London - Opera
 

Visting London soon -
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to see for your first time Opera?
Thanx

Most opera companies are off during the summer season and their season don't start until September the earliest. Did you find some performances that will be on during your stay? And what are they? If you list them out, we may be able to give you some suggestions.

Can't really answer that. W/o your dates of travel it isn't possible to say which operas are being performed (or IF any are) during your stay.

There are a couple of other issues here too. The area round London (and to a lesser extent London itself) has terrific opera during the summer in a country setting - at Glyndebourne usually well up to world standards, at Holland Park or Longborough excellent and at Bampton just terrific fun. How mobile are you?

And what's kept you from operas so far? If it's fear of the stuffiness, Covent Garden might not be right for you for example.

Looks like the above posters are quite correct. You can see the English National Opera Schedule at:
http://www.eno.org/whatson/index.php

...and the Royal Opera at:
http://info.royaloperahouse.org/Perf...aces/Index.cfm

Neither seem to list any performances until September.

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If you do go later in the year, note that the ENO performs opera that has been translated into English, while the Royal Opera performs in the original language.

You can get cheap seats (5GBP) for the ENO on the morning of the performance.

Know that you mention it, from a few of my searches, it does not seem that they are running until September. Did not realize there was a 'season' -- just thought they ran year-round.

Looks like we will not see one on this trip -- just another excuse to have to visit again ;-)

Thanks all for your quick responses.

If you can possibly get seats for opera at Glyndebourne (usually sold out way in advance, but there might be returns) you will be in for a big treat.

It's not true that there's no opera in London in the summer. Just that Covent Garden and the ENO aren't performing at their home theatres.

Holland Park Opera, for example, goes on till early August, and there's a reasonable amount of other stuff on, both in London and out of town.

One of my favourite things to do on a barmy summer's evening in London is to see the opera performances in Hampstead heath, by Kenwood House. Do a search for Classic FM Opera in The Park. If you want to wait to see if the weather is good first, you can buy tickets on the day by queueing up at the ticket office near Kenwood House. Don't buy designated seats - sit on the grass, and take a picnic with you. Don't forget a cooler bag of champagne - you can drink and eat all through the performance. Fireworks at the end too - top night out.