A vixen cub strays across a forester’s path, and is captured and taken to his home. She makes her escape, and begins her adventures in the wild. With its juxtaposition of humans and animals, The Cunning Little Vixen shifts from the comic world of everyday village life into the mystical cycle of nature. Conducted by Justin Brown, the current Music Director of Karlsruhe State Theatre, and directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Longborough Festival Opera is proud to present this production, postponed from 2020. This will be Kieran’s fourth time performing the Forester in his career so far. He is greatly looking forward to diving back into one of his all-time favourite roles.

Vixen Sharp-Ears: Julieth Lozano
Forester: Kieran Rayner
Fox Gold-Spur / Dog: Frances Gregory
Harašta: Aaron Holmes
Priest / Badger: David Howes

A vixen cub strays across a forester’s path, and is captured and taken to his home. She makes her escape, and begins her adventures in the wild. With its juxtaposition of humans and animals, The Cunning Little Vixen shifts from the comic world of everyday village life into the mystical cycle of nature. Conducted by Justin Brown, the current Music Director of Karlsruhe State Theatre, and directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Longborough Festival Opera is proud to present this production, postponed from 2020. This will be Kieran’s fourth time performing the Forester in his career so far. He is greatly looking forward to diving back into one of his all-time favourite roles.

Vixen Sharp-Ears: Julieth Lozano
Forester: Kieran Rayner
Fox Gold-Spur / Dog: Frances Gregory
Harašta: Aaron Holmes
Priest / Badger: David Howes

A vixen cub strays across a forester’s path, and is captured and taken to his home. She makes her escape, and begins her adventures in the wild. With its juxtaposition of humans and animals, The Cunning Little Vixen shifts from the comic world of everyday village life into the mystical cycle of nature. Conducted by Justin Brown, the current Music Director of Karlsruhe State Theatre, and directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Longborough Festival Opera is proud to present this production, postponed from 2020. This will be Kieran’s fourth time performing the Forester in his career so far. He is greatly looking forward to diving back into one of his all-time favourite roles.

Vixen Sharp-Ears: Julieth Lozano
Forester: Kieran Rayner
Fox Gold-Spur / Dog: Frances Gregory
Harašta: Aaron Holmes
Priest / Badger: David Howes

A vixen cub strays across a forester’s path, and is captured and taken to his home. She makes her escape, and begins her adventures in the wild. With its juxtaposition of humans and animals, The Cunning Little Vixen shifts from the comic world of everyday village life into the mystical cycle of nature. Conducted by Justin Brown, the current Music Director of Karlsruhe State Theatre, and directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Longborough Festival Opera is proud to present this production, postponed from 2020. This will be Kieran’s fourth time performing the Forester in his career so far. He is greatly looking forward to diving back into one of his all-time favourite roles.

Vixen Sharp-Ears: Julieth Lozano
Forester: Kieran Rayner
Fox Gold-Spur / Dog: Frances Gregory
Harašta: Aaron Holmes
Priest / Badger: David Howes

High summer in New Orleans: a battlefield tour group has waded through swamps and hurricane damage to see where notorious pirate Pierre Lafitte was imprisoned in 1814. Captivated, one tourist imagines the story of Lafitte’s escape. Could it be that love was his key to freedom? Or is that just wishful thinking from Mary, whose honeymoon is turning out to be less romantic than she’d hoped…?

Incorporating folk and Creole influences, Cabildo is the only opera from pioneering composer Amy Beach, written in 1932 and not performed until after her death. Beach’s repertoire and article ‘To the Girl Who Wants to Compose’ have inspired women in music for over a century.

In this production from director Emma Jude Harris, Cabildo is thrillingly re-conceived for the present to uncover the dark underside of the American Dream. It asks, can we ever memorialise the past without bringing back the things we would rather not remember?

Cabildo arrives at Wilton’s Music Hall after an acclaimed run at Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival.

Pierre Lafitte: Kieran Rayner
Lady Valerie: Julieth Lozano

Running time: 55 minutes, no interval

High summer in New Orleans: a battlefield tour group has waded through swamps and hurricane damage to see where notorious pirate Pierre Lafitte was imprisoned in 1814. Captivated, one tourist imagines the story of Lafitte’s escape. Could it be that love was his key to freedom? Or is that just wishful thinking from Mary, whose honeymoon is turning out to be less romantic than she’d hoped…?

