Vision

For more people to try opera, be enriched by it, and think it is for them.

​Mission Statement

Waterperry Opera Festival is a unique and innovative opera festival hosted at the beautiful Waterperry House & Gardens in Oxfordshire. The festival offers high-quality, accessible and socially relevant work, created and performed by a diverse company, which bridges the gap between artists and audiences.

​We aim to:

• Make our work accessible and inclusive – by developing new diverse audiences for opera, producing work in English, where possible, and offering affordable tickets to our audiences.
• Create socially relevant work – by making it meaningful to today’s audiences through an exploration of contemporary social issues and timeless themes that touch the very nature of the human condition.
• Bridge the gap between artists and audiences – by offering innovative, immersive and site-responsive work, pushing the boundaries of the operatic form, and producing talks, masterclasses, and workshops to inform, encourage and inspire.
• Support a diverse community of artists – by offering equal opportunity for all, growing a company from a broad variety of backgrounds, and developing diverse emerging talent on our Young Artist Programme.

Value Statement

• Collaboration - We foster a real sense of teamwork and inclusion within the organisation; supporting one another to achieve our collective vision.
• Integrity - We aim to deliver on our promises and be open, respectful and honest in all we do. 
• Imagination - We are imaginative in our approach to everything we do, and seek to make artistic work of the highest quality through creativity, innovation and curiosity.
• Communication - We value clear, transparent and sincere communication across our company to create an inclusive working environment and encourage our audience to share in our vision, where everyone’s voice is respected.
• Growth - We strive to grow as an organisation in all that we do and encourage feedback from our artists and audiences, to drive continuous improvement.

Our Story

Founded in 2017, Waterperry Opera Festival was developed to create innovative productions and engaging participatory events at the beautiful Waterperry House & Gardens. Our inaugural festival launched in 2018, with a 3-day season of opera for 1,000 attendees. Since then, in 6 years, we have produced 32 productions for over 17,500 attendees. 2023 saw our most ambitious year yet, with a festival packed full of operas, and tours of Mansfield Park and Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes. In total 4,970 attended our 10-day festival in August 2023.
 
We have developed a unique and very successful Young Artist Programme, helping artists at the beginning of their careers to develop their skills and hone their craft in a safe and exciting environment. The programme offers mentorship and training in contemporary opera practice and collaborative theatre-making. Additionally, we have developed wider education projects locally and nationally, partnering with Oxfordshire Musical Educational Partnership, Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra, and Trinity Laban Conservatoire or Music and Dance. Work for children and families has been core to our work, with a number of projects in recent years including a BSL integrated and immersive production of Hansel & Gretel, and a delightful Peter and the Wolf. We have also toured across the country to Opera Holland Park, Buxton International Festival, Newbury Spring Festival and Lichfield Festival.