Sparring frenemies and working-class wannabes return to Opera Holland Park in a sparkling new production. Will Doctor Falke get his revenge on Gabriel von Eisenstein for the embarrassing incident with the bat costume? Can Frank convince Count Orlofsky and his guests that he is a Frenchman born and bred? And why does that actress look so very much like Rosalinde’s maid?

Excess is the order of the day as three of the company’s favourite leading ladies, sopranos Alison Langer (La traviata 2021 and 2025, Pagliacci 2024, Carmen 2023) and Rebecca Bottone (Itch 2023 and 2025, Flight 2015), and mezzo soprano Clare Presland (Il segreto di Susanna 2019 and 2024, The Bear 2021), don various disguises and assumed names to join tenor Thomas Atkins (Eugene Onegin 2023) in a Viennese whirl of a plot of romantic intrigues and costume balls. Rising star George Jackson (Così fan tutte 2019) returns to conduct a score that fizzes with dances and drinking songs from across the Austro-Hungarian Empire.