Incorporating folk and Creole influences, Cabildo is the only opera from pioneering composer Amy Beach, written in 1932 and not performed until after her death. Beach’s repertoire and article ‘To the Girl Who Wants to Compose’ have inspired women in music for over a century.

In this production from director Emma Jude Harris, Cabildo is thrillingly re-conceived for the present to uncover the dark underside of the American Dream. It asks, can we ever memorialise the past without bringing back the things we would rather not remember?

Cabildo arrives at Wilton’s Music Hall after an acclaimed run at Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival.

Pierre Lafitte: Kieran Rayner
Lady Valerie: Julieth Lozano

Running time: 55 minutes, no interval

High summer in New Orleans: a battlefield tour group has waded through swamps and hurricane damage to see where notorious pirate Pierre Lafitte was imprisoned in 1814. Captivated, one tourist imagines the story of Lafitte’s escape. Could it be that love was his key to freedom? Or is that just wishful thinking from Mary, whose honeymoon is turning out to be less romantic than she’d hoped…?

Incorporating folk and Creole influences, Cabildo is the only opera from pioneering composer Amy Beach, written in 1932 and not performed until after her death. Beach’s repertoire and article ‘To the Girl Who Wants to Compose’ have inspired women in music for over a century.

In this production from director Emma Jude Harris, Cabildo is thrillingly re-conceived for the present to uncover the dark underside of the American Dream. It asks, can we ever memorialise the past without bringing back the things we would rather not remember?

Cabildo arrives at Wilton’s Music Hall after an acclaimed run at Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival.

Pierre Lafitte: Kieran Rayner
Lady Valerie: Julieth Lozano

Running time: 55 minutes, no interval

High summer in New Orleans: a battlefield tour group has waded through swamps and hurricane damage to see where notorious pirate Pierre Lafitte was imprisoned in 1814. Captivated, one tourist imagines the story of Lafitte’s escape. Could it be that love was his key to freedom? Or is that just wishful thinking from Mary, whose honeymoon is turning out to be less romantic than she’d hoped…?

Incorporating folk and Creole influences, Cabildo is the only opera from pioneering composer Amy Beach, written in 1932 and not performed until after her death. Beach’s repertoire and article ‘To the Girl Who Wants to Compose’ have inspired women in music for over a century.

In this production from director Emma Jude Harris, Cabildo is thrillingly re-conceived for the present to uncover the dark underside of the American Dream. It asks, can we ever memorialise the past without bringing back the things we would rather not remember?

Cabildo arrives at Wilton’s Music Hall after an acclaimed run at Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival.

Pierre Lafitte: Kieran Rayner
Lady Valerie: Julieth Lozano

Running time: 55 minutes, no interval

High summer in New Orleans: a battlefield tour group has waded through swamps and hurricane damage to see where notorious pirate Pierre Lafitte was imprisoned in 1814. Captivated, one tourist imagines the story of Lafitte’s escape. Could it be that love was his key to freedom? Or is that just wishful thinking from Mary, whose honeymoon is turning out to be less romantic than she’d hoped…?

Incorporating folk and Creole influences, Cabildo is the only opera from pioneering composer Amy Beach, written in 1932 and not performed until after her death. Beach’s repertoire and article ‘To the Girl Who Wants to Compose’ have inspired women in music for over a century.

In this production from director Emma Jude Harris, Cabildo is thrillingly re-conceived for the present to uncover the dark underside of the American Dream. It asks, can we ever memorialise the past without bringing back the things we would rather not remember?

Cabildo arrives at Wilton’s Music Hall after an acclaimed run at Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival.

Pierre Lafitte: Kieran Rayner
Lady Valerie: Julieth Lozano

Running time: 55 minutes, no interval

BambinO at Home

An operatic adventure for 6 to 18 month olds. 5 Performances: 9 December 14:00, 10 – 11 December 11:00 & 14:00

BambinO at Home is produced by Improbable. Originally co-produced with Scottish Opera and Manchester International Festival. Made possible with support from Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation.

