana Sokolović
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Location: Amphitheatre
Duration: 1 hour / No intermission Making its UK professional premiere, this women-led production of Ana Sokolović’s virtuosic a cappella opera SVADBA will be directed by Rebecca Meltzer (Mansfield Park, Hansel and Gretel, Ariel), conducted by Lada Valešová, and designed by Grace Venning.
Sung in Serbian, Svadba is a coming of age tour de force exploring the lives of six women as they discover how to navigate the poignant transition from adolescence to adulthood. The action takes place the day before a wedding when the bride-to-be, Miliça, celebrates with her best friends. With complete abandonment and raw energy, Sokolović’s breath-taking score envelops us in a whirlwind of ritual, music and dance. |
Mansfield Park
12th, 13th, 14th and 16th August / 2pm
This production will also be touring across the UK from May to August 2022
This production will also be touring across the UK from May to August 2022
Composed by Jonathan Dove | Libretto by Alistair Middleton | Based on a novel by Jane Austen
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Location: Waterperry House Ballroom
Duration: 2 hours, including a short intermission. A festival favourite, Jonathan Dove’s MANSFIELD PARK returns to the Waterperry bringing Jane Austen’s world to life once again with witty charm and lively music. Mansfield Park tells the story of Fanny Price, sent to live with her rich uncle on his family estate.
Rebecca Meltzer directs an ensemble of loveable characters pulling at our heartstrings and making audiences laugh out loud. This production has received widespread critical-acclaim bringing audiences right into the centre of the action, perfect for Austen and music lovers alike. Be prepared to fall headfirst into the world of Fanny Price and her formidable family. "Mansfield Park sparkled with wit and ingenuity from start to finish. As intimate opera experiences go, Waterperry Opera Festival's fresh, joy-fuelled Mansfield Park sets a new benchmark of quality, vibrancy and sheer fun. " ★★★★★ | Bachtrack 
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Peter and the Wolf
13th, 14th and 20th August / 11am and 1pm.
This production will also be touring to Opera Holland Park on the 2nd July
This production will also be touring to Opera Holland Park on the 2nd July
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Composed by Sergei Prokofiev
Location: Garden Glade near Waterperry's Lily Pond
Duration: 30 minutes Prokofiev’s PETER AND THE WOLF returns to the picturesque lily pond. Directed by Artistic Director Guy Withers, and choreographed by Julia Cave, this interactive family-friendly production lasts 30 minutes, and is ideal for little ones aged 0+, experiencing classical music for the first time.
This tale captures the imagination of all ages through music, dance and spoken word, immersing families in the beauty of nature. "This performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf combined a wonderfully whimsical setting, beautiful musicianship and stellar storytelling. The result was both joyful and gently educational – and a delight for all ages." | Ox in a Box 
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The Diary of One Who Disappeared
17th and 19th August / 7pm
Composed by Leoš Janáček | Libretto by Ozef Kalda
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Location: Waterperry House Ballroom
Duration: 45 minutes Janáček’s song-cycle, THE DIARY OF ONE WHO DISAPPEARED, tells the story of a young man who becomes infatuated with an elusive woman, eventually throwing his life away to follow her.
Performed in Czech, this staged production is directed by Guy Withers (Peter and the Wolf) and musically directed by Ashley Beauchamp (Mansfield Park, Hansel and Gretel). This passionate and dark song-cycle carries the audiences on a journey through the highs and lows of love’s emotions. For an extended evening, this production pairs perfectly with Wagner at Twilight, which will be performed at 8:30pm in the gardens after this performance. |
‘Wagner at Twilight’
a Concert of Siegfried Idyll and Wesendonck Lieder
17th and 19th August / 8.30pm
Composed by Richard Wagner | Wensendonck Lieder’s poetry by Mathilde Wesendonck
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Location: Garden Glad near Waterperry's Lily Pond
Duration: 45 minutes Wagner at Twilight, conducted by Bertie Baigent, is an evening concert of two of Wagner’s small-scale masterpieces, performed in the stunning natural beauty of Waterperry Gardens. This intimate concert juxtaposes music expressing the purity of nature and the turbulence of human emotion: themes which are at once contrasting and yet both intensely Wagnerian.
WESENDONCK LIEDER sets poems by Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of one of Wagner’s patrons, and with whom Wagner may have had an affair. The passion and yearning of the texts inspired some of Wagner’s most sensuous and dramatic music, which later morphed into parts of the opera Tristan und Isolde. SIEGFRIED-IDYLL was composed by Wagner as a birthday present to his wife Cosima after the birth of their son, Siegfried. The music depicts a forest scene, and later found its way into the opera Siegfried. This production pairs perfectly with The Diary of One Who Disappeared, which is performed in Waterperry House Ballroom at 7pm before this performance. 
Figures in the Garden |
12th and 13th / 5pm
Composed by Jonathan Dove | Performed by arrangement with Faber Music, London
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Location: Garden Glade near Waterperry's Lily Pond
Duration: 20 minutes Jonathan Dove’s FIGURES IN THE GARDEN sits flawlessly as an evening’s prequel to The Marriage of Figaro. First commissioned by Glyndebourne to mark the bicentenary of Mozart’s birth, Dove explores alternative scenarios for Da Ponte’s characters drawing on musical ideas from Mozart’s operatic score. This production sees a collaboration between dance students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and young local musicians from Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra.
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Flora
18th, 19th and 20th August / 3pm
A new commission by Anna Semple and Emily Pahlawan Collinson
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Location: Waterperry May Rose Garden
Duration: 20 minutes FLORA, a new commission, is a multi-disciplinary work exploring gesture and femininity through both music and dance. Created by composer and violist Anna Semple, and dancer Emily Collinson, the music is largely improvised, interwoven with traditional notation. Performed in the intimate setting of Waterperry Gardens, this visually stunning work will appeal to a wide audience.
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