Opera Holland Park announces three panel events in celebration of the 2024 Season in collaboration with local gastropub, The Holland, and literary landmark, The London Library.
In advance of the 2024 Opera Holland Park Season, we delve into various themes and ideas behind the text and music in the company of our leading creatives and invited experts. From comedy to tragedy and the pastoral charms of Handel’s little opera, Acis and Galatea, the series is designed to whet your appetite for the performances to come and enhance your enjoyment in the summer.
Make ’em laugh!: On opera and the absurd
The Holland, Kensington
9 April, 7pm
Singer and director John Savournin, conductor John Andrews, mezzo-soprano Clare Presland, répétiteur Fran Hills and critic Robert Thicknesse join Anna Picard to discuss the peak and pitfalls of comic operas from Rossini to Gilbert and Sullivan and Wolf-Ferrari.
Crimes of Passion: Puccini, Leoncavallo and verismo
The London Library
26 April, 7pm
Conductors Francesco Cilluffo and Matthew Kofi Waldren, director Martin Lloyd-Evans, and Doctor Alexandra Wilson, author of The Puccini Problem and Opera in the Jazz Age, join Anna Picard to discuss the meaning of ‘verismo’, with music from Morgan Pearse and Stuart Wild.
Happy we!: Handel and the Arcadian idyll
The Holland, Kensington
7 May , 7pm
Conductor and pianist Michael Papadopoulos, critic Robert Thicknesse, soprano Elizabeth Karani and Edward Behrens, editor of Apollo magazine, join Anna Picard to discuss social climbing in eighteenth century London, birdsong, water, and the Arcadian landscape of Acis and Galatea.
Further details
Booking for Members and Supporters opens Thursday 14 March from 10am
General booking opens Friday 15 March from 10am
Tickets are £15 for members and £20 for non-members and include drinks on arrival.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