This unique and colourful work for infants aged 6 to 18 months is a twin celebration of the possibilities of music and the power of the infant imagination. BambinO reinvents operatic language and traditions for children at an age when their minds are wide open to new sounds, images and experiences.

Following sell out runs in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), New York (Metropolitan Opera), Manchester International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Improbable bring you a made-for-screen adaptation so you can access the magic of BambinO wherever you are!

BambinO at Home will be streamed live and combine performance from the show with puppetry and live illustration from children’s illustrator Viviane Schwarz. We’ll also send you specially made activities and ideas to do at home as you watch with your bambini.

Soprano: Charlotte Hoather
Baritone: Kieran Rayner
Cello: Semay Wu
Percussion: Michael D Clark

Composer: Lliam Paterson
Director: Phelim McDermott
Designers: Giuseppe Belli & Emma Belli
Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Filming: Chocolate Films

https://www.improbable.co.uk/current-projects/bambino-at-home

BambinO at Home

An operatic adventure for 6 to 18 month olds. 5 Performances: 9 December 14:00, 10 – 11 December 11:00 & 14:00

BambinO at Home is produced by Improbable. Originally co-produced with Scottish Opera and Manchester International Festival. Made possible with support from Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation.

This unique and colourful work for infants aged 6 to 18 months is a twin celebration of the possibilities of music and the power of the infant imagination. BambinO reinvents operatic language and traditions for children at an age when their minds are wide open to new sounds, images and experiences.

Following sell out runs in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), New York (Metropolitan Opera), Manchester International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Improbable bring you a made-for-screen adaptation so you can access the magic of BambinO wherever you are!

BambinO at Home will be streamed live and combine performance from the show with puppetry and live illustration from children’s illustrator Viviane Schwarz. We’ll also send you specially made activities and ideas to do at home as you watch with your bambini.

Soprano: Charlotte Hoather
Baritone: Kieran Rayner
Cello: Semay Wu
Percussion: Michael D Clark

Composer: Lliam Paterson
Director: Phelim McDermott
Designers: Giuseppe Belli & Emma Belli
Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Filming: Chocolate Films

https://www.improbable.co.uk/current-projects/bambino-at-home

BambinO at Home

An operatic adventure for 6 to 18 month olds. 5 Performances: 9 December 14:00, 10 – 11 December 11:00 & 14:00

BambinO at Home is produced by Improbable. Originally co-produced with Scottish Opera and Manchester International Festival. Made possible with support from Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation.

This unique and colourful work for infants aged 6 to 18 months is a twin celebration of the possibilities of music and the power of the infant imagination. BambinO reinvents operatic language and traditions for children at an age when their minds are wide open to new sounds, images and experiences.

Following sell out runs in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), New York (Metropolitan Opera), Manchester International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Improbable bring you a made-for-screen adaptation so you can access the magic of BambinO wherever you are!

BambinO at Home will be streamed live and combine performance from the show with puppetry and live illustration from children’s illustrator Viviane Schwarz. We’ll also send you specially made activities and ideas to do at home as you watch with your bambini.

Soprano: Charlotte Hoather
Baritone: Kieran Rayner
Cello: Semay Wu
Percussion: Michael D Clark

Composer: Lliam Paterson
Director: Phelim McDermott
Designers: Giuseppe Belli & Emma Belli
Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Filming: Chocolate Films

https://www.improbable.co.uk/current-projects/bambino-at-home

BambinO at Home

An operatic adventure for 6 to 18 month olds. 5 Performances: 9 December 14:00, 10 – 11 December 11:00 & 14:00

BambinO at Home is produced by Improbable. Originally co-produced with Scottish Opera and Manchester International Festival. Made possible with support from Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation.

This unique and colourful work for infants aged 6 to 18 months is a twin celebration of the possibilities of music and the power of the infant imagination. BambinO reinvents operatic language and traditions for children at an age when their minds are wide open to new sounds, images and experiences.

Following sell out runs in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), New York (Metropolitan Opera), Manchester International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Improbable bring you a made-for-screen adaptation so you can access the magic of BambinO wherever you are!

