ABOUT BATH OPERA
Presenting sensational opera since 1977
Bath Opera performs an annual fully-staged opera production in February and a small scale touring production to venues within 25 miles of Bath. We also promote with Bath Spa University an annual ‘BOIBA’ singing contest ‘for a promising young opera singer’.
Due to the pandemic, our tour of ‘Barber of Seville’ was postponed to July/August 2021 and performed at seven venues to rave reviews. See more by going to ‘Our Last Production’.
After Gounod’s ‘Faust’ in 2020, there could also be no main opera in 2021, but now we are preparing a big comeback with our spectacular fully-staged production of ‘Eugene Onegin’ in Bath on February 24th, 25th, 26th 2022. See ‘Our Next Production’ for more details.
Next summer we tour with Puccini’s tragic opera ‘Tosca’. Following the triumph of their ‘Barber of Seville’, directors Peter Blackwood and Jane Clark have been re-appointed. Auditions will be held at 2pm on Sunday January 23rd at Widcombe Junior School, Bath – audition pieces and character descriptions will be posted shortly. The tour will include the Rondo Theatre, Bath; the Strode Theatre, Street; Great Chalfield Manor; the Memorial Hall, Wincanton; other venues are being investigated.
Bath Opera: Past, present & future
What we do
1977 saw Bath Opera’s first fully staged production with Verdi’s Macbeth with Jill Fowles and David Edwards in the leading roles. Jill and David were to continue to oversee the development of the company for the next two decades attracting singers, conductors, instrumentalists, directors, designers and technicians of the highest possible calibre.
In addition to presenting opera from the mainstream, Bath Opera’s repertoire includes pioneering work from Eastern European opera, featuring Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla and two operas by Smetana for which new English translations were provided from within the group.
Bath Opera continues this adventurous tradition performing works by Kurt Weill, Aaron Copland, Benjamin Britten and Césare Luis Menotti alongside such popular hits as Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Madame Butterfly and La Boheme.
Where we perform
Bath Opera has performed at a number of venues in and around Bath, from the wide stage of Bath University to the intimate space of Larkhall’s Rondo Theatre. From 2018 our main productions have been held at the comfortable and superbly equipped new Roper Theatre – part of Bath’s Hayesfield School.
On the road
Each year, Bath Opera takes to the road with a tour of small scale fully staged operas across the south of the country from Surrey to South Wales. Venues closer to home have included Midsomer Norton, Seend, Great Chalfield Manor, Widcombe Manor and Chippenham’s Neeld Hall.
