Open-air opera in the gardens of Chiswick House

The dynamic London-based Focus Opera will bring two new productions to Chiswick House on 1st and 2nd July 2015. This will be the 11th anniversary of the annual summer opera season in Chiswick House gardens, and the third year featuring Focus Opera, where experiencing opera in an informal setting is combined with picnicking to the backdrop of one of London’s most stunning historic buildings.

Verdi’s tragic opera La Traviata about a Parisian courtesan who sacrifices all for love will be vividly staged on Wednesday 1st July. The following night, Thursday 2nd July, the light-hearted story of Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss will be performed, telling of the revenge taken by a certain Dr Falke after a practical joke spins out of control. Focus Opera will set this sparkling comedy in the heady days of the 1980s, involving for the first time eight local singers who will join the professional artists by taking part in the famous party scene at Prince Orlofsky’s nightclub.

Both operas will be sung in English with new translations by Sarah Helsby Hughes, Focus Opera’s new artistic director, with Nicholas Sales.This is English summer at its best and a chance to see opera in its least stuffy form.