BambinO at Home will be streamed live and combine performance from the show with puppetry and live illustration from children’s illustrator Viviane Schwarz. We’ll also send you specially made activities and ideas to do at home as you watch with your bambini.

Soprano: Charlotte Hoather
Baritone: Kieran Rayner
Cello: Semay Wu
Percussion: Michael D Clark

Composer: Lliam Paterson
Director: Phelim McDermott
Designers: Giuseppe Belli & Emma Belli
Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Filming: Chocolate Films

https://www.improbable.co.uk/current-projects/bambino-at-home

BambinO at Home

An operatic adventure for 6 to 18 month olds. 5 Performances: 9 December 14:00, 10 – 11 December 11:00 & 14:00

BambinO at Home is produced by Improbable. Originally co-produced with Scottish Opera and Manchester International Festival. Made possible with support from Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation.

This unique and colourful work for infants aged 6 to 18 months is a twin celebration of the possibilities of music and the power of the infant imagination. BambinO reinvents operatic language and traditions for children at an age when their minds are wide open to new sounds, images and experiences.

Following sell out runs in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), New York (Metropolitan Opera), Manchester International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Improbable bring you a made-for-screen adaptation so you can access the magic of BambinO wherever you are!

BambinO at Home will be streamed live and combine performance from the show with puppetry and live illustration from children’s illustrator Viviane Schwarz. We’ll also send you specially made activities and ideas to do at home as you watch with your bambini.

Soprano: Charlotte Hoather
Baritone: Kieran Rayner
Cello: Semay Wu
Percussion: Michael D Clark

Composer: Lliam Paterson
Director: Phelim McDermott
Designers: Giuseppe Belli & Emma Belli
Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Filming: Chocolate Films

https://www.improbable.co.uk/current-projects/bambino-at-home

Composer Jasmine Morris’s multi-media chamber opera responding to George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm. Kieran Rayne will play Farmer Jones, a ruthless investor targeting profit by any means necessary.

This promenade piece invites you to follow your guides around the spaces of the Hoffmann Building to see scenes performed.

Part of Britten Pears Young Artist Programme at 50.

La rondine (The Swallow) is a moving tale of young love and heartbreak – and what else, you may ask, is opera about? Arguably Puccini’s most modern opera, La rondine was premiered in Monte Carlo in 1917, and includes one of Puccini’s most gorgeous creations, the quartet, ‘Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso’ (I drink to your beautiful smile).

Magda is our ‘rondine’ , the bird who flies towards the sun, and Ruggero is the shy country boy who eventually becomes her lover. We witness their relationship unfold in the colourful locales of Paris and the balmier climes of southern France. The love ‘quadrangle’ is made complete by Prunier, a centre-of-attention poet and Magda’s fiery maid, Lisette. Amidst waltzes, foxtrots, and soaring melodies, join us for an unmissable evening of sophistication and glamour in the enchanting surroundings of Grade 1 listed Belcombe Court.

Director Bruno Ravella, a former Iford Arts favourite, joins us fresh from extraordinary acclaim for his Rosenkavalier at Garsington in 2021, and If Opera’s Artistic Director Oliver Gooch conducts.

Rita, the somewhat tyrannical inn-owner and wife of Peppe is shocked by the return of her former husband Gasparo whom she had thought dead by drowning (he had run away to far-off lands). Gasparo is back to acquire Rita’s death certificate so he can remarry – because he, in turn, thought she had died. In the middle is poor Peppe who wants out, and perhaps Gasparo’s return provides the opportunity? The opera is a comedy of deceit and ill-manners (it was originally called The Beaten Husband which tells you something of Rita’s inclinations) but it glitters with Donizetti’s trademark vivacity, formed around eight core musical ‘numbers’ connected by spoken dialogue. The opera has, in the past few decades, become one of the most frequently performed of Donizetti’s short operas.

La rondine (The Swallow) is a moving tale of young love and heartbreak – and what else, you may ask, is opera about? Arguably Puccini’s most modern opera, La rondine was premiered in Monte Carlo in 1917, and includes one of Puccini’s most gorgeous creations, the quartet, ‘Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso’ (I drink to your beautiful smile).

Magda is our ‘rondine’ , the bird who flies towards the sun, and Ruggero is the shy country boy who eventually becomes her lover. We witness their relationship unfold in the colourful locales of Paris and the balmier climes of southern France. The love ‘quadrangle’ is made complete by Prunier, a centre-of-attention poet and Magda’s fiery maid, Lisette. Amidst waltzes, foxtrots, and soaring melodies, join us for an unmissable evening of sophistication and glamour in the enchanting surroundings of Grade 1 listed Belcombe Court.

Director Bruno Ravella, a former Iford Arts favourite, joins us fresh from extraordinary acclaim for his Rosenkavalier at Garsington in 2021, and If Opera’s Artistic Director Oliver Gooch conducts.

Rita, the somewhat tyrannical inn-owner and wife of Peppe is shocked by the return of her former husband Gasparo whom she had thought dead by drowning (he had run away to far-off lands). Gasparo is back to acquire Rita’s death certificate so he can remarry – because he, in turn, thought she had died. In the middle is poor Peppe who wants out, and perhaps Gasparo’s return provides the opportunity? The opera is a comedy of deceit and ill-manners (it was originally called The Beaten Husband which tells you something of Rita’s inclinations) but it glitters with Donizetti’s trademark vivacity, formed around eight core musical ‘numbers’ connected by spoken dialogue. The opera has, in the past few decades, become one of the most frequently performed of Donizetti’s short operas.

La rondine (The Swallow) is a moving tale of young love and heartbreak – and what else, you may ask, is opera about? Arguably Puccini’s most modern opera, La rondine was premiered in Monte Carlo in 1917, and includes one of Puccini’s most gorgeous creations, the quartet, ‘Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso’ (I drink to your beautiful smile).

Magda is our ‘rondine’ , the bird who flies towards the sun, and Ruggero is the shy country boy who eventually becomes her lover. We witness their relationship unfold in the colourful locales of Paris and the balmier climes of southern France. The love ‘quadrangle’ is made complete by Prunier, a centre-of-attention poet and Magda’s fiery maid, Lisette. Amidst waltzes, foxtrots, and soaring melodies, join us for an unmissable evening of sophistication and glamour in the enchanting surroundings of Grade 1 listed Belcombe Court.

Director Bruno Ravella, a former Iford Arts favourite, joins us fresh from extraordinary acclaim for his Rosenkavalier at Garsington in 2021, and If Opera’s Artistic Director Oliver Gooch conducts.

The course of true love runs far from smooth for Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Trojan hero Aeneas in Purcell’s famous opera.  We are thrilled that our If Opera Company singers will be working with guest conductor Christopher Bucknall for this very special concert performance of Dido and Aeneas.  Intimate in scale, this timeless tale of love and anguish, sorcery, war and betrayal punches well above its weight and includes one of the most beautiful arias in all Baroque opera – When I am Laid in Earth.

DIDO Fleur Barron
AENEAS Kieran Rayner
SORCERESS Katherine McIndoe
BELINDA Nardus Williams
FIRST WITCH Lorena Paz Nieto
SECOND WITCH Helen Maree Cooper

La rondine (The Swallow) is a moving tale of young love and heartbreak – and what else, you may ask, is opera about? Arguably Puccini’s most modern opera, La rondine was premiered in Monte Carlo in 1917, and includes one of Puccini’s most gorgeous creations, the quartet, ‘Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso’ (I drink to your beautiful smile).

Magda is our ‘rondine’ , the bird who flies towards the sun, and Ruggero is the shy country boy who eventually becomes her lover. We witness their relationship unfold in the colourful locales of Paris and the balmier climes of southern France. The love ‘quadrangle’ is made complete by Prunier, a centre-of-attention poet and Magda’s fiery maid, Lisette. Amidst waltzes, foxtrots, and soaring melodies, join us for an unmissable evening of sophistication and glamour in the enchanting surroundings of Grade 1 listed Belcombe Court.

Director Bruno Ravella, a former Iford Arts favourite, joins us fresh from extraordinary acclaim for his Rosenkavalier at Garsington in 2021, and If Opera’s Artistic Director Oliver Gooch conducts.