27 May - 2 August 2025
We are thrilled to announce our 2025 programme:
Announcing our 2025 festival
AVNER DORMAN
WAHNFRIED: THE BIRTH OF THE WAGNER CULT
UK Premiere
Conductor: Justin Brown
Director: Polly Graham
27, 29 May, 10, 12, 14 June
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA
Conductor: Elaine Kelly
Director: Louise Bakker
8, 15, 29 June, 5, 6, 12, 13 July
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE
Conductor: Anthony Negus
Director: Jenny Ogilvie
28 June, 1, 3, 8, 10 July
HENRY PURCELL
DIDO AND AENEAS
Music Director: Bjarte Eike
Director: Erlend Samnøen
featuring Barokksolistene with Longborough’s Emerging Artists and Youth Chorus
26, 27, 29, 31 July, 2 August
Led by Artistic Director Polly Graham and Executive Director Emily Gottlieb, we can unveil the Longborough Festival Opera 2025 summer season under the continued guidance of esteemed Music Director Anthony Negus.
We present two remarkable operas that owe their existence to Wagner’s impact on music: Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and the UK premiere of Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried: The Birth of the Wagner Cult.
Avner Dorman
WAHNFRIED: THE BIRTH OF THE WAGNER CULT
UK PREMIERE (BEST NEW OPERA nominee, INTERNATIONAL OPERA AWARDS)
Conductor: Justin Brown
Director: Polly Graham
Performance dates: 27, 29 May, 10, 12, 14 June 2025
We welcome back Justin Brown (“magnificently done - and comes straight from the heart” Jessica Duchen, 5* i News) to conduct the UK premiere of Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried: The Birth of the Wagner Cult (“wide-ranging, appealing, breathtakingly virtuosic” - Washington Post). Dorman delves into the story of the Wagner family and the politicisation of Wagner’s music in 20th-century Germany. Wahnfried was first performed in Germany in 2017 and was nominated for Best New Opera at the 2018 International Opera Awards. Our production will feature a cast of leading British singers including Susan Bullock CBE, and Mark Le Brocq, fresh from his roles as Loge and Siegmund in Longborough’s Ring and Aschenbach in WNO’s Death in Venice. This UK premiere will be directed by our artistic director Polly Graham.
Music Director Anthony Negus comments:
“Attending the world premiere in 2017 was a profoundly moving experience. I am thrilled to bring this piece to Longborough. Presenting this opera about the Wagner family here feels especially fitting, as Longborough is often regarded as the British Bayreuth.”
Claude Debussy
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE
Conductor: Anthony Negus
Director: Jenny Ogilvie
Performance dates: 28 June, 1, 3, 8, 10 July 2025
A fresh take on the enduring dramatic device of the love triangle: shimmering orchestral interludes and haunting vocal melodies unveil relationships in all their complexity and instability.
After the Ring, this opera is an ideal next step for the Longborough Festival Orchestra under the baton of our Music Director, Anthony Negus.
Anthony comments:
“I am delighted that, beyond the Ring, Longborough is entrusting me with other ambitious and distinguished works which allow me to continue to grow as an artist, and I am proud to be Music Director of this extraordinary company whose bold spirits and warm heart allows it to achieve great things.
I’ve always felt a special feeling towards Pelléas - Debussy’s post-Wagnerian masterpiece, whose drama is powerful yet understated, and whose orchestral interludes are imbued with a Parsifal like atmosphere as well as harmonies that are under the spell of Tristan und Isolde. We have waited a long time to tackle it at Longborough, and I believe the time is now ripe for us to present it and to experience its mystery and subtle beauty in a new staging. Our theatre will serve this piece particularly well.”
Gioachino Rossini
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA
Conductor: Elaine Kelly Director: Louise Bakker
Performance dates: 8, 15, 29 June, 5, 6, 12, 13 July 2025
We present a new production of Gioachino Rossini’s beloved comic opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia. Conducted by the resident conductor of Irish National Opera Elaine Kelly and directed by Louise Bakker, this production promises to delight audiences of all ages.
Henry Purcell
DIDO AND AENEAS
Music Director: Bjarte Eike
Director: Erlend Samnøen
featuring Barokksolistene with Longborough’s Emerging Artists and Youth Chorus
Performance dates: 26, 27, 29, 31 July, 2 August 2025
Closing the 2025 season will be a new production of Purcell’s masterpiece Dido and Aeneas, featuring one of the world’s leading baroque ensembles, Barokksolistene, and offering fresh and vibrant arrangements of Purcell’s score. For the Longborough Emerging Artists and Youth Chorus, the opportunity to take part in this project will be inspirational, and for audiences, this promises to be a barnstorming end to a thrilling season. The project will be led by Bjarte Eike, one of the leading exponents in Baroque fiddle, and directed by Norwegian stage director and choreographer Erlend Samnøen.
Beyond 2025
Further Wagnerian performances are planned for 2026 and 2027.
IN 2026
Richard Wagner
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
A revival of our much-lauded production from 2015 and 2017, conceived and directed by Carmen Jakobi - who also received great acclaim for her 2022 Die tote Stadt at Longborough - and conducted by Anthony Negus (“One of the most exalting operatic experiences I have had” - Michael Tanner, The Spectator).
Peter Wedd and Rachel Nicholls, Tristan und Isolde (2015)
IN 2027
Richard Wagner
DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG
Conductor: Anthony Negus
Director: Polly Graham
One of the most challenging operas in the repertoire, this new production of Wagner’s life-affirming comedy is our next ambitious step. This major project will allow us to build on our tradition of nurturing British Wagnerians, and developing talent within our local area.
It is the right time to begin work on this major new production which will feature a large professional cast and chorus alongside our now established Youth and Community Choruses.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’s themes of learning, craftsmanship, community music-making, summer festivities and philosophy of art will allow us to create an expanded festival programme around this wellspring of an opera.
Die Meistersinger will be conducted by our Music Director, and veteran Wagnerian, Anthony Negus, and directed by Longborough’s Artistic Director, Polly Graham.
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