For the first time in its 50-year history, Bath Opera is staging an opera in just 90 minutes plus an interval with piano accompaniment.
Performed in English across six venues in Somerset and Wiltshire, starting at The Mission Theatre in Bath, the production is Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love; one of the funniest and most tuneful works in the operatic repertoire.
It tours from late June through mid-July. Early-bird tickets are on sale now, but the ‘early bird’ discounted price ends on Monday, 18 May.
The company performed a sell-out run of Carmen at Bath’s Roper Theatre earlier this year, with all three nights playing to full houses. The Elixir of Love is a very different proposition — lighter, funnier, and deliberately designed to be as welcoming as possible to both opera lovers and to audiences who may never have been to an opera before.
Donizetti’s comic opera follows Nemorino, a loveable young villager hopelessly devoted to the beautiful Adina. When a travelling charlatan sells him a mysterious “elixir of love” — really just a bottle of cheap wine — the results are as chaotic as they are warm-hearted. It contains one of the most famous arias ever written: Una furtiva lagrima, a piece of music that stops audiences in their tracks every time it is performed.
The production brings together experienced Bath Opera members and four emerging professional singers, three of them recent graduates of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is directed by Ryan Graham Hinds and conducted by Justin Ayres.
“We are always looking for ways to encourage people who think opera isn’t for them to give it a try, and we think this mix of 90 minutes plus an interval, sung in English, with an intimate piano accompaniment and a choice of evening or matinee performances will persuade them to come along.
But this isn’t just for the curious newcomer; it’s for seasoned opera lovers and first-timers alike. With this cast and this creative team, I hope our audience will leave wondering why they didn’t come sooner,” Fiona Gray, Chair, Bath Opera
The tour visits The Mission Theatre Bath (26–27 June), Strode Theatre Street (28 June), Great Chalfield Manor near Melksham (3–4 July), Bouverie Hall, Pewsey (5 July), Wincanton Memorial Hall (10–11 July), and Seend Community Centre (12 July). Three of the nine performances (one at The Mission Theatre, with Strode Theatre and Pewsey) are matinees.
Tickets are available now, with early-bird prices valid until Monday, 18 May. Book at www.bathopera.com/elixir-of-love — standard pricing applies after the 18th May deadline